Food for Halloween Party.. Help!

How about a pork or beef roast in the crock pot? Let it cook all day in BBQ sauce and shred the meat after its cooked to make pulled pork or pulled beef. My two year old loves it as well as adults. I usually pick up potato wedges and have a veggie as sides. The whole meal costs under $20 and serves 6 to 8 people and takes very little time!

Chick Fil A chicken nuggets. Get a tray and everyone is good. I get them for every party I throw and I swear the adults eat just as many as the kids. Get a couple of sides at the grocery store and you are set and no work.

A lasagna, or a big pot of spaghetti with garlic bread, and salad :)

hamburgers and fries

a baked pasta of some sort, with bread.

A big pot of mac and cheese with a platter of veggies to balance it out. Plus mac and cheese tends to be orange, so, you know, kinda appropriate with the Halloween theme.

I think you can do pretty much anything, and also some mac and cheese. That way, the adults can eat whatever main dish you made and the mac and cheese on the side, where as the kids can choose to eat mac and cheese as a main course instead. Or the pizza idea is pretty easy to do, just make sure to get some plain or pepperoni for the kids. Have fun!

probably pizzas really are the way to go, you could make it fun and do mini pizzas that each kid topps on their own

tacos are pretty popular too.

Perhaps do something that the kids can make themselves. The having cold cuts and cheese so that they can make their own sandwiches sounds good to me. Perhaps have make your own pizza. Provide the pizza dough in circles or on a cookie sheet and a variety of toppings. Depending on how many children you have, Papa Murphy's has a pizza kit for kids so that they can make their own. Or you could provide circles so that each kid as their own and they can top it with whatever they want.

Keep in mind that it is Halloween, and the kids might just be super excited to go trick or treating. Often times, kids simply are not interested in food. I have seem some fun Halloween themed idea that might work. Sandwiches cut in the shape of ghosts. Red applesauce with cut up grapes to look like eyeballs. You could google Halloween meals to get some ideas.

You could also just buy some ham, turkey, cheese and bread and have people make their own sandwiches. That way no one can complain that they don't like mayo. Make a veggie tray, buy some chips and just set it all out.

But do keep in mind that, in general, kids don't eat on Halloween.

edited to add a link to picture:

http://pinterest.com/pin/498351514985753655/

You could still do the chili and corn bread for adults and then make "mummy dogs" for the kids. Simply wrap hot dogs in crescent rolls and bake :)

Peace and Blessings,
T. B

Salad bar. Kids love the different dishes and being able to pick and choose. And kids love to dip anything - so serve baby carrots (or cut big carrots into smaller sticks), celery sticks, grape tomatoes, pepper slices, cucumber spears or discs, and a little dressing on the side (ranch is a favorite). You can do "make your own" pizzas with the small Boboli crusts or let a couple of kids split a large pizza crust and make their own half - put on the sauce, then offer peppers, defrosted chopped spinach, maybe some onions, grated cheese, sliced meatballs (just defrost the cooked turkey meatballs and slice them), sliced mushrooms (okay, I know, few kids will eat them but the adults will), and any other toppings you like. If you put enough choices out, everyone will find something they like and probably choose more items than they would if they are all mixed. Again, make an assembly line on the table and let people move along and create their own. You hardly have to wash the bowls the stuff is in - just rinse and drain! Use a popsicle stick or craft stick with the person's name written in a sharpie marker, then stick that under the edge of the crust so when they come out of the oven you know what's what.

You could also make a mac & cheese casserole ahead of time, or do some healthy chicken nuggets ahead. I use chicken breasts or tenders, cut them up in nugget-sized pieces, dip in beaten egg, and then dip in a mix of whole wheat bread crumbs and wheat germ. I quick-fry in a little olive or canola oil to crisp up one side, then flip to do the other side. As they are crisping, I remove them with a spatula and put them on a baking sheet. When all are done, I finish in the oven at 350 for about 10-15 minutes. Serve with dipping sauces (ketchup or marinara, mustard, etc.).

I'm not a big lover of hot dogs, but for feeding a crowd, it's very easy to buy cocktail franks (regular or all-beef) or even cut up regular hot dogs. Get some crescent roll tubes in the dairy section, and open/unroll. Take each crescent and cut it into about 4 pieces, making sure all are sort of triangular in shape (just wing it - they won't all be the same). Lay a cocktail frank at the wide end of the triangle, and roll toward the pointy end. Set them all on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake according to the crescent roll directions until lightly browned. Serve plain but with dipping sauces (yellow mustard, dark spicy mustard, ketchup or other tomato-y sauce). They are easy to pick up because of the dough (and not too hot for little fingers), and people can eat what they want.

Serve crudites (carrots, celery, peppers, cukes, trimmed green beans, snow pea pods, broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, grape tomatoes, zucchini spears, you name it) on the side and everyone will get some veggies and you will feel you've given them a balanced meal!

Order pizza and make a salad. Make Speggetti and meatballs, salad, and maybe breadsticks. Hamburgers with all the fixins are always a hit. For Halloween this year we are having homemade pizza shaped like a pumpkin and salad.

How about something like this then you add chicken nuggets AND
macaroni & cheese for the kids?:
-ribs, green salad, dinner rolls
-spaghetti, salad, garlic bread
-lasagna, garlic bread, green salad
-rotisserie chickens (buy several), potato salad, macaroni salad

Since they are staying for awhile be sure to have chips & cut up veggie tray w/Ranch on hand too.

Whatever you decide to make for the adults, just add the mac n cheese & chicken nuggets for the kids and you can't go wrong.

Spaghetti. Or a taco bar.

You can get the Subway sandwich without mayo or mustard or cheese. Subway will give you those things on the side so you can add whatever you want. Most kids eat Turkey so you can do that and let the kids add what they want. I also think Pizza and salad is a good idea. Most kids eat that too. You won't be able to please everyone so go with something generic that most people will eat.

Cold cuts, bread, and a veggie tray.
Everyone can eat what they like

I was going to suggest the same as Suzmomof3 - spaghetti or a taco bar.