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Make your Halloween night extra spooky this year by trying out one of our fun Halloween Dinner Ideas. From drinks to dinner to desserts, we’ve got you covered! Be sure to grab our complete menu plan for a spooky Halloween dinner and printable shopping list.
Featured in this post
- Spooky Halloween Dinner Menu
- Halloween Appetizers
- Main Dish: Spaghetti with Eyeballs
- Side Dish: Caesar Spider Salad
- Bread: Mummy Cheesy Garlic Bread
- Halloween Punch: Shrunken (Apple) Head Punch
- Dessert: Giant Spider Cake
- Halloween Dinner Shopping List
- Shopping List to Download or Print
- More Halloween Dinner Ideas
- Halloween Drinks
- Halloween Dessert Ideas
- Halloween Treats
- More Halloween Party Food Ideas
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How to Make a Halloween Dinner
- Spooky Halloween Dinner Recipe
Halloween is so much more than all that candy! When it comes to feeding your little ghosts and goblins before heading out to trick-or-treat this October, fill their tummies with good food before they start in on sugar.
You can make a tasty, wholesome, yet spooky Halloween supper that your children and guests will gobble up (even the picky eaters). These fun Halloween food ideas make it easy!
This post includes all the Halloween recipes and Halloween party food ideas you need, plus a sample meal plan and shopping list so all your work is done for you!
Spooky Halloween Dinner Menu
Our Spooky Halloween Dinner menu includes all of the Halloween recipes you need for a frightfully easy Halloween dinner PLUS, we have a shopping list for you to download with all of the ingredients you will need to make each menu item. This is the menu:
- Halloween Appetizers: Spider Web Guacamole, Pumpkin Cheese Ball, Mummy Dogs, Halloween Deviled Eggs
- Main Dish: Spaghetti with Eyeballs
- Side Dish: Caesar “Spider” Salad
- Bread: Mummy Cheesy Garlic Bread
- Drink: Shrunken Apple Head Punch
- Dessert: Giant Spider Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake
Halloween Appetizers
Because there are four recipes to choose from, we have not included these in our shopping list. Click on the appetizer, or appetizers, you want to include with your Halloween dinner and add the ingredients to your shopping list.
- Halloween Deviled Eggs: The spooky and eye-catching appetizers are so fun to make and will dress up any October dinner table or party snack buffet.
- Spider Web Guacamole: A feast for the eyes as well as the stomach, this guacamole with a sour cream spider web and itsy bitsy black olive spider is fun to look at and enjoy!
- Pumpkin Cheese Ball: Ghosts, ghouls, goblins, and guests will enjoy the fresh herbs on the inside and the crushed Nacho Cheese Doritos coating on the outside.
- Mummy Dogs: Kids love these because they look silly and spooky. They are as simple as wrapping crescent roll dough around a hot dog and baking.
Main Dish: Spaghetti with Eyeballs
- Use your favorite canned spaghetti sauce, spaghetti pasta, store bought meatballs, cheese and olives. See the recipe below for more details.
- To give the spaghetti the twirled “nest” look, just twist big scoops spaghetti with a fork in a ladle (my niece Kelsey taught me how to do this and I LOVE how it looks)!
- Serve with a side of parmesan cheese for sprinkling.
Side Dish: Caesar Spider Salad
- For this simple side, just use a bagged Caesar salad kit and place plastic spiders over the top.
- If you want to add eyeballs to this, slice grape tomatoes in half, slice off a circle of string cheese, and add an olive (much like the meatballs in the spaghetti).
- You can also add grilled chicken and serve this salad as more of a main course.
Bread: Mummy Cheesy Garlic Bread
- To make this mummy bread, cut up some strips of mozzarella cheese (strips of string cheese work well too).
- Place them on a bakery garlic bread.
- Heat the bread in the oven at 375 degrees for about 5 minutes.
- Finally, add a couple olive slices for “eyes”.
Halloween Punch: Shrunken (Apple) Head Punch
- This is a fun way to get your kids involved in dinner preparation. Let them “carve” their own jack-o lanterns out of apples. They’ll get a kick out of seeing their apple “heads” floating in the punch!
- Slice each apple in half and let the kids carve out faces.
- Bake the apple halves in the oven at 200-degrees for about 10 minutes and then put them in the fridge to cool.
- You can also use a cookie cutter to create fun shapes in the apples.
- For the punch, use 2 liters of water, 2 liters ginger ale (chilled), 46 oz pineapple juice (chilled), and 4 Jolly Rancher Green Apple “On-The-Go” packets. Instead of putting ice in the punch bowl, you can put the ice in the individual glasses to prevent the juice from being watered down.
Dessert: Giant Spider Cake
This might be my favorite thing on the whole menu (and my favorite Halloween dinner idea overall!). This was so fun to make and the finished product looked SO COOL.
See our full recipe post for Spider Cake for the ingredients and instructions.
Halloween Dinner Shopping List
To make things nice and easy for you, we have put together a shopping list for this particular meal plan. Here’s what you need for this easy Halloween dinner meal plan (FYI – The dinner feeds 4-6, the dessert feeds 12-15). You can download this list to your phone or to print below:
Shopping List to Download or Print
More Halloween Dinner Ideas
In addition to the above Halloween menu plan, we have more Halloween food ideas for you to choose from. Mix and match to create your ideal Halloween dinner:
- Soup In a Pumpkin: This is one of our favorite Halloween dinner recipes. Sausage, kale, and cheese are cooked to perfection in a pumpkin. The pumpkin cooks with the soup and adds flavor and texture similar to butternut squash.
- Dinner In a Pumpkin: A delicious ground beef and rice casserole cooked in a pumpkin. The pumpkin cooks along with the casserole. When serving, bits of cooked pumpkin are stirred in with the casserole.
- Easy Shepherd’s Pie: This hearty shepherd’s pie features seasoned beef and vegetables topped with mashed potatoes and shredded cheddar cheese.
- Mom’s Cheater Chili: You can never go wrong with chili on Halloween night. It was always a tradition in our family to have a big bowl of chili before going trick-or-treating!
Halloween Drinks
Just like Halloween dinner ideas, the possibilities for Halloween drinks are endless. You can pretty much do any kind of punch and throw in some gummy worms or plastic eyeballs and you have a spooky punch.
For Harry Potter themed Halloween parties, you can also try one of our specialty Harry Potter drinks (the perfect companion to any of our Halloween dinner ideas!). Any of these drink ideas are sure to be a hit at your next Halloween party:
Halloween Dessert Ideas
Oh how we LOVE our Halloween desserts! Any fall-inspired dessert with pumpkin is a great choice for Halloween. Make them extra “Halloween-y” by adding black frosting spiders or garnish with candy corn pumpkins.
Here are some great Halloween desserts to accompany any of our Halloween dinner ideas:
Halloween Treats
Just in case you aren’t getting enough sugar this Halloween while trick-or-treating, here are some ideas for some kid-friendly Halloween treats. These are perfect for class parties, potlucks, a witch’s night out, or trunk-or-treats. Pick up some candy eyeballs next time you go to a craft store. Those candy eyes come in handy for turning basic cookies, cupcakes, or even graham crackers into something spooky, like monsters!
More Halloween Party Food Ideas
If you’re throwing a party and want to have some snacks on hand for your guests, try this delicious pumpkin dip or some peanut butter popcorn. A Halloween charcuterie board gives a nice variety of treats for guests to sample throughout the evening. Looking for something not sweet? Set out some chips and guacamole and a veggie tray.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is best to serve a healthy, filling, and warm dinner to children (and adults!) before they head out trick-or-treating and eat a bunch of sugar. Our featured menu of Spaghetti and Eyeballs, Caesar Spider salad, and Mummy bread is a a great dinner for Halloween. Making your Halloween dinner festive will make it more enticing to picky eaters who are in a hurry to run out the door.
Traditional foods for Halloween include anything made with pumpkins, which are harvested in September and October. Halloween soups, dinners, and especially desserts made with pumpkin are especially popular during Halloween. And don’t forget the pumpkin seeds! Don’t throw them away. Some people consider them the best part. Pumpkin seeds can be roasted and eaten like nuts. Delicious!
Apples are also a traditional Halloween food. Bobbing for apples, making caramel apples, and apple desserts are delicious Halloween traditions.
Most people enjoy a home-cooked meal on Halloween so they can be home for neighborhood children to trick-or-treat. Chili, soup, casseroles, and spaghetti are all great meals for Halloween night. Something hearty and cozy is best for chilly Halloween night. Pizza and hot dogs are also common meals because they are fast and easy to make on this busy night.
How to Make a Halloween Dinner
Spooky Halloween Dinner
Video
Ingredients
Spaghetti and Eyeballs
- 16 ounces spaghetti noodles (prepared according to packagedirections)
- 24 ounces jar spaghetti sauce (heated according to package directions)
- 24 ounces pre-cooked frozen meatballs (cooked according to package directions)
- 2-3 slices part-skim mozzarella cheese
- sliced black olives (to taste)
- pimento-stuffed green olives (to taste)
Caesar "Spider" Salad
- 1 Caesar Salad Kit
- 3-4 Large black olives (or plastic spiders)
Mummy Cheesy Garlic Bread
- 1 loaf prepared garlic bread
- 1 pound Mozzarella cheese
- 2 olive slices
Shrunken Apple Head Punch
- 2 liters cold water
- 2 liters ginger ale chilled
- 46 ounces pineapple juice chilled
- 4 Jolly Rancher Green Apple "On-The-Go" packets
Instructions
Spaghetti and Eyeballs
- Cook noodles, sauce, and meatballs according to package directions.
- Combine noodles and sauce. Mix until well combined. Form "nests" of noodles by twirling noodles in a serving ladle with a fork and then placing in a serving bowl (see example of lemon spaghetti nests).
- After meatballs have cooled slightly, cut out circles of mozzarella cheese and place one circle on each meatball. Place one black olive slice over the cheese circle. Gently place meatballs randomly over the spaghetti. Add green olives over the top, to taste.
Caesar "Spider" Salad
- Add salad mix to a bowl. Place plastic spiders on top.
- For olive spiders, cut a large olive to look like a spider by cutting the olive in half. Place half of olive on salad. Slice the other half of the olive into 8 legs. Place legs around the "body of the spider. See example of olive spider on our Halloween deviled eggs.
Mummy Cheesy Garlic Bread
- Cut up some strips of mozzarella cheese (strips of string cheese work well too). Strategically place the strips on one half of the garlic bread to look like mummy wrap. Place on a foil lined baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about 5 minutes, or until the cheese starts to melt. Add olive slices for eyes.
Shrunken Apple Head Punch
- Slice each apple in half and let the kids carve out faces. Bake the apple halves in the oven at 200-degrees for about 10 minutes and then put them in the fridge to cool. Combine cold water, ginger ale (chilled), pineapple juice, and Jolly Rancher Green Apple “On-The-Go” packets in a punch bowl. Stir well. Add shrunken apple heads.
Spider Cake (click for recipe instructions)
- Make cake according to directions on Spider Cake recipe.
Thank you Erica! Having a sleepover with my Granddaughters next weekend and Spaghetti and meatballs is their favorite. I am definetly going to make this supper, soooo adorable! They will love it. Maybe turn it into a little party with a couple of their cousins. Thank you so much for sharing.
Oh wow – so many great ideas to save! My favorite would probably be spaghetti with meatball eyes – so spooky! 😉
This is such a delicious recipe! Can’t wait to try it for Halloween!
These are such fun Halloween dinner ideas for kids!
I love all these options to create a wonderful Halloween themed dinner!
All these ideas look amazing and perfect for a Halloween theme! Looking forward to making that bundt cake 🙂
overall i would rate this a 4 star because the treat recipes do not give the recipe