With Halloween right around the corner, make your child’s lunch box pop with creepy critters and silly monsters. Here is a list of fantastic Halloween lunch ideas that are sure to make your little one squeal with delight.
Grilled Ghosts
This spooky spin on grilled cheese sandwiches is sure to be a lunchtime hit. Cut the bread into a ghost shape and toast, fry, or grill the sandwich as you would normally. Once it’s cooked, add a couple of peppercorn flakes for the eyes.
Monster Mouth
Take your child’s favorite apple and cut a wedge out of the side. Coat the inside with almond, peanut or sunflower butter. Then, add marshmallows, sunflower seeds, or slivered almonds as teeth. Add a strip of fruit leather for a tongue and apply eyes with some extra peanut butter.
Mummy Hotdog Wrap
Cut a flour tortilla into thin strips or into a spiral shape (this stays together a little easier.) Grill, boil or pan-fry your hotdog to perfection. Wrap your hotdog up in layers, leaving a blank spot for eyes near the top. Apply the eyes on the unwrapped portion on the hotdog, using black sesame seeds or peppercorn flakes. You may need to use toothpicks to keep everything in place.
Pretzel Brooms
Cut a piece of string cheese in half, fray one end and stick the other onto a pretzel. Tie a piece of chive, seaweed, or other thin strips of edibles around the cheese where it meets the pretzel for an authentic broomstick look.
Cute Owls
Prepare your child’s favorite sandwich then cut it into an owl shape. Use a thin layer of mayo to apply eyes. Then, cut out a triangle of yellow cheese for the beak. Lastly, add two half-circles of white cheese for the wings.
Haunted House & Graveyard
Use dark colored bread like pumpernickel and cut it into spooky shapes. Then, cut out small squares for windows and a small rectangle for the door. Use a yellow cheese to make it look like glowing lights are coming from the haunted house. Using the same dark loaf, you can also cut out coffin shapes. Use white or yellow cheese and a stencil to ‘write’ RIP on the top. It’s a very cute way to add a bit of Halloween spirit to any sandwich.
Jack-o-Lantern Scene
Use a non-toxic black marker to draw a face on the skin of a clementine. Add to the effect by making a cheese stick ghost (poke eyes into the cheese and use a bread twist to give it a ghost shape). If your kid loves sweets, consider using white, yellow, or purple cotton candy as spider webs. Now you have a cute and spooky scene for lunch.
Vampire Muffins
Bake or buy your child’s favorite muffin or cupcake. Poke two holes about and fill it with red jam. The jam will look like “blood” is oozing out.
Plump Spiders
What do you get if you cut large pitted black olives in half? Spiders, of course! By using one half as the body and the other to cut into 8 slivers for legs, you can make creepy spider toppings for pizza slices, deviled eggs, and anything with a creamy topping, such as pita rounds topped with hummus, cucumbers with cream cheese.
Spooky Brownie Bites
Use seasonal cookie cutters (spiders, leaves, witches or monsters) and place them over brownie bites. Then sprinkle powdered sugar on top and carefully remove the shapes. This should leave an inverted image on the brownie bites, perfect for Halloween.
Creepy Cut Veggies
It’s easy to transform carrots into pumpkins, mushrooms into skulls, zucchinis into jack-o-lanterns, and your favorite cheeses into ghosts and bones (yellow is great for witch’s hats and bats). All you need to do is cut them into the right shapes, and you will have a mixed medley of veggies and cheeses for your kids to enjoy.
Muddy Pudding
Layer chocolate pudding and crumbled chocolate cookies in a mason jar. Don’t forget the gummy worms for an extra creepy-crawly experience.
Witch Hats
Take a small cookie and dip it in chocolate. Mix white chocolate and orange food coloring and use as glue and attach a chocolate conical shaped candy on the top. These hats are a festive and delicious dessert.
Spooky Bat
Turn your yummy rice balls into adorable bats using nori (edible seaweed). Simply coat the rice ball in nori, then using extra slices, cut out wings. Use smoked salmon to cut out eyes, a nose, and teeth for your rice bat.
Stuffed Jack-o-Lanterns
Cut off the top section of an orange bell pepper. Carefully cut out a jack-o-lantern face. Stuff it full of your favorite filling and you have a healthy and delicious stuffed jack-o-lantern for your kid’s lunch.
Ghastly Helpers
Using a napkin, a bit of festive ribbon and utensils, you can create ghastly helpers. Simply wrap the napkin around the utensils, and tie it in place with the ribbon. Draw a face on the napkin to finish it off! White napkins can easily be turned into ghosts.
There are tons of fun ways to get into the Halloween spirit and surprise your kids at lunchtime. The most important part is to have fun; your kids will love the effort.
