Top 3 Hallowe’en Party Food Recipes and Kids Halloween Cocktails

Before trick-or-treating this Hallowe’en and filling up on sugary treats, you’ll want to make sure that the children have eaten something decent too. You’ll know from our How to throw a great Hallowe’en Party for Young Children page that we recommend some wholesome food for the Hallowe’en party tea – but don’t think that implies it needs to be dull!

Here are the Top 3 Hallowe’en party food ideas we’ve found across the web, with a healthy, anti-sugar-crash angle:

1. Worms in Dirt

This Worms in Dirt recipe from Martha Stewart is so disgusting that we could barely bring ourselves to look at the photograph, but your older kids will really get a kick out of it.

She uses sausages with black beans – chicken sausages or Walls pork sausages will work better than the premium or specialty sausages.

You could also easily create some believeable worms from cooked thick wholewheat noodles (like Udon noodles), or even trofie (short twisted pasta).

2. Spiderweb Soup

We love tricking the children into eating lentils and other healthy food by blending them up into a tasty and brightly coloured soup, and decorating with a spiderweb, like this spiderweb soup from Better Homes & Gardens. You can use any type of soup, but for a great low-GI meal to keep their sugar levels balanced (in preparation for the sugary treats you know they’re going to have!), we use red lentils cooked with onions, celery, carrots and a bit of chicken or vegetable stock. Blend until smooth.

For the spiderweb topping, you can fill a little plastic bag with single cream and snip the bottom corner to make a small opening, so you can squeeze the cream onto the soup.

The design looks elaborate but is really simple – it’s just a spiral of cream, and then you use a toothpick or knife to drag lines from the centre of the spiral outwards.

If the kids are eating this while wearing their costumes, make sure they cover up with paper towels – the last thing you want is your little one upset that her costume is splattered with soup!

3. Witches Finger Sandwiches

There are several variations on the Dead Man’s Fingers, or Witches’ Finger sandwiches – the version in the picture is from Annabel Karmel. They are incredibly easy to make, and you can make a selection of fillings so that there is something for even the fussiest child.

To make simple Dead Man’s Finger Sandwiches, you can use bread with the crusts cut off and flatten the bread gently so that the knuckles (you’ll add those in a minute) look more realistic.

Add the filling – it doesn’t matter what, but peanut butter, tuna, egg, or other high protein sandwiches are good for minimising the risk of crazy emotional outbursts after the sugar fest your children are about to embark upon.

Cut the sandwiches into long, thin strips, finger width of course!

Use the back of a butter knife to press some indentations into the sandwich to make wrinkly knuckles.

Add an almond slice or a thin strip of yellow pepper to the end of each sandwich to make fingernails.

Creepy Hallowe’en Cocktails

For creepy Hallowe’en drinks, we’ve taken some inspiration from Vimto, who have launched some spooky limited edition bottles in time for Hallowe’en.

Vimto Eyeball Surprise
A supernaturally simple concoction that every stylish spectre will be drinking this Halloween.
Use an ice cream scoop to make two ‘eyeballs’ of ice cream and press jelly sweets into each one to create the pupils. Place them in the bottom of a tall chilled goblet and recite a witches incantation. Fill the glass two thirds full of devilishly delicious fizzy Vimto and watch the fiendish foam froth over the top of the glass.

Spooky Strawberry Heart
This is a great drink to serve to a scare to your guests. Swirl some No Added Sugar Vimto (contains sweeteners) in with some cranberry juice and pour into individual glasses. Keep up the fear factor with a ‘Bleeding Heart’ made out of a bbq stick speared strawberry. Simply dunk the ‘heart’ into the glass and serve chilled.

Blood Curdling Brew
The perfect cauldron concoction for witches and wizards everywhere!
Put the flesh of one chopped melon along with 10 crushed red seedless grapes into your cauldron (or glass if cauldron not available) and blend until they form a ghoulishly bloody pulp! Strain into a glass and top up with fiendishly fruity fizzy Cherry Vimto to create your brew.

Do you have any Hallowe’en party food ideas you can share? Add a comment below, and feel free to include a link to a trusted website or video.