Warning: These little critters look like, well, real little critters.
I had a vague idea of creating meatballs that look like mice as a Halloween gag for my kids. I mentioned the idea to my husband, stuck him with the ingredients and then headed out to pick up my oldest daughter at a trick-or-treat party. When I returned, my younger two children were just giggling and my husband had a mischievous smirk on his face.
“They look so gross,” he said.
Now, you should know that, when left alone, my husband can come up with some pretty inventive creations. A few years ago he disappeared into the garage after asking where I’d stashed some black fabric we had leftover from one of my daughter’s witch costumes. Jump to a couple hours later, and he’d crafted a giant black widow spider using old wiring, a deflated basketball, the fabric and some red paint. Seriously, the spider was about 6 feet across! He positioned the spider just above our front door and, of course, added webs all around. The 5-year-old living two doors down refused to walk on our side of the street in the week leading up to Halloween and she didn’t even stop by our house for candy.
Back to the mice roasting in my oven: Here’s what my husband did (enlisting my daughters as helpers). He molded the meatball mixture into mice bodies (think teardrop-shaped). Then he cut tails using slivers of deli ham. Olive pieces make up the eyes and, once the meatballs were done baking, he added mozzarella cheese ears – before coating the entire thing in spaghetti sauce.
Ready for a yucky dinner? Hey, only in appearance. They tasted delicious!
Overview
- Prep time: 25 minutes
- Cook time: 25 minutes
- Servings: Around 5-6
Ingredients
- Meatball or meatloaf fixings
- Spaghetti sauce
- Spaghetti
- Deli ham slices
- Black olives
Instructions
- Using your favorite meatball or meatloaf recipe. Mix together the meat and spice combination.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly coat a baking pan with cooking spray.
- Working with about 2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons of meat, form the mixture into a teardrop shape.
- Line up the meatballs in rows on the baking sheet.
- Thinly slice the deli ham into “tails.”
- Press a “tail” into the back end of each meatball.
- Add fingernail-sized piece of cut black olives next to the “nose” part of the meatball. Press into place. Repeat with all of the meatballs.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the meat is cooked through.
- Make the spaghetti noodles according to the package directions.
- Brush warmed spaghetti sauce over each “mouse.”
- Serve two or three mice meatballs over the spaghetti noodles and top with additional sauce.
