Ghostbusters Themed Dinner
It’s not Halloween in our household until we’ve watched Ghostbusters, and this year we enjoyed a special themed dinner to celebrate!
One of my favorite Halloween memories was the year we all dressed up as Ghostbuster characters for trick-or-treating. Eric even constructed an Ecto-1 wagon for Gemma to ride along in while we jammed to the Ghostbusters theme all night. We had a blast! For this reason, Ghostbusters will always be a Halloween staple in our household.
For our Ghostbusters Themed Dinner, I wanted to embrace some quintessential dishes from New York City that appear in the film. I also wanted to create some “slimy” and “marshmallow-y” treats inspired by our favorite ghosts!
As part of our party décor, I created some fun food labels to go with our dinner spread. You can print and customize your own by clicking the link below!
I also utilized some great Ghostbusters printables I found over at Dating Divas for our drink labels, treat holders, and Slimer Marshmallow Toss game. They looked fantastic and added the perfect finishing touches to our Ghostbusters Themed Dinner!
Ezra missed out on our Ghostbusters Halloween, so we used some old costumes to dress him up for the party!
The Menu
I did things a little differently with our menu this week. Rather than spend significant time preparing our meal in the kitchen, we ordered some takeout! *GASP* Those who know me know I don’t typically like to splurge, but this was a special night that warranted it. Because we were embracing New York City cuisine, I relied on the professionals at some of our local restaurants to provide our main entrees. This allowed us more time to focus on fun activities together!
Our Beverage
To kick things off, I concocted a green ectoplasm drink for the kids to enjoy with dinner. I achieved this with Squirt, lemonade, and green Kool Aid. After attaching the ectoplasm drink labels, we had the perfect spooky beverage to start the party!
The Entrees
As I mentioned before, I went the easy route this week and ordered our New York City entrees from some local restaurants!
New York’s Finest Slice
First up, our New York-style pizza! We have a great local pizza shop that specializes in New York-style slices and pies. New York pizza is characteristically a large, hand-tossed, thin crust that is pliable enough to fold in half and eat on the go. I wanted to get as close to the New York experience as possible, and this pizza did NOT disappoint.
“Last of the Petty Cash” Chinese Takeout
Home to three separate Chinatowns, New York is known for having great Chinese food. This is made evident in the film as the Ghostbusters munch on some Chinese takeout with the last of their petty cash at the fire station. I LOVE Chinese food, so I was excited for this splurge at one of our local restaurants. We enjoyed fried rice, lo mein, and curry chicken in solidarity with the Ghostbusters during our themed dinner.
Our Side Dish
For our healthy-ish side, I prepared some “Big Apple” Slices with Slime Dip. The Slime Dip was really a super simple fruit dip made of cream cheese, marshmallow fluff, and vanilla extract. I found the recipe over at Food Lovin Family. With a few drops of green food coloring, our dip was transformed into a wonderfully oozy green worthy of Slimer. The kids went crazy over this dip!
Movie Treat
For our movie treat, I tossed together a Slimer Popcorn Mix served in the Ghost Trap Treat Holder I printed from Dating Divas. Our Popcorn Mix consisted of kettle corn, marshmallow “slime,” mini marshmallows, and red and blue M&Ms to resemble the colors of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
For the marshmallow “slime,” I melted 3TBL of butter, half a bag of large marshmallows, and a splash of vanilla in a small saucepan on the stovetop. Once smooth, I added a couple drops of green food coloring to get that perfect slime green color.
Once my kettle corn was popped, I spread it out on a baking sheet and sprinkled it with the mini marshmallows. Then, I drizzled our marshmallow slime over everything and topped it off with the M&Ms. It was the perfect sweet treat to go with our movie!
Activities
“He Slimed Me” Facials
For our first Ghostbusters activity, I thought it would be fun to do some green facials with the girls as a nod to Dr. Venkman getting slimed in the film! But unlike Venkman, our “sliming” experience left us feeling pampered and beautiful 😉.
Slimer Marshmallow Toss Game
I found this wonderful activity and printable over at Dating Divas. The idea is to take turns tossing marshmallows in Slimer’s mouth to see who can get the most! But my family likes to play by their own rules. Our game eventually regressed into everyone chucking marshmallows across the room at each other. Not even 8-month-old Ezra was spared! There were lots of direct hits and lots of laughs, making it the perfect end to our Ghostbusters Dinner.
Looking for other Halloween themed meals? Check out our Casper Brunch HERE!
Like what you see? Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to receive our printable Walt Disney World packing list. We’ll also keep you up to date on new posts from Inspiring Magical Memories!
