pkin pie, but you basically mix the pumpkin with cream and spices and bake in a pastry case – serve slightly warm with a good dollop or cream.

Don’t waste the seeds either – separate them from the pulp before cooking, rinse and then let them dry for 4 hours or so. Sprinkle them with olive oil and salt and then bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes – give them a stir every 10 minute

Halloween is generally a sugar fest - kids go trick or treating and pick up sacks full of candy.

This Halloween Menu will get some proper food down them before they go out - with a bit of luck they'll be too full to eat the candy until much later.

For starters, get a round loaf and use it to push vegetable kebabs into.

Get some cocktail sticks or kebab skewers and push chopped up raw and salad vegetables onto them.

Some ideas here are chunks of carrot, whole radish, cubes of cucumber, slices of pepper, tomato quarters, sticks of celery and anything else you fancy.

Use some green food coloring to mix into mayonnaise and use this to dip the vegetables in - call it slime.

How about worms or maggots for your main course?

No - don't fancy them? OK if I said spaghetti or a rice dish does that sound more appetizing? You can call them worms or maggots – the kids will laugh.

Try a canned tuna and tomato spaghetti or a prawn provencale over rice - there's recipes on my site for those, link at the end of this article – or use your own favorite spaghetti or rice meal.

The idea with this menu is not to make yourself a slave to the kitchen, just to get some good food down your kids before they go out and get them in the mood for Halloween.

Now your pudding – well, it would be a shame to waste the insides of the pumpkin that has now become their lantern – so microwave the insides for 7 minutes per lb (or thereabouts) and use the pulp to make a pie.

There’re loads of variations for pumpkin pie, but you basically mix the pumpkin with cream and spices and bake in a pastry case – serve slightly warm with a good dollop or cream.

Don’t waste the seeds either – separate them from the pulp before cooking, rinse and then let them dry for 4 hours or so. Sprinkle them with olive oil and salt and then bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes – give them a stir every 10 minute

chopped up raw and salad vegetables onto them.

Some ideas here are chunks of carrot, whole radish, cubes of cucumber, slices of pepper, tomato quarters, sticks of celery and anything else you fancy.

Use some green food coloring to mix into mayonnaise and use this to dip the vegetables in - call it slime.

How about worms or maggots for your main course?

No - don't fancy them? OK if I said spaghetti or a rice dish does that sound more appetizing? You can call them worms or maggots – the kids will laugh.

Try a canned tuna and tomato spaghetti or a prawn provencale over rice - there's recipes on my site for those, link at the end of this article – or use your own favorite spaghetti or rice meal.

The idea with this menu is not to make yourself a slave to the kitchen, just to get some good food down your kids before they go out and get them in the mood for Halloween.

Now your pudding – well, it would be a shame to waste the insides of the pumpkin that has now become their lantern – so microwave the insides for 7 minutes per lb (or thereabouts) and use the pulp to make a pie.

There’re loads of variations for pumpkin pie, but you basically mix the pumpkin with cream and spices and bake in a pastry case – serve slightly warm with a good dollop or cream.

Don’t waste the seeds either – separate them from the pulp before cooking, rinse and then let them dry for 4 hours or so. Sprinkle them with olive oil and salt and then bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes – give them a stir every 10 minute

fancy them? OK if I said spaghetti or a rice dish does that sound more appetizing? You can call them worms or maggots – the kids will laugh.

Try a canned tuna and tomato spaghetti or a prawn provencale over rice - there's recipes on my site for those, link at the end of this article – or use your own favorite spaghetti or rice meal.

The idea with this menu is not to make yourself a slave to the kitchen, just to get some good food down your kids before they go out and get them in the mood for Halloween.

Now your pudding – well, it would be a shame to waste the insides of the pumpkin that has now become their lantern – so microwave the insides for 7 minutes per lb (or thereabouts) and use the pulp to make a pie.

There’re loads of variations for pumpkin pie, but you basically mix the pumpkin with cream and spices and bake in a pastry case – serve slightly warm with a good dollop or cream.

Don’t waste the seeds either – separate them from the pulp before cooking, rinse and then let them dry for 4 hours or so. Sprinkle them with olive oil and salt and then bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes – give them a stir every 10 minute

self a slave to the kitchen, just to get some good food down your kids before they go out and get them in the mood for Halloween.

Now your pudding – well, it would be a shame to waste the insides of the pumpkin that has now become their lantern – so microwave the insides for 7 minutes per lb (or thereabouts) and use the pulp to make a pie.

There’re loads of variations for pumpkin pie, but you basically mix the pumpkin with cream and spices and bake in a pastry case – serve slightly warm with a good dollop or cream.

Don’t waste the seeds either – separate them from the pulp before cooking, rinse and then let them dry for 4 hours or so. Sprinkle them with olive oil and salt and then bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes – give them a stir every 10 minute

pkin pie, but you basically mix the pumpkin with cream and spices and bake in a pastry case – serve slightly warm with a good dollop or cream.

Don’t waste the seeds either – separate them from the pulp before cooking, rinse and then let them dry for 4 hours or so. Sprinkle them with olive oil and salt and then bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes – give them a stir every 10 minutes and you’ve got some lovely nibbles there.

Decorate the room and table with orange and black, cobwebs, skeletons and have a few games laid on.

Bobbing for apples is good fun – but bobbing for grapes would be more fun – easier to get hold of I think and your guests will get a bit wetter.

Do a hide and seek with the lights out – spooky stories – don’t scare each other too much – and then let them loose on the area with their trick or treating.

Happy Halloween.