Going for a gross-out dinner this Halloween! Break out the meatball mix, then.

Rat meatballs on plate

This recipe didn’t start out as a Halloween meal. See, I had this great idea a few years ago that we’d study a different animal for two weeks at a time. To finish off our studies we’d have a meal where we focused on whatever animal the kids chose and we’d talk about what we learned. Well, the first animal my kids chose was a snake. I can’t remember what the kids learned about snakes–nope, what I remember is that my husband had this great idea to fashion meatball mix into rodents for our big meal. Now, we make these meatball rats to top spaghetti for Halloween each year.

rat meatball on spaghetti 

You can too.

Here’s how it works:

• Use your favorite meatball recipe (I like The Pioneer Woman‘s)
• Shape the meatball mix into rodent shapes–rounded back side and a more pointed front
• BAKE the meatballs with pieces of olives for eyes and pieces of ham as the tails
• Serve the rodents over spaghetti topped with pasta sauce.

Single rat meatball 

This article was originally published on MyKidsEatSquid, and republished with permission