Making a Halloween-Themed Dinner

Oct 20

3 min read

It can be so much fun to create a special dinner for any holiday, including Halloween. It doesn't have to be fancy; in fact, this dinner is simple and casual. It's perfect for a fun dinner with friends.

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It didn't work out quite as I had planned, but the recipes below are still great!!

The Meal Plan

My Halloween-themed meal plan:

Main Dish: homemade 'ghostly' Margarita pizza

Side Dish: 'goulish' Thai cucumber salad

Dessert: turtle popcorn

'Ghostly' Margarita Pizza

I like to start with a homemade pizza crust, but you can buy one too. Or, make it super simple by starting with a high-quality frozen pizza and adding the ghostly cheese before baking.

Pizza Crust

2 1/3 c flour

3/4 c warm water

2 TBSP olive oil

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1-2 tsp honey

3/4 tsp salt

1/4+ tsp each garlic powder and oregano

Combine water, oil, yeast, and honey. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes.
Stir in remaining ingredients (flour, salt, garlic, oregano). Knead the dough for a few minutes, until it feels smooth.
Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover with plastic, and let rest until doubled in size.
Transfer to a floured surface. Divide to make 2 smaller pizzas or use it all for 1 large pizza.
Roll out and bake at 425F or grill the dough until just done.
Add toppings and continue to bake until the cheese is melted.

Pizza Toppings

Pizza sauce of your choice

Mozzarella cheese slices, cut into ghost shapes with a cookie cutter *

Fresh basil

Green olives

*The 'ghostly' part sort of fell apart for multiple reasons.

My fresh mozzarella ball was not big enough for my cookie cutter, so I couldn't use it.
I did try to make some eyes in the cheese slices, but once it melted, it was just a blob of cheese, but still delicious.
If you want the ghosts to work out, using mozzarella sandwich slices might work better, or pull the pizza out of the oven as soon as the cheese starts to get melty.

'Goulish' Thai Cucumber Salad

Use any cucumber salad recipe you like. What makes it Halloween-themed is the cucumbers. Cut 50-100% of your cucumber rounds to look like skulls. It's a little time-consuming, but it makes it SO cute!!

on a wooden cutting board, 3 slices of cucumber, 2 of which have been cut to look like skulls

I started with this recipe and made just a few small changes. For example, I didn't have a Thai chili, so I used red pepper flakes. I also didn't have Thai basil; I used parsley and cilantro.

Turtle Popcorn

This recipe felt like a grown-up version of a popcorn ball. Do you remember getting popcorn balls when you went out trick-or-treating? This popcorn is so much better!

You can pop your own popcorn, or buy a bag. My local grocery store sells organic popcorn made with olive oil and just a touch of salt that I love! So that's what I used.

*Start by reading over the recipe and assembling all your ingredients.

Butter a 9x13 baking dish. Set aside.

Place about 8 cups of popcorn in a very large bowl. Set aside.

Make Caramel

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c light corn syrup

1 cup cream

1/4 c butter

Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan. Cook until a candy thermometer reads 249F. Pour over popcorn, tossing to coat. Press caramel corn into the buttered 9x13 pan.

Sprinkle chopped pecans and Reese's Pieces over popcorn; press down. (You could make these Christmas-y by using green and red M&Ms and white chocolate!) You could also stir these into the caramel corn before pressing into the baking dish.

Melt Chocolate

4 oz dark or semi-sweet baking chocolate

1/2 tsp coconut oil

Drizzle over caramel popcorn.

Let cool completely, then cut into squares. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

Holistic Wellness with Tracy