Last week, we talked about some costume and craft ideas that wouldn’t break your budget for Halloween. But now it’s time to get down to the serious business. I’m talking about the absolute best part of trick-or-treating time. It’s the treating, of course!

Whether you’re hoping to host your own monster bash, you want to make your own candy treats, or you just need some frugal recipes to get you in the spooky spirit, we’ve got you covered in this roundup. Here are some creepy, crawly, scary and fun recipe ideas for your Halloween celebrations:

Candy

1. Meringue Ghosts: make your own meringue out of egg whites, cream of tartar, sugar and white vanilla extract. Shape into ghosts and use mini chocolate chips for the eyes and mouth.
2. Mummy Treats: use google eyes to “mummify” any treat. Use them on your own homemade treats or even just on candy bars.
3. Black and Orange Chocolate Bark: use melted chocolate, pretzels, candy corn and dried apricots to make a chewy, crunchy, sweet and salty bark treat that you can munch on.
4. Homemade Candy Favorites: Rachael Ray shows you how to make Halloween candy favorites like peanut butter cups, chocolate-covered coconut bars, and candy buttons.
5. Caramel Apples and Pumpkin Spice, Sea Salt Caramel:

Desserts

1. Witch’s Hat Cupcakes: this is great way to utilize patterned cupcake liners in an interesting way. Use your favorite cupcake recipe and create easy witch’s hat decorations out of liners for the tops.
2. Candy Corn Cheesecake Mousse: inspired by candy corn, this recipe creates a sweet, fluffy and light cream cheese flavored dessert. There’s also a sugar-free option at the bottom!
3. Wormy Apples: these apples are baked with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and chopped nuts. Then gummy worms are stuck into the top to make for a creepy-looking treat.
4. Tarantula Cookies: use pretzel sticks and chocolate sprinkles, among other ingredients, to make cookies that look like creepy spiders.
5. Jack O’Lantern Pie: this Jello pie is decorated with licorice and candy corn to give it the appearance of a cute jack-o-lantern.
6. Gingerbread Skeletons: a tube of white icing makes it possible to decorate gingerbread cookies and give them the appearance of scary skeletons.

Savory

1. Witch Hat Appetizers: use store-bought crescent rolls to create a great Halloween appetizer featuring pesto chicken salad.
2. Turkey Eyeballs: easily turn turkey pesto meatballs into creepy eyeballs with the help of some olives.
3. Deviled Eyeballs: this recipe also uses olives to serve as “eyes.” Great way to spook up deviled eggs.
4. No-Bake Spiderweb Cheesecake: make this cheesecake the night before you plan to serve it so that it can chill and set. Homemade chocolate ganache makes the cake look like one big, yummy spiderweb.
5. Ghostly Pizza: shape mozzarella cheese into ghost shapes to make a delicious (and creepy) margarita pizza.
6. Bat Bites: these are made of cream cheese, goat cheese and pesto balls that are adorned with two wing-like tortilla chips.

Beverages

1. Bleeding Heart Martini: use a pickled beet in a gin martini to create the “bleeding” effect.
2. Boo Beverage: this orange sherbet non-alcoholic beverage is garnished with ghost-shaped whipped cream.
3. Blood Orange Margaritas: fresh blood orange juice makes margaritas that are to die for.
4. Pumpkin Milkshake: this non-alcoholic milkshake, featuring frozen banana, orange juice, pumpkin puree and vanilla ice cream (or frozen yogurt), is a smooth and creamy treat for any trick-or-treater.
5. Eyeball Punch: frozen blueberries serve as the “eyeballs” in this lemon, orange and raspberry flavored punch.

What are some of your favorite Halloween-themed snacks and treats? Please share in the comments section below. Thanks for being a Tip Hero!

Photo credit: pvera