Holidays

23 Halloween Dinner Food Ideas for Everyone

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Instacart

Last Updated: Nov 2, 2021

Are you wondering what to cook for Halloween dinner this year? Here are some of our favorite dinner ideas for your Halloween menu. Don’t forget to pick up Halloween decor and tableware to add to the festive atmosphere.

Halloween appetizers

Start your meal off with one of these spooky pre-dinner appetizerss:

1. Deliciously Rotten Deviled Eggs

Avocado and Wasabi Deviled Spider web Eggs.

Use your favorite deviled egg recipe and add some food coloring to the yolk filling to get a lime green color. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds.

2. Sweet potatoes Jack-o-Lanterns

Wash and cut sweet potatoes into rounds. Use a paring knife to cut out eyes, nose, and mouth. Brush with olive oil and bake for 20 minutes at 450-degrees. Flip, and bake another 20 minutes or until cooked. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

3. Jack-o-lantern veggie tray

Place a bag of baby carrots on a round tray. Use two small dip dishes for the eyes, a small yellow pepper for the nose, and make the mouth out of cucumber slices. Place a celery stick at the top for the stem.

4. Snake breadsticks

Use refrigerated breadstick dough, and twist two lengths together to create a long thin snake. Brush with an egg wash that’s tinted with green food coloring. Use black sesame seeds for the eyes and cut pepperoni to make a thin tongue. Bake as directed on the package or until cooked.

5. Seven-layer web dip

Make your favorite seven-layer dip in a round dish. Use sour cream to create a spider web on top and make spiders out of olives. Garnish the edges with cheese, green onions, tomato pieces, and sliced olives. Serve with chips.

6. Tortilla bats

Halloween table setting with red salsa and bat tortilla chips, kids party simple snack recipe idea.

Use a bat cookie cutter to cut tortillas. Bake the bat chips at 350-degrees for eight to ten minutes. Serve with salad or guacamole.

Main dishes for Halloween Dinner

You can’t go wrong with putting a spooky twist on these dinnertime favorites:

7. Chicken boo-dle soup

Add pizazz to a chicken soup can by adding black bowtie pasta and carrots that you cut into pumpkin shapes. Serve with your favorite crackers.

8. Mummy calzone

Shape your calzone in an oblong shape to resemble a mummy. Overlap the dough to look like a cloth-wrapped mummy. Use olives for the eyes and serve with marinara sauce.

9. Toxic mac and cheese

Up the “ew” factor of your Halloween dinner by transforming this household staple. Just add green food coloring to a box of white cheese macaroni and cheese mix.

10. Mummy dogs

sausage baked in pastry "mummy" food for Halloween party or children's party

Wrap hot dogs with thin strips of breadstick dough and bake at 425-degrees for 10-15 minutes or until dough is lightly browned. Serve with your favorite condiments.

11. Chicken Pot Pie

Make your favorite chicken pot pie recipe as usual. Cut the top crust to look like a jack-o-Lantern or skeleton. If you opt for the latter, use black food coloring to draw a few spiders on it.

12. Eyeball pasta

Cook spinach pasta and top with marina sauce. Make eyeballs by cutting string cheese into small pieces, using a straw to poke out the center, and filling the hole with a black olive. Place several ‘eyeballs’ on top of the marinara sauce.

13. Halloween pizzas

Using pre-made pizza dough, let everyone DIY their own Halloween pizzas. See who can make the scariest monster or cutest pumpkin.

14. Creepy Halloween hand pies

Trace your hand on paper and cut it out to make a template. Use this to cut two hands out of refrigerated pizza dough for each pie you want to make. Cook together a pound of ground beef or chicken, add a cup of salsa and a packet of taco seasoning. Top one piece of dough with the meat mixture, add some shredded cheese, and top with the other piece of dough. Use a fork to crimp the edges closed. Brush with a beaten egg and bake at 435-degrees for 15 minutes.

15. Halloween feet loaf

Rather than putting your meatloaf in a pan, free form it into the shape of a foot and bake on a rimmed cookie sheet. Use slivers of onion for the toenails and catsup for blood. Bake as usual, but check for doneness since it’s an unusual shape, and the inside might take longer to cook.

Desserts for Halloween Dinner

They may look scary, but they’re totally sweet:

16. Crispy pumpkins

Homemade Halloween pumpkin rice krispie treats

Make rice crispies, adding orange food coloring. Shape into small pumpkins and top with an unwrapped Rolo for the stem and a green M&M for the leaf.

17. Candy corn fruit parfait

In transparent glasses layer (filling one-third of the way with each item) pineapple chunks, mandarin orange slices, and whipped topping. Garnish with a piece or two of candy corn.

18. Witches cauldron brownie bites

Mix up a package of brownie mix and bake it in mini muffin tins. While still warm, use a cookie scoop to make a depression in each one. After the brownies are cool, fill the center with green frosting and top with round green candies. Add a pretzel stick to resemble a broom handle.

19. Bloody guts

Roll refrigerated cinnamon rolls into long ropes and place them on a baking sheet, twisted around like intestines. Bake for two to three minutes less than directed on the package to avoid overcooking. Add red food coloring to the icing, and drizzle on top. Add a few plastic spiders if you dare!

20. Oreo spiders

Use plain or Halloween Oreos, small pretzel sticks, and candy eyes to create these creepy cookies. Just stick eight pretzels in each cookie. Glue the eyes in place with a dot of icing.

Halloween drinks

Don’t forget the drinks! Here are some deliciously spooky kid-friendly beverages to try.

21. Ghoulish lemonade

Turn ordinary lemonade black by adding a few drops of black food coloring. Serve in clear cups and garnish with lemon slices.

22. Vampire punch

Stir one cup of sugar into one cup boiling water until dissolved and cool. Mix three cups of blood orange juice and one cup of tart cherry juice. Add in sugar water and a two-liter bottle of lemon-lime soda.

23. Goosebumps punch

Green drink with ice cream float and gummy worms for Halloween

Mix three liters of lemon-lime soda with ten drops of green food coloring, then add a gallon of rainbow sherbert. Serve in clear glasses with sour gummy worms.

Start shopping for Halloween dinner

Now that your mind is spinning with ideas for your menu on Halloween, start making your shopping list. Save time when you have an Instacart shopper gather the items and deliver them to your door. There are no tricks, only treats when you use Instacart to get same-day delivery or in-store pick up on your groceries.

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