What Did You Make for Dinner Last Night?

Pizza and chicken wings! haha If there's a day to throw "healthy" out the window, it would be Halloween. :)

We had pizza. We got all got home at 5:15 and were right out the door at 5:45 to meet up with friends for the kids' trick-or-treating rampage. Cooking on Halloween? Pfft. This working mama ain't got time for dat!

Gotta love all the sancti-mommies!

I fed my kids sandwiches. On white buns. No vegetables.

Ya know what, I called it a win. It took me 5 minutes, which was all the time I had really because I had to work and we also went to a party at my husband's work before trick-or-treating. Also, my kids ate only about half of their small sandwich because they were so excited and not interested in dinner. I was lad they didn't waste a meal I had put a lot of effort into.

Maybe we will do Chipotle next year like you did. That is cool that the proceeds went to charity. Hope you had a fun Halloween!

I totally grin when I hear parents mention that they made sure their kids had a healthy meal before they went Trick or Treating. Or that they only allowed them to eat 3 pieces out of their haul and then take it from them ration it out carefully every day. Awww. Look at what good parents y'all are.

Meanwhile, mine scarf down a hotdog at the Fall Festival, followed by popcorn, a water and scurry off down the street Trick or Treating with a Blow Pop in their mouths. When we get home, they dump their HUGE bags on the floor and, DING! The trading floor is opened. Candy trading, bartering with a chaw of Laffy Taffy (all Halloween, their mouths are never empty), and ensuring mom and dad's Candy Taxes are paid. T. likes to ration his until Christmas, Hunter likes to eat his right away. It's all tradition. I love it. :-)

So, in answer to your question, I didn't cook dinner. Or buy anything healthy so they wouldn't fill up on candy. That would be too much like the lady down the street who was handing out pretzels. T. said, "PRETZELS?! This is Halloween! People who hand out pretzels should get TRICKS on Halloween." ;-)

I'm not sure how important it is to make extra healthy meals before trick or treating. I've never had one. ;-)

We ordered pizza. No healthy eating here. Come on! It's Halloween!!! It's the night to indulge!!

We made white chili.
It was great last night but the leftovers tonight will be even better!
Where we are - Trick or Treating is for kids 12 and under.
Our son just turned 16 so he hasn't gone out for a few years.
He doesn't miss it.
Our neighborhood had it's Halloween party last Sat - pumpkin carving contest (my spider pattern won 2nd place), croquet in the dark with flashlights and a nice bonfire.
They set up a fog machine and somewhere out in the woods we heard a fox barking - it's a really weird spooky sound if you've never heard one before.
Everyone brought a dish or dip or dessert.
I made Ghosts in the Graveyard (pudding, cookies, Coolwhip and candy) - which disappeared quickly!

Additional:

I modified a white chili recipe I found awhile ago. It gets most of it's bite from the pepper jack cheese. Here is my version:

Creamy White Chili Recipe – Mine
Ingredients
• 1 pound ground chicken
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cans (15-1/2 ounces each) great northern beans with fluid
• 2 cans hominy rinsed drained
• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) chicken broth
• ½ to 1 whole large block of pepper jack cheese cubed
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 cups (16 ounces) sour cream
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream or half n half
Directions
• In a large saucepan, sauté the chicken and turkey, onion and garlic powder in oil until meat is no longer pink. Add the beans, broth, and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
• On simmer; stir in sour cream, pepper jack cheese and cream.

Hubby brought Hooters wings home and that is what he had. I just snacked and had my Merlot in my skeleton goblet!

I had to be ready for my 200+ trick or treaters. I ended up with well over 200 and got rid of everything I had, YEAH!

I don't do candy so now I am thinking about my goodies for next year!

I do love Chipotle!!

T. - you've moved from Potomac to Laurel?? (smiles)

We ordered Chinese. I didn't feel like cooking. My husband doesn't like Chipotle, when the boys and I do. Any way - Friday night is my night off...I don't cook!!

There was an mom on here who put an awesome recipe book together that all the mom's on here from that time frame - contributed to.

Tonight is pork chops with honey and peaches, served with asparagus and potatoes (baby red).

Sunday is leftovers.
Monday will be sausage alfredo with penne pasta and broccoli.

parmsean cheese (2 cups), butter (4 Tblsp) and whipping cream (2 cups) - to make the alfredo...add inn Romano cheese (MAYBE 1 cup) and it helps "lighten" it.

Cook Italian sausage (needs to be a hearty sausage not a smoked sausage link) with chopped onion. Add FRESH broccoli and mix all together after pasta is cooked to your liking.

Psh. Like I'm really going to cook when I've gotta come home from work, get kiddo and myself into costume, and help everyone in the house with miscellaneous costume stuff.... We had Hardee's. Lol.

I didn't make a damn thing for dinner Halloween night. We handed out candy, ate junk food, and watched bad scary movies.

Cold, day-old pizza sandwiched between Halloween candy.

Guess what? They survived.

We picked up Little Caesars. There wasn't enough time between work/school and trick-or-treating to actually make dinner! We eat healthy meals most nights, but fast food on those extra busy nights isn't going to hurt. Anyway, the kids and I got plenty of exercise to work off our pizza. We walked for miles!

ETA: My kids don't eat a lot of candy on H'ween. They only get to eat a few pieces when they are sorting it. After that they get one/two piece(s) a day until it is gone.

ETA2: I don't limit them to a few pieces to be a sanctimommy. We trick-or-treat until the very end and by the time we get home we have time to sort the candy, eat a few pieces and it is time for bed. Plus, who can really eat much more than a few pieces without feeling a little bit sick after? Not I! I ration the candy (or rather taught my kids to ration it) because my kids like to have a treat every day and I generally don't buy treats outside of holidays. So they need to learn to make it last.

Well, when my (adult) kids were young I would always try to make something hot and nourishing, warm in the belly kinda thing, like chili or a hearty soup. And most of the time I did but there were also times when the time got the best of us being busy with last minute costume making or something. If that happened we'd grab a PBJ. When we lived in a cold climate it was a lot more important to have the warm meal.

This year I had my grandkiddies here and I made hot egg drop soup, which they loved and tuna sandwiches with lettuce. I put a lot of minced onion in the soup too. So minced you hardly knew it was there expect for taste and the extra strength onions give.

I don't think it's a big deal necessarily, it's good to have something warm and nourishing available but if not, oh well, life goes on. Its more about the fun of it all. And we already know they're going to eat a lot of candy. It's one night a year. I gave my kids that night. The next day or two most of the candy was throw out to give to the sugar monster. They kept their best ones which was always a lot more than I liked.

This year after the kids went home I dressed as a witch to surprise them when they came back with their costumes. We love costumes.

I made a pot roast, mashed potatoes, peas, and a spinach salad.

I made chicken and dumplings in the crock pot (recipie from all recipies-and it calls for condensed soup 8-0). My kids ate cady hand over fist afterwards, until I told them they had enough. Today they didn't have any until their clean laundry was put away.
I must say I'm stuck in a rut with dinners. I hadn't made chicken and dumplings since last winter and it was cold last night-so it seemed a good time to resurrect it.
OH! And I don't feed them before! We start out at 6 and if I feed them that early they are sure to beg for snacks before bed (8:30). Mine are snack obsessed!!

We had chipotle too. That's healthy!

Sorry!

I got chinese take out!!

It is a special treat here...but I did drive there and back...

Got dinner out of the way quick and early, and we ALL had a relaxing fun halloween.

***ETA****

B-
Have you a recipe to share?? I make an 'irish chili'...lol.
It is sort of a regular 'red chili' with not so much spice due to the 'delicate' palate of some of my kiddos.

Hope you did as well.

We had Costco pizza. What we do to combat the candy madness since there is SO much of it is we give our daughter two options. She can either choose to space her candy out and eat 2 pieces per day or eat as much as she wants for one day and trade in the rest for $20. She always chooses the $ option and never eats more than 10 pieces of candy. She gets to buy something AND prevents cavities!

I am not saying this to be judgmental, it is just that I love cooking. I always cook a healthy meal before Halloween as I bring home gooey and tempting snacks for trick or treaters and my home.

I cooked cabbage, sweet potatoes, salmon and red beans.

Left over Chili heated up in the oven with corn bread :)

I make my Chili with elbow noodles, ground beef, green peppers, onions, mild Chili beans, tomato sauce, and Chili powder of course.

Oh and I baked sugar cookies.

I don't think I've ever had a healthy meal on Halloween - and neither did my boys! I always, and still do, cook frozen pizzas. We never had time to cook anything, since trick or treat was 5-8. I'd fix the pizzas, and the boys would be out the door, dropping off their pillowcases of candy somewhere in the middle of trick or treat time and going back out again. We always get tons and tons of trick or treaters, so there was no time for dinner - just scarfed down pizza in between doorbell rings!

DS made leek, potato and watercress soup and we had it with pumpkin bread (a real yeast bread, not a sweet quick bread) after trick or treating was over.

ETA: Not concerned about a healthy meal. More about something warm after a cold and rainy night out.

Sloppy Joes!
How's that for healthy?!

My kid will forget about his "loot" in 2 days and if I don't give it away? It would last til Easter!
(Matter of fact, I just trashed some Easter candy about 2 weeks ago!)

Chipotle IS healthy, and delicious! We had cup of noodles and hot dogs at the high school football game, not healthy at all :-(

We had popcorn chicken from Walmart and mandarin oranges.

We normally order pizza, but we also did Chipotle. I love it and at $3 per person it was an unbeatable deal.

We had McDonalds. My kid doesn't eat a lot of candy on Halloween, by the time she gets home from trick or treating, it's way past her bedtime and she's tired from all the walking around. So she usually eats a piece or 2 on the walk, and then a bunch the next day. We do kind of ration it out after that, but mostly because we all have issues with sugar. My husband and daughter get mean if they have too much, so too much is usually not had. :)

We went to a Halloween party that started at 5:30. It was a potluck so we had a lot of different foods....pizza, cocktail meatballs, dips, veggies, fruit , etc. Of course candy after trick or treating. My kids woke up with tummy aches and I said "I told you so". My son responded...I'm never eating that much candy again....Yeah right! LOL! But guess what my kids are healthy and were active today, played their sports and are back on regular eating habits. I think some justify unhealthy eating, by eating healthy first. Go figure. :)

What?? Chipotle isn't healthy??

Tell your food nazi friends that you went to Chipotle because you believe that everyone should give to charity before trick or treating.

We had homemade chili,cream of potato soup and my yummy sourdough bread.

Another vote for take out pizza here. Fridays are my usual nights off so it was a happy coincidence. :) Every cook needs a rest for recharging the creative juices. Glad to know about Chipotle because that is a house favorite for my family.

P.S. As working parents we don't get too hung up on healthy; our focus is sitting down to a meal at our table as a family unit with enough family time on the back end before bedtimes to reconnect. Quite frankly we are glad most nights to survive the rugby scrum known as cooking, feeding and cleaning up while managing to fill up the tummies of a two and four year old (notoriously picky at those ages) with some semblance of "how was your day" thrown around for good measure. One day no doubt my standards will rise...one day...just not today. :)

Chipotle is 100% healthy food-you couldn't do any better!