Frugal Family: Spooky, Kid-Friendly Halloween Recipes

Halloween is synonymous with “treats." This week Frugal Family offers spooky recipes your child can create with you. A Witches Brew, Rats Baked in Blood and Eyeball cookies are just a few of the recipes that will probably gross you out, but your kids will love.

Putrid Punch 

A big bowl of punch is the perfect prop for gory and ghastly Halloween trickery. There are lots of ways to make your party punch extra eerie!

Make a slime ring from green punch.

Freeze green punch in a gelatin mold along with plastic bugs, spiders and eyeballs. And place a few small glow sticks underneath the punch bowl: when the lights are turned down, the brew will radiate in a mysterious and unearthly fashion.

To make a floating, bloody Zombie Hand:

Buy a couple of latex or rubber gloves. Wash them thoroughly with dish soap and turn them inside out. Carefully pour in water. Fasten tightly at the wrist with a rubber band.

The shape will turn out best if you hang the gloves, fingers down, from your freezer shelf. Plan to freeze for at least one full day.

When it's party time, run warm water over the gloves very briefly—just long enough to loosen the gloves from the ice—and carefully peel them off the frozen hands. The ice fingers break off easily, but that's okay, the disembodied digits just add to the "zombie" effect.

For a Witches' Brew:

Mix up a punch of your favorite fruit juices in a large bowl and place it inside an even larger bowl, pot or cauldron. Throw on your best witch or warlock costume and add (using tongs or extra-heavy-duty gloves) chunks of dry ice to the bigger container. This allows you to create that delightful creeping mist without putting dry ice directly into the punch, which can be dangerous. (Your supermarket's fish counter may carry dry ice; if they don't, they may be able to tell you where you can purchase some.) When you're ready to create some magic, simply pour some hot water over the dry ice. Continue to add hot water and dry ice as needed.

Note: Never ingest dry ice! Be very careful when using dry ice. Always keep it out of reach of children and never touch it with bare skin; use tongs or extra-heavy-duty gloves.

Courtesy of allrecipes.com

Spooky Witches' Fingers

Ingredients:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup whole almonds
• 1 (.75 ounce) tube red decorating gel

Directions:

1. Combine the butter, sugar, egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat together with an electric mixer; gradually add the flour, baking powder and salt, continually beating; refrigerate 20 to 30 minutes.
   Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets.
2. Remove dough from refrigerator in small amounts. Scoop 1 heaping teaspoon at a time onto a piece of waxed paper. Use the waxed paper to roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped cookie. Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail. Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles. You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to help give a more finger-like appearance. Arrange the shaped cookies on the baking sheets.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the cookies are slightly golden in color, 20 to 25 minutes.
4. Remove the almond from the end of each cookie; squeeze a small amount of red decorating gel into the cavity; replace the almond to cause the gel to ooze out around the tip of the cookie.

Courtesy of allrecipes.com.

Eyeball Cookies

Prep: 25 min. + chilling  Yield: 20-25 Servings

Ingredients:

• 5 ounces white baking chocolate, chopped, divided
• 20 to 25 vanilla wafers
• Blue paste food coloring
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• Red liquid food coloring

Directions:

1. In a microwave, melt 4 ounces of white chocolate; stir until smooth. Dip vanilla wafers in melted chocolate; allow excess to drip off. Place on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. Chill until set.
2. Melt remaining white chocolate; stir until smooth. Tint blue. Spread a small amount onto the center of each cookie; place a chocolate chip in the center.
3. For bloodshot eyes, use a toothpick dipped in red food coloring to draw lines from blue circles to outer edges of wafers. Chill until set. Store in an airtight container. Yield: 20-25 servings.

Courtesy Of Taste Of Home.

Rats Baked In Blood

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 lbs. lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup uncooked long grain white rice
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon salt
• uncooked spaghetti, broken into quarters
• thinly sliced raw carrots
• black peppercorns, cooked black beans

For the sauce, um, blood:

• 1 can (19 oz.) crushed or ground tomatoes
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Cooking Instructions:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, rice, onion, egg and 1 teaspoon of the salt. Mix well.
2. Now make the rats. Using a measuring cup, scoop out 1/4 cup of the ground beef mixture. Form it, by hand, into a firmly packed teardrop shape -- pointy on one end, rounded on the other. This is your basic rat. Place it into a 3-quart shallow baking dish and gently pinch in the neck area. Poke a piece of uncooked spaghetti into the larger rounded end as a tail. Repeat with the remaining ground beef mixture.
3. When all the rats are neatly placed in the baking dish, stir together the tomatoes, water, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, remaining 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Pour over the rats. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes, basting occasionally with sauce. Then cover the dish with foil and bake for another 15 minutes, or until the rice is tender and the rats are fully cooked.
4. Gently remove rats, one at a time, from the sauce and place gently on a serving platter. (Take care not to damage the tails -- they're fairly delicate.) Into each rat, insert two carrot slices as ears, peppercorns (or whatever) for eyes, and a few more broken strands of uncooked spaghetti for whiskers. Spoon sauce around the rats and serve, smiling wickedly.

TIP: This dish goes nicely with pasta or mashed potatoes.

Servings: Makes 4 to 6 servings (about 12 to 13 rats).

How kids can help:

Mix the meat mixture and form the rats.

Garnish the finished rats by adding ears, eyes and whiskers.

Courtesy of Kaboose.com

Coffin Ice Cream Sandwiches

Prep/Total Time: 20 min.   Yield: 6 Servings

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons vanilla frosting, divided
• Orange and black paste food coloring
• 6 ice cream sandwiches
• Yellow, brown and orange jimmies and/or Halloween sprinkles

Directions:

Tint 1/2 cup frosting orange and 1 tablespoon frosting black. Cut corners off each ice cream sandwich to form coffin shapes. Dip sides of sandwiches in jimmies. Frost tops with orange frosting. Decorate as desired with black frosting, remaining white frosting and jimmies and/or sprinkles. Freeze until serving. Yield: 6 servings.

Courtesy of Taste Of Home

Batty Bark

These very cute chocolately treats are especially wonderful because they hold their shape. Be sure to chop the cherries into small pieces for a smoother look. For easy cutting, dip cutter into hot water between cuts.—Taste of Home Test Kitchen.

Prep: 25 min. + chilling   Yield: 18 Servings

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup crisp rice cereal
• 1/4 cup unsalted sunflower kernels
• 1/4 cup dried cherries, chopped

Directions:

1. In a microwave, melt milk chocolate and semisweet chocolate; stir until smooth. Stir in the cereal, sunflower kernels and cherries. On a waxed paper-lined baking sheet, spread chocolate mixture into a 12-in. x 9-in. rectangle. Refrigerate until firm.
2. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. Cut with a 3-1/2-in. bat-shaped cookie cutter. Remelt scraps and cut if desired. Yield: 1-1/2 dozen.

Courtesy of Taste Of Home

Creepy-Crawly Bugs

Who wouldn't want to eat our cute little bugs? Quick and easy prep and undeniable kid appeal make these a must-have for the buffet at a child's party. Be prepared for the recipe requests. —Taste of Home Test Kitchen

Prep/Total Time: 25 min.   Yield: 8 Servings

Ingredients:

• 1 tube (11 ounces) refrigerated breadsticks
• 8 smoked sausage links or hot dogs
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup potato sticks
• Ketchup and/or mustard

Directions:

1. Separate dough into strips. Unroll and cut eight strips in half widthwise; set remaining strips aside. Cut sausages in half widthwise. Wrap one piece of dough around each sausage, leaving the rounded end showing. Place seam side down on an ungreased baking sheet. Place reserved breadsticks on baking sheet.
2. Bake at 350° for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown. Remove bugs to a serving plate and cool for 2 minutes.
3. Insert potato sticks into baked dough to resemble legs and antennae. Decorate with ketchup and/or mustard. Serve warm. Save remaining breadsticks for another use. Yield: 8 servings.

Editor's Note: Refrigerated crescent rolls may be used in place of the breadsticks. Follow package directions for baking.

Courtesy of Taste of Home