Trick or Treat: Eye Balls

"I'm Watching You" Meatballs

Halloween themed food is everywhere right now. As an FYI, it is this themed food concept that originally gave me the idea for this blog. This food idea is so much fun that I don't understand why it isn't such a big deal all year, not just Halloween (I'll get started on my Christmas ideas right away!)

I recently came by this meatball recipe from a friend and it is dee-lish! All it needed was some spooky thinking and, boo, here are my eyeballs. Add in a bit of ketchup for that nice, bloody touch. I made these over the weekend and all of them were devoured.

What you need:

- 1/2 onion diced fine
- 2 gloves garlic crushed and minced
- 2 tbs butter
- 1lb ground beef

- 2 large eggs

- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper

- 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

- 1/4 c parmesan cheese

- string cheese, cut in thirds
- black olives, sliced- Ketchup

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Sauté onion and garlic in butter for 3- 4 minutes. Let cool.
• Meanwhile, mix together meat, eggs, salt, pepper, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Add in onion mixture.

 Once all ingredients are mixed together begin to roll out your meatballs. I made 16 meatballs.

•  Once rolled out poke a hole with your finger into each ball. And place your string cheese part inside.

• Cook in oven for 20-25 minutes. Once cooked place an olive slice in teh middle of the cheese and drizzle with ketchup.

FOOD PLAY: GHOST BOWLING

There are so many art projects I could add to this post. Spooky handprint spiders, or footprint ghosts. Turning toilet paper holders into Frankenstein's monster. I decided on a fun game that is toddler friendly.

What you need:

• 6 paper towel rolls (you could use more but this is all I had!)
• black construction paper
• scissors
• small pumpkin

Cut out various shapes to create your ghost faces and tape them to the paper towel roll. Stack them up. Then using a small pumpkin have your kiddo roll the pumpkin to knock over the tower.

Trick or Treat: Bones

I love Halloween!  I didnt think much about how absolutely frightening it all is though until I brought my 3 year old into a Halloween superstore. She FREAKED out! After a bit of explaining about how she gets to dress as a princess and get candy she decided it is the greatest holiday ever!  She has been in a princess costume ever since. 

Halloween needs some toddler friendly treats.  So bones are on the menu tonight! They are fresh and warm and covered in blood!! Well, not really.

What you need:

breadstick dough (in the refrigeration section at the market)

one egg

parmesean cheese

marinara sauce

Directions:

Pull the breadsticks apart and, one by one, roll them into long skinny sticks. Then carefully tie a knot in the end of each stick.

 Once all the bones are prepared line them up on a baking sheet and brush each one with the egg wash and sprinkle with the cheese.

Bake as directed on the packaging (probably 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.) Pour some marinara sauce into a bowl for dipping. Enjoy!

Alphabet Pies

It is Fall and I feel compelled, no, pressured, to make whatever I can with pumpkin. I cannot get away from pumpkin. They are displayed all over the market both in can form and in the standard $7.99 gourd. Pinterest is even overwhelmed by that magical orange gift of the gods.There is even that compulsary Fall event of taking the kiddos to the pumpkin patch. This year we didnt even venture out in the Arizona sun to the actual patch to go picking; it is hot and dirty and generally a miserable experience. But there were pony rides and a jumpy thingy and playground. Unfortunately it did not feel like Fall as we walked around in our tank tops eating frozen icees. 
 

The pumpkin hype is overrated (and yes, as I type this I have some pumpkin bread baking in the oven. Don`t judge me!)  Persoanlly I think the hysteria stems from the proliferation of the Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks (which is yummy if it were only cold enough to drink a hot beverage.) So in order to maintain a bit of sanity I have diverged from the pumpkin bandwagon and have rediscovered the sweet potato. Enjoy your new favorite Fall treat!

 



 What you need:

 

• 2 cup of canned sweet potato
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 stick of butter, room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinammon
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1 cup milk
• 3 premade pie crust doughs

 

Directions:

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine potatos, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, salt , cinnamon and ginger and mix. Once combined add milk.
• The mixture will be runny.Set aside to make the mini pie crusts.
• Be sure to have defrosted the pie crust!
• Unroll 2 pie crusts and using a 2 1/2 inch round cutter create your 24 mini pie crusts.

• Fill the pis crusts with the sweet potato filling (I used a mini ice cream scooper to ensure each were the same. )
• Bake for 20-25 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean.)

 

• While the pies are baking unroll another pie dough and use alphabet cut outs to create your letters (I understand that many of you might not have these in your kitchen arsenal and all I can tell you is GET SOME! They are great with play doh and cookies and stamping. Until then you could always use your steady hand and cut out letters.)
• Bake the dough according to instructions. Probably something like 350 degrees for 10ish minutes.

 



Once pies are done and letters are done put them together.

 

Please note: What I really wanted to do was smother the pies in whipped cream and place the letters on top but I didn`t have any on hand and I was too darn tired to go to the market.