Last year I put together an involved Halloween menu, and while delicious, was not conducive to opening the door every 20 seconds for a new wave of trick-or-treaters (I’m not exaggerating… we had over 500 kids come to our door last year!). Lesson learned.
This year, I am taking a more relaxed approach and serving a meal that has minimal prep time, can be eaten through the night and requires minimal plating/cooking on my part 🙂 Enter – the slow cooker, the answer to entertaining during the cooler seasons. I love that you can put something in it in the morning and come home to a yummy meal come 5 o’clock!
My favorite slow cooker meal of the moment is this copycat Chipotle Carnitas recipe. While Mexican may not be the first meal that scream Halloween, it is a favorite in our household and what better way to celebrate a holiday than with some of your favorite things?!
Aside from prep the morning of (browning the meat, chopping onions, etc.), I just followed the recipe up to boiling the tomatoes, etc. and poured it over the meat in the crockpot and let it cook on low for 8 hours (then followed the rest of the recipe).
When served with an array of toppings (which also can be prepped the morning of), everyone can find something they like – make your own burritos/tacos/burrito bowl/salad, and you can focus on handing out candy to all of the best dressed kids in the neighborhood!
And when all else fails… order a pizza!
