WELCOME TO OCTOBER!!! 👻🤡🕸🕷

Here are some of the most popular, family-oriented Halloween cooking recipes and DIY activities to share with the family 😋:

Popular Family-Friendly Halloween Recipes

These recipes are fun to make, easy for kids to help with, and have a great spooky look!

Mummy Hot Dogs: The absolute classic! Wrap strips of store-bought crescent roll or puff pastry dough around hot dogs, leaving a gap for the "face." Bake until golden, then use mustard or ketchup for the "eyes."
Jack-O'-Lantern Stuffed Peppers: Carve small jack-o'-lantern faces into the sides of orange bell peppers (before cooking!). Stuff them with your favorite rice/ground beef/vegetable filling and bake.
Spider Taco Dip/Taco Ring: A large taco dip spread can be topped with black olives arranged to look like a giant spider or a spiderweb. A taco ring made with crescent rolls can also be given "spider legs" for a fun presentation.
Ghost Pizza: Use a ghost-shaped cookie cutter (or just freehand cut the shape) to cut slices of mozzarella cheese to put on top of a pizza, making little "ghosts."

Peanut Butter Spider Cookies: Make or buy peanut butter cookies and press a mini chocolate peanut butter cup into the center while warm. Use melted chocolate or an icing pen to draw eight spider legs coming out from the cup, and add candy eyes.
Nutter Butter or Oreo Ghosts/Mummies: Dip Nutter Butter or Oreo cookies completely in melted white chocolate or candy melts. For a ghost, let the chocolate trail a little at the bottom for a "tail," then add two mini chocolate chip eyes. For a mummy, drizzle thin, messy lines of melted white chocolate across the top, then add candy eyes.
Monster Rice Krispie Treats: Color the melted marshmallow mix (or the finished squares) with food coloring (green, purple, or orange). Once cool, decorate them with melted chocolate and lots of edible candy eyeballs to create simple, cute monsters.
Banana Ghosts and Mandarin Pumpkins: This is a healthy and quick snack. Dip half a banana in white chocolate or yogurt and use mini chocolate chips for the "ghost" face. Draw a jack-o'-lantern face on a clementine or mandarin orange with a black marker.

These crafts are generally simple, use common household items, and are great for decorating.

No-Carve/Painted Pumpkins: Instead of carving, which requires sharp tools, have a pumpkin painting session. Ideas include:
- Painting the pumpkins with funny faces, polka dots, or glitter.
- Creating a Black Cat Pumpkin by painting it black and gluing on felt ears and pipe cleaner whiskers.
- Using masking tape to make mummy stripes, then adding googly eyes.
Paper Plate or Handprint Crafts:
- Footprint/Handprint Bats or Ghosts: Use black paint on little feet/hands to stamp out bats, or white paint for ghosts, then add features.
- Paper Plate Jack-o'-Lanterns: Kids can paint or color paper plates orange, and then glue on cut-out black paper shapes for the faces.
Mason Jar/Tin Can Lanterns: Clean out old jars or cans. Kids can paint or glue colored tissue paper on the outside in Halloween colors/patterns. Place a battery-operated tea light inside for a spooky glow.
DIY Toilet Paper Roll Monsters: Save empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls. Kids can transform them into mummies (wrapped in gauze or white paper), Frankenstein's monster (green paint, black paper hair), or bats (black paint, cut-out wings).
Ghost Lollipops: A classic! Drape a square of white fabric or tissue paper over a lollipop, tie it at the base with ribbon or string, and draw a simple ghost face on the "head" with a black marker.