by Macki Oct 30th, 2011 // Swell Suppers

Swell Supper: Pirate Ships and Pirates Booty

Days before Halloween the kids already have a ton of candy from the school carnival and trick or treating at the local stores. Now I need to offload most of it before the big day! Maybe I should have given it away, but I decided to convert it all into a cookie recipe and feed them a hearty meal beforehand. Not only is this meal delicious and healthy for the kids, I added a little adventure by making Fruit Boat pirate ships. We call the Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies our pirates booty. For the main course we’re serving Baked Chicken and Cornbread (don’t let the photo scare you off, this dish is absolutely divine!) and Grilled Garlicky Green Beans and Carrots.

Begin this meal by scavenging through your kids Halloween candy and finding as many mini peanut butter cups as possible for the peanut butter surprise cookies. If you are limited on these, then just grab any other mini chocolate – like snickers, milky way, M & M’s, reeses pieces, you get it. Make the peanut butter surprise cookies, place the candy on top and bake according to the recipe. While the cookies bake move on to the baked chicken and cornbread by making the cornbread and placing it in a 9 x 13 pan.

When the cookies are ready remove from the oven, turn the temperature up to 400 degrees F and pop in the cornbread when it reaches the temp.  Debone the chicken and prep the rest of the ingredients for the baked chicken and cornbread. Remove the cornbread from the oven and follow the recipe for putting it all together and place it back in the oven. Meanwhile prep the grilled garlicky green beans and carrots (say that five times fast!) and pop them in the oven along with the baked chicken and cornbread (we are skipping the grill).

Time for the fruit boat pirate ships, my kids favorite! We make all kinds of people and boats and we sail around the world (the table) finding treasure and getting into boats wrecks. Let your kids keep playing while you remove the baked chicken and cornbread and green beans and carrots from the oven and serve. After dinner bring out the pirates booty (peanut butter surprise cookies) for a fun dessert. Now doesn’t that sound swell?