Spider Spaghetti is the perfect Halloween treat. It is a tasty meal made using spaghetti, good quality frankfurters and  sauce. It’s the perfect snack you can knock up at Cub Scouts to give experience using gas stoves and Trangias! It’s also a delicious dinner the kids can get involved in if you are lucky enough to get camping with the family over the Halloween break.

Get the kids involved with the spider making, they really do enjoy it. Use your own common sense to decide whether or not to let them cut up the hotdogs. They’re easy to cut through so even some young children may be judged sensible enough to do this part. But really anyone can put the legs through, if they can count to 8! This is the time to introduce my two nieces! Who are going to help show how easy (and fun!) making Spaghetti Spiders can be!

With regards to the ingredients I used for my Spooky Spider Spaghetti, I’ve mentioned before that I can be a stickler for quality. Hot dog sausages range massively in quality and, to be honest, not that much in price. Check the ingredients, when I looked in Tesco I had some range from 75% pork to… wait for it… 82% ‘mechanically separated’ chicken (boke)! In a pork sausage! You can guess which ones I chose.

With the higher ‘real meat’ content, came the need to chill them. This might be inconvenient if you were planning to take this recipe into the hills. Tinned ones would be better if they were going to be in a rucksack for a few days.

The sauce for the Spooky Spider Spaghetti was a complete cheat. This recipe is designed to be enjoyed by young children and let them experience some of the cooking equipment they might get to use camping. Therefore a ready made sauce is easy and can’t go wrong and may help to build up confidence. I chose to use those Dolmio ‘Stir-In’ pots of sauce. I went with the ‘sweet pepper’ flavour thinking it would be nice and sweet and easy to eat for some young potentially-fussy eaters. Lucy found it too spicy and to be fair there was a strong peppery flavour to it. Alice loved it though and later in the evening told me how fun it was making the spiders and using the stove.

I hope you give this Spooky Spider Spaghetti a go this Halloween, and if you do, make sure you get the kids involved! Then the next time you get the stove out, they’ll remember those fun spiders you made.

Happy Halloween!