Countdown to Halloween - Skeleton Theme

For the fifth theme of the 13-day Countdown to Halloween, we focused on "Skeletons." Although we have being doing a daily service project as part of the countdown, we did not do one today since the girls had their homeschool co-op and we had to do some errands for part of the day. So, we didn't get to do a few of the things planned for the day.

Nonetheless, we did a couple of food treats today. Making food has been a highlight for both of the girls. Olivia liked making the black cat cookies and Sophia liked the skeleton bone breadsticks we made today.

The two treats we made are below:

Veggie Skeleton

I saw a pin for a veggie skeleton that was linked to Feeding Four Little Monkeys. There also was a cat vegetable skeleton, but we picked the human skeleton since we didn't have bean dip or several of the types of vegetables used with the cat version.

The veggie skeleton that 

Sophia and Olivia made.

Having something healthy to eat was a welcome change from the desserts we have been making. It was a fun way to present vegetables; and involved both the girls in terms of cutting and arranging the vegetables. It also was an opportunity to learn: Olivia learned how to slice mushrooms and cucumbers today.

The veggie skeleton's head is made from some lettuce leaves, two olives, and French onion dip in a small bowl. Both of the girls wondered why they should add lettuce since the skeletons they've seen don't have hair...they're just bones.

The body was made from celery, baby carrots, green pepper (the original recipe uses red pepper), mushrooms, grape tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, and cucumbers.

Sophia and Olivia arranged the vegetables on a cookie sheet that had a paper towel on it. It barely fit on the cookie sheet - so an even larger platter could have been used.

Sophia put the French onion dip in a bowl and added two olives. She drew a mouth in the dip.

The girls looked at the picture of the veggie skeleton that was on Feeding Four Little Monkeys.

Sophia pointing out to Olivia where one of the vegetables should be placed.

She's looking at the example from Feeding Four Little Monkeys.

The image helped them place each vegetable in the proper place.

The girls arranging the vegetables to create the skeleton.

By the time we were done preparing dinner, it was getting late. They were ready to eat even before the food was on the table.

Olivia and Sophia ready to eat dinner.

If we were going to do this again, I would have the vegetables cut and ready to go earlier in the day. It would certainly help not having as much happening all at once when getting things ready for dinner.

The skeleton was a hit...there were hardly any vegetables left by the end of dinner.

Salty Bones

The other treat we made today was Salty Bones. The idea was from the book Family Fun Healthy Halloween Treats.

This time the skeleton was disassembled...the girls ate from the pile of "bones" (or lightly-salted breadsticks).

To make the bones, we unrolled a tube of refrigerated breadsticks (the 11-ounce tube makes 12 bones) and separated it into the 12 rectangular pieces.

Working with one piece at a time, we slightly stretched the dough to lengthen it a bit and then used kitchen scissors to cut a 1-inch slit in the center of each end.

Sophia and Olivia cutting and forming the ends of the breadstick dough

to look like bones.

They shaped the resulting four flaps of dough into knobs that looked like the ends of a bone.

Next they placed the dough bones on an ungreased baking sheet, spacing them a few inches apart, and sprinkled on a little coarse salt. We baked the bones at 375° until they were a light golden brown, about 12 minutes.

Baked Salty Bones that Sophia and Olivia made.

The girls dipped the Salty Bones into spaghetti sauce. This was a great way to enjoy them. We had many breadsticks leftover, so it looks like we'll be having them with a few more meals this week.