Delight your little monsters with homemade pizzas topped with creepy crawlies.
With a long night of trick-or-treating ahead of them, kids need a meal to keep that energy up and prevent goodie bag snacking. Fire up that outdoor pizza oven and give them ingredients to make their own personal pizzas with “creepy crawly” toppings.
One thing that is great about having a pizza party outdoors is that spills and messes won’t threaten to damage any inside spaces! So set up the patio with some long tables or get the outdoor kitchen counters cleared off because you’re about to knock their socks off with a delicious and creepy pizza party on the patio.
Making animals and shapes out of pizza toppings is easy. The prep may take a while if you’re planning a big party, but it will be worth it to see the joy on your ghouls’ and goblins’ faces. Here are some ingredients to stock up on:
- String cheese
- Cheese slices
- Balls of mozzarella
- Black and green olives
- Carrots
- Bell peppers
- Corn kernels
- Pepperoni
- Cooked meatballs
- Cooked spaghetti
- Cooked bacon
- Pesto sauce
- Pickle slices
For each animal or creepy crawly, set up an example or put up a photo. Place the ingredients needed for that animal in front of it. Make sure to leave space for the kids to set down their pizzas while they work. Try to keep the ingredients to 4 or less for each creepy crawly topping. Follow your pizza oven’s instructions for cooking times, but check often for the first of each design. Each one may differ depending on the toppings used.
Here are a few ideas to get you started, but a ton of others can be found online. The instructions below are for 1 animal each. Multiply your prep ingredients according to your crowd size.
Spider
Two black olives. Pit each olive. Slice one olive lengthwise. Make thin slices in each half of the olive. These will act as spider legs. Slice other olive width-wise or lengthwise. This half will serve as the spider’s body. Arrange six legs around one of the halves of the olive.
Eyes
Small mozzarella balls. Green olive. Slice the mozzarella ball in half. Pit the olive and make thin slices width wise. Top the ball with an olive slice. If desired, place a tiny black olive piece in the middle of the green olive’s circle. An easy way to get round cuts of olive is to use a cut off straw. Push the straw down onto an olive half then punch the olive piece out of the straw with a toothpick.
Meatballs. Cheese slices. Black olives. Cut small meatballs in half. Lay a smaller, round or jagged-edge piece of cheese on top of the meatball half. Top that with a black olive slice (as above). A small carrot piece can go into the center of the olive slice if desired.
Ghosties
Cheese slices. Using a paring knife or cookie cutter (shaped like a ghost), carve out ghost shapes from the slices. Use discards in the “Eyes” recipes above. To make the ghost’s eyes, use a cut straw to pierce the slice of cheese. Poke the discards out of the straw and use them to embellish other toppings.
Pickle Ghouls
Pickle slices. Corn kernels. Olive pieces. Lay pickles on pizza. Arrange corn kernels as teeth. Use olive slices or cheese rounds as eyes.
Octopus
Bell peppers. Cut a bell pepper in half width-wise. Empty seeds and wash both halves. Place one half on the plate open-side down. Make thick slices in other half to act as octopus arms. An octopus has 8 arms but the creepy crawly’s number can be left up to the artist!
Whole pie face
Black olives. Shredded cheese. Pepperoni slices. Green olives. To make a whole face on the pie, use sliced black olives for hair, thin width-wise slices for eyes, pepperoni cut into triangles for teeth and cut into strips for lips.
Mummy pie
String cheese. Green olives. Pepperoni slices. Prepare pie as normal with sauce and shredded cheese. Toward the top of the pie, lay two olive-slice eyes with pepperoni pupils. Pull string cheese into long, flat strips. Place in a horizontal, crossed over pattern on the pizza, making sure not to cover the eyes.
Imagination station
With a little imagination, you can put together 5-6 creepy toppings for kids to make. But always leave extra ingredients out for them to create something on their own. They may just try a new topping! Encourage them to have fun with it and that there are no mistakes.
Have a Happy Halloween!