This is a very simplistic version of the ones I usually make as I was the only around to eat it but I’m sure you can get the idea.  A hollowed out cabbage or head of cauliflower works well as a receptacle for the dip (I prefer the cauliflower as it looks more like brains), hair, if desired, can be created with alfalfa sprouts or celery leaves, limbs out of items like carrot and celery sticks, ribs out of strips of peppers, you can use cucumber slices for the pelvis or even to make the spinal column and so on.  You can make small versions for snack time at home or much larger ones for parties.  Fun and nutritious!

You can either purchase the small frozen meatballs or make your own.  I made mine out of a pound of ground turkey, seasoned only with a bit of salt and pepper because I wanted the sauce that’s going on them to shine through.  I cooked the meatballs in the oven until cooked through and then placed in a skillet with the following:  1/2 cup grape jelly, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup barbecue sauce (I really like the apple butter one with this – it’s also good with a regular barbecue sauce and then adding in a tablespoon of apple butter as well).  If you want some extra spice, you can throw in some salsa as well.  I brought this just up to a boil and then turned it down to a simmer, cooking uncovered for about 15 minutes until the sauce has thickened.

Place the meatballs on a plate and top with a peeled hardboiled egg as the spider’s body, a black olive as the head, and strips of red pepper as the legs.  You can further embellish as desired.

Simply make your favourite spaghetti and meatballs recipe and just before serving, add some olive slices on top of the meatballs so that they look like eyeballs!  Easy and fun!

I browned ground beef and then poured in some ketchup, mustard, a little barbecue sauce, a bit of apple butter (or just use apple butter barbecue sauce), some vinegar, brown sugar, and some salsa (my preference for this is peach mango salsa).  I just add this directly to the meat in the pan but I’m used to what the proper proportions are.  You can always mix the sauce ingredients in a bowl first and adjust to your taste.  Other possible additions are onions, green peppers, celery, garlic, beer, and bourbon pepper.  The fun part is then embellishing the tops of the buns to make into “goblin faces”.  If your child is old enough, you can let them pick and choose from an assortment of foods you put out and they can create their own faces.  I used celery leaves for hair, carrots for ears, red pepper for a mouth, a piece of pickle for a nose, and olives for eyes but there are many other possible options such as a cauliflower nose,  pretzel stick or banana pepper horns, alfalfa sprouts or parsley as hair, and so on.

This is one of the things I demo’d on Monday night’s Cynchronicity Live show.  Check out the playback link here:  http://www.linqto.com/PlaybackRoom.aspx?roomname=creativeedventures&name=SingleExplicit_2011_10_24_19_59_57_925

For each treat, you’ll need:  a large marshmallow, some icing (I used the vanilla that I had on hand here but chocolate blends in better with the hat), coconut that’s tinted green with food colouring, chocolate chips (or something else of your choice) for the face, a chocolate wafer cookie (I usually use the ones that are basically half an Oreo with no filling but they were super expensive so I tried a less expensive alternative here and bought chocolate sandwich cookies, pried them apart with a butter knife and used half of one of them for each hat brim), a mini peanut butter cup for the base of the hat, and a Hershey’s chocolate kiss (or I used a milk chocolate bud here) for the pointy part of the hat.  Simply use the icing as your glue to assemble the whole thing as pictured above.  Easy enough for kids to make!

Ingredients:

(using healthier ingredients to make this fun and better for you at the same time!)

1 lb ground turkey

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 cup Panko or whole wheat breadcrumbs soaked in 1/2 cup low fat milk

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 large egg (or just the egg white)

1/4 cup carrot puree

1/4 cup cauliflower puree

1/2 small onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1/3 cup ketchup (plus a little extra for the “blood” on the cut ankle)

a few whole almonds

Instructions:  Note:  This makes one foot.  Since I was only making it for myself I just made one (and even then had plenty of leftovers!) but if you double the recipe, you can make two feet, enough for the whole family! Simply combine all the ingredients (except the almonds) until mixed.  Don’t overmix or you can make the meatloaf tough.  I began by shaping most of the meat into an oval and then working it up at one end so that it was a bit higher than the other, resembling where the foot had been severed at the ankle.  I took a small bit of the meat and formed some small balls and placed them at the other end to be the toes.  Stick an almond into each toe as the toenails.  I used some extra ketchup as a glaze on top of the cut ankle to look like blood.  Bake in a 350 degree F oven for about 45-55 minutes, until golden brown on the outside and thoroughly cooked, to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F on a meat thermometer.

To form the kitty litter itself, simply make up some rice as per package directions.    To form the ummmm items that go into the litter :  mix together 1 cup Bisquik, 1 cup shredded cheese, and 1 lb. ground beef, ground turkey, or ground pork sausage.  Form these into, well, you know, and place them in a baking pan.  Put in a 350 degree F oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes until cooked through.  Once cooked, allow these to drain on paper towels to reduce some of the fat.  Place them back in the baking pan with the rice so that it resembles a used litterbox.  As with the cake, serving this with a kitty litter scoop is always a “nice” touch.

Mummy and spider web bottles http://wraysist3rs.blogspot.com/2011/10/mummy-and-spider-web-bottles.html

Drink toe tags http://tkarts.blogspot.com/2011/10/diy-drink-toe-tags.html

Halloween hot chocolate spoons http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com/2011/10/halloween-hot-chocolate-spoons.html

Very cool drink labels http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2011/10/bonanza-of-halloween-printable-labels.html

Bourbon Pumpkin Pie Milkshakes http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2011/10/recipe_bourbon_pumpkin_pie_mil.html

Shrunken Heads in Apple Cider  http://www.marthastewart.com/317697/shrunken-heads-in-cider