Sloppy Joe Pizza Creatures

This is one of my family's favorite dinners so I just added eyes & a mouth to make it into some kind of a creature for Halloween:

SLOPPY JOE PIZZA CREATURES

Here's how to make them.  Get one of those yummy french loafs from your local grocery store & cut it into 1 inch slices.  Place slices on a greased cookie sheet.  In a saucepan cook 1 pound of hamburger, 1 can of corn, 3/4 cup sliced green onions & 1/2 a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce.  Make sure your meat is cooked thoroughly & that the sauce is warm & bubbly.  Spoon over each slice of bread & top with shredded cheese.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes & voila you have a sloppy joe pizza.  Add olives for eyes & green onions for a mouth & you're set for a yummy Halloween dinner.

Ghost Grilled Cheese

Here's another easy Halloween dinner that your family will LOVE:

GHOST GRILLED CHEESE

Just make grilled cheese sandwiches like normal, but using a Halloween cookie cutter, cut shapes out of the TOP piece of bread.  When you grill your sandwich it makes a fun yellow/orange shape come through your sandwich.  I always grill up the piece that came out as well as a crouton for my tomato soup.  My kids are addicted to Campbells tomato soup so they loved it.

Enjoy.

Pumpkin Hot Pockets

Tonight was another favorite for the Potters. . . 

PUMPKIN HOT POCKETS

These are super easy to make & you can tailor them to your family's likes.  I just buy the refrigerated pie crusts & then cut a bunch of pumpkin shapes out of them.  Match up the pumpkins so you have an even number (one for the bottom & one for the top).

Put one pumpkin from each pair on a greased baking sheet.  Top with some honey mustard (or a condiment of your choice) & your favorite lunch meat & cheese.

Put the other half of your pumpkin on top of your little "sandwich" & press the edges with a fork to seal your pouch shut.

Next get 2 small bowls & crack 2 eggs.  Put the 2 egg yolks in one bowl & the 2 egg whites in another.  Add green food coloring to the egg whites & mix well.  Add 2 drops of red food coloring to the 2 yolks & mix until it is nice & pumpkin-orange colored.  Brush the orange egg wash onto the orange part of your pumpkin & the green to the stem.

Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, until the pie pastry is nice & cooked.

Enjoy!!

Pirate Flag Pancakes

I actually got this idea from a friend of mine who also does Halloween dinners for the month of October.  My kids have been begging for pancakes for dinner, but all I could come up with is using cookie cutters to make them Halloween shaped.  Then I remembered seeing my friend do this one.  SO CUTE.

PIRATE FLAG PANCAKES

Try to make your pancake batter form a skull shape.  I was NOT good at this, but I tried & that's what matters right?  I added chocolate chips to make eyes & a nose for my pirate skull.

Next make some bacon & put them below your skull like the cross bone portion of a pirate flag.

Then make a yummy batch of scrambled eggs (I add cheese & bacon) & add to the skull's head to make it look like brains coming out.  GROSS, but fun.

And there you have it.  A delicious HALLOWEEN Breakfast for DINNER.

Enjoy.

Halloween Crisps

Tonight was a quick easy dinner:

Halloween Crisps

All I did was get some flour tortillas & used all my Halloween cookie cutters to cut Halloween shapes.  I had pumpkins, ghosts, skulls, tombstones, moons, bats, cats, & more.  Deep fry these little nuggets of goodness (I know, totally healthy right?) & immediately top with cheese while they are still hot.  The cheese melts wonderfully into the crispy goodness.

I made some fresh salsa & dipped the Halloween Crisps into my salsa.  PERFECTION.

BEST SALSA RECIPE:

(from my friend Christina)

1 can petite diced tomatoes, drained

1 can whole kernel sweet corn, drained

1 can black beans, drained & rinsed

2 avocados chopped

1/2 purple onion, chopped

1-2 fresh tomatoes, chopped

LOTS of cilantro chopped

1 package of powdered ranch dressing mix

salt & pepper to taste

lime juice to taste

Mix together for some fresh salsa goodness.  This is a staple in our house & we eat it once every 2 weeks if not more.

Enjoy. 

Halloween Carnival - Mario Brothers Potter Style

Well, you know me & Halloween.  I have to have EVERYONE in costumes & they all have to MATCH each other.  I know this won't last forever because the kids are getting older & are starting to want to choose for themselves, but so long as they are game for a family theme, I'm jumping on it because it's SO MUCH FUN.

This year since we were in the middle of a military move, I thought it might be smart to choose a theme we had done before so I wouldn't have to make so many costumes.  So we chose to do

  Super Mario Brothers, 

a theme we did about 5 years ago when we were stationed at Hill AFB & only had 2 kids.  I had already made the Princess Daisy costume for myself & had Trek's Mario costume done as well.  I also had a Toadette costume which is what Taya wanted to be.  I thought I was SO CLEVER to re-use costumes until I got to UT & figured out NONE of the costumes fit anymore.  Oh well, start from scratch I guess.

Trek was able to squeeze into his old costume, but it was a squeeze.  I had to pretty much gut mine & take it in.  I've apparently lost a lot of weight in 5 years which is odd to me because I feel big right now, but I was able to take in the entire dress (with the help of a dear friend) & got my dress to fit me better.   2 costumes down, 8 more to go.

Here is our entire ensemble before the big Halloween carnival in our Mario Brothers Glory. 

I made sure I included all of my very favorite Mario characters:

Toad is one of my favorite characters.
He's just SO HAPPY all the time.

Craiger made an ADORABLE Toad.

He kind of had a love/hate relationship with that
toad hat I made him though!

I love my BOYS.

You can't do Mario Brothers
& NOT have Luigi!

Bladen LOVED his Luigi costume,
 including that HUGE mustache.
*Disclaimer: I did NOT make this costume, 
I bought it at Walmart to save my own sanity.

Toadette is another favorite.
 I knew instantly who had to be Toadette.

Taya became the perfect Toadette as soon as that
hat went on her head.  SO ADORABLE.

And you can't have Mario without the infamous
Princess Peach.
Without her, there wouldn't be anyone to save &
 the game would be null & void.
"Help me, Mario!"

Cadence as Princess Peach
* I didn't make this one either.  I love WALMART.

One of my favorite characters is Lakitu,
a lesser known turtle that throws red spiny balls at
Mario & Luigi to block their path.  In the later games he is
known to have a fishing pole with
 all sorts of things at the end.

Of course, Lorien was DYING to be the lesser known character
 & her costume proved to be the most difficult.

But it turned out ADORABLE!

We needed some more bad guys in our
group so we added a Goomba.

Is my grandma the best sport or what?
 I whipped this easy costume up in 1 hour.

If you have Mario & Luigi, you're going to
 need a bad version too.  So we added Wario to the mix.

My dad was the cutest Wario ever.  (not mean at all)

I needed an easy & comfortable costume for my mom
since she's been so sick & in the hospital.
We opted to make her Shy Guy.

It was an easy & comfortable costume for her
so she could relax & be part of the group
without over extending herself.

And we had to have MARIO of course.

Trek is the perfect cutie pie Mario.  I LOVE my sweet hubby.

I've always loved Princess Daisy's spunk,
so she completed our little group.

Yes, that's me. . . wig & all.  It was FUN.

The Church carnival was a blast.  They had games & crafts for the kids, a mad scientist lab, soup & chili for dinner, & lots of entertainment.  We had a BLAST.

Oh, & Trek & I even came home with the best couple costume award.  SO FUN.

So there's the Potter Family Halloween Theme for 2012.  What do you think?