Friday, October 11, 2024
Even though we’re both retired,
and every day is a Friday in our world,
we still look forward to each weekend's arrival!
How about you???
Thanks so much for stopping by today!
You don’t typically find us posting on Fridays,
but yesterday’s post, as originally planned,
was becoming way too long… imagine that?!?
So, we made a last minute decision to split it into two separate posts!
In yesterday’s post,
A Family Boo Bash! New Game Ideas for 2024!
Laurie reminded us about her family's annual tradition
and how it began!
We also suggested 3 ideas for new games that your family could easily
play together at your own Halloween gathering!
Check it out, especially if you’re looking for fun family activities
for your own upcoming family gathering!
(We all know how important it is to keep those Littles busy, don’t we?)
Today, we’re quickly reminiscing about past Boo Bash menus
and then we’re adding our final touches to this year’s bash!
We’re sharing a new and simple meal!
Laura is sharing a few easy ideas for
creating a meal that families - and especially Littles - will love!
By adding a few touches to otherwise familiar dishes,
we’ve created Boo Bash worthy foods!
Simply pick and choose any of the dishes we’ve shared - past or present
AND, before you know it,
you’ll be all set for your own Halloween Boo Bash, 2024!
Laurie’s family looks forward to their Boo Bash menu each year!
Again, they have their favorites (sloppy joes are always on the menu)
and no one wants to mess with a well loved tradition!
While sloppy joes are an excellent option
- you can make them ahead of time and keep them warm til needed -
we do love providing choices to mix things up!
Last year, we shared this menu:
You can find details and recipes in this post from last year
A Family Boo Bash! Spooktacular Eats & Treats!
Our Littles loved their Jack-o-Lantern Mac & Cheese Cups,
Boo Bananas, Spider Brownie Bites and more!
Laura made this meal when visiting her Little L last October
and Laurie brought this dinner to her Middles and Littles on Halloween night…
a quick meal before trick-or-treating took place!
This year, we’ve put together a NEW menu!
It’s also a fan favorite, simple to pull together
and filled with spooky goodness!
Read on for specifics on each dish!
Creepy Brains Pasta!
Talk about an easy recipe and one that’s Little approved, too… YUM!
INGREDIENTS
• radiatore pasta (rotini would also work)
• your favorite spaghetti sauce
• mozzarella balls
• sliced black olives
NOTE: We know that not all Littles are adventurous eaters and may not want to eat the black olives. Thankfully, they are easy to remove once your Littles have seen the eyeballs… And who knows - maybe they’ll give an eyeball or two a try!
DIRECTIONS
STEP 1: Cook the pasta as outlined on the package. In fact, we like to cook ours a bit longer until it’s soft, resembling mushy brains! 🥴 Drain the pasta and return to the pot.
STEP 2: Add spaghetti sauce to the pot of pasta. Mix the pasta and sauce together and heat the mixture until it’s cooked through. Spoon pasta mixture into a serving bowl or into individual bowls to serve.
STEP 3: While the pasta is cooking, place mozzarella balls on a paper towel to drain off excess liquid. Place a slice of ripe olive in the center of each mozzarella ball to mimic an eyeball.
NOTE: Once I’d assembled these, I put them in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds so that they’d slightly melt together. Set these aside until the pasta with sauce is ready to serve!
Place several of these eyeballs in a serving bowl filled with the pasta OR add a few of these to each individual bowl of pasta!
Mummy Garlic Bread!
This is also a favorite among Littles and many will love creating their own mummies in preparation!
INGREDIENTS
• English muffins, split in half
• butter, softened
• garlic (or garlic powder) to taste
• string cheese
• sliced black olives
DIRECTIONS
STEP 1: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place English muffins that have been split in half on a parchment lined cookie sheet or sheet pan. (The crevices of the English muffins add to the mummy mystique!
STEP 2: Combine the softened butter and garlic. (We adjust the amount of garlic we use, depending on our Littles’ taste.) Spread this mixture onto each English muffin half.
STEP 3: Pull the string cheese apart and add strips to each English muffin to represent the mummy bandages. Add two ripe olive slices for each mummy’s eyes!
STEP 4: Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the cheese melts! We put our mummies in the air fryer for a few minutes for an extra spooky touch!
Ghoulish Veggie Tray!
This is a great way to dress up your veggie tray for Halloween! It will be a hit with your Littles - especially your school-aged ones!
INGREDIENTS
• a small pumpkin
• your favorite veggie dip
• a variety of vegetables (carrots, celery, cucumbers, peppers and more!)
DIRECTIONS
STEP 1: Carve a jack-o-lantern from a small to medium sized pumpkin. Be sure to make your jack-o-lantern’s mouth big!
STEP 2: Spoon your favorite veggie dip into the mouth of the pumpkin and then add more and spread it out around the outside of the mouth of the pumpkin so that it looks as though the pumpkin is “throwing up”. Add your clean and sliced veggies around, as shown above!
Apple Monsters!
These Halloween apples are fun to make and would be a great addition to your meal OR they would be a wonderful afternoon snack, too!
INGREDIENTS
• 2 green apples, quartered
• peanut butter (or almond butter, if preferred)
• sunflower seeds
• a few strawberries, sliced
• candy eyes
DIRECTIONS
STEP 1: To create a mouth in each quartered apple, cut a “v” out of each slice..
STEP 2: Spread peanut butter inside this gap. Add sunflower seeds on the top of each slice, to resemble “teeth”.
STEP 3: Add a slice of strawberry to the inside of the “mouth” to represent a tongue! We also tried half of a blackberry! A triangle of cheese would add a savory twist!
STEP 4: Use a small bit of peanut butter to adhere two candy eyes to each apple. Serve and enjoy!
Monster Cookies!
We’ve told you many times that simple works best for us so don’t be surprised when you see that we used a chocolate cookie mix for the base of this recipe with a few other ingredients added for Halloween fun!
INGREDIENTS
• 1 chocolate cookie mix (plus any ingredients required to make the cookies)
• Halloween M & M’s
• candy eyes
DIRECTIONS
STEP 1: Preheat the oven to the temp noted on the cookie mix box. Follow the directions for making your chocolate cookies, as provided on the box, adding the required ingredients.
STEP 2: Add Halloween M & M’s to the batter and stir to combine.
STEP 3: Drop spoonfuls of batter to a cookie sheet and then place 2 or more (!) candy eyes to each cookie! Bake as directed! YUM!
Bake as directed! YUM!
That’s it!
We hope you’ve enjoyed our 2024 edition of A Family Boo Bash!
Now it's your turn to plan your own family’s celebration!
Feel free to pick and choose
any of the games or dishes we’ve highlighted in this week’s two posts
to come up with the combination that works best for you, your family and your Littles!
Do you and your family have a traditional Halloween meal together?
Do you have memories of a past tradition or plans for a future one?
We’d love to hear more!
Please share by commenting at the end of this post!
If you prefer, you can always reach out to us directly
We’ll be back next Thursday, October 17,
when we’ll have a new Halloween focused post for you all!
We plan to highlight a few holiday activities/crafts
that you and your Little can explore and/or create together!
We hope you’ll stop by!
We’d love to have you join our other OGL subscribers
so you always know what’s up with us at Our Grand Lives
If you are looking for more ongoing fun,
where we add new activities and adventures every week!
You can also find us active on Pinterest where we regularly link
many of the posts featured here!
if you know of any Grands or others who may enjoy our blog,
please share away!
We love connecting with others who celebrate fun and family
and especially those who cherish the sweet Littles in their lives
as much as we do!
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Full Plate Thursday from Miz Helen's Country Cottage
Thank you for featuring this post on your site!
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Those food ideas look amazing. i hope the family enjoyed it all.
Thanks for sharing with #pocolo
Chickenruby
So many great ideas. Thank you for sharing. My kiddos have decided to make the monster cookies. This will be the first time I have used my new kitchen since we had a crew come in and do some cabinet refinishing in our kitchen. Can't wait to bake with my kids.
I just love themed food with parties! I think the cheese-olive eyes are my favorite. Super cute. Thanks for sharing this post with us at the Will Blog for Comments #49! We hope you'll be back next week at #50 sharing more. :) Have a wonderful week. ~Jennifer
We just love this post! It is filled with so many great snack ideas. I love the veggie dip with the assorted vegetables displayed with the mini pumpkin; how cute is that! You have so many great ideas here. Thank you for sharing them with us at The Crazy Little Lovebirds link party #59.
Steph@CrazyLittleLovebirds 😊🤗🧡
Love these, the garlic bread especially! Thanks for joining us at #PoCoLo