With the Kids

Family Dinner and Movie Theme Night

My kids are always itching to do something fun.  I don’t blame them, so am I.  Bike rides, theme parks, bowling, laser tag, you name it.  Fun is great.  But, sometimes Mom and Dad are lacking in the energy department.  One of the easiest, most non-energy-needing ways to perk up my gloomy kids is to announce “movie night!”  They totally go for it and continue thinking we’re the best parents, ever. Suckas.

Even better than plain ole “movie night,” is “dinner and movie THEME night.”  Oh, yeah.

It’s really simple…come up with a movie, a dinner menu to match, and gather the family around the coffee table (or set up some tv tables) and grub away while you enjoy some great entertainment.

I have a few ideas for you:

1.  Napoleon Dynamite – Serve a variety of quesadillas!  But, make sure you say it the Napoleon way, “quesadiLLa”, instead of the ‘y’ sound.  For the man of the house, fry him up a nice hunk of steak.

2.  The Three Amigos –  This is a perfect movie for Mexican food!  An easy and authentic Mexican meal that I super love is Enchiladas Verde de Pollo.

3.  The Parent Trap – There are a few ways you could do this:  Italian food AND/OR have the kids make the food for the family, OR do camping food.  My kids love Stuffed Shells, or if you went with the camping theme, maybe tin foil dinners (cooked in the oven), microwave s’mores, or dutch oven peach cobbler.

4.  The Incredible Shrinking Woman –  Remember this movie?!?  Loved it.  It would be perfect to watch while eating mini food, such as:  mini-hamburgers, mini-pizza (one rhodes roll works perfect!), mini hot dogs (lil smokies wrapped in cut bread), mini tacos (cut tortillas into small circles for the shells).  You could also add any variety of small foods as sides (grapes, peas, cut-up jell-o, corn, etc.)

5.  The War (Kevin Costner & Elijah Wood) – This is my personal favorite family movie…about neighbor kids fighting over a tree house.  It teaches such a good lesson that could bring about a great family conversation.  It’s set in the South, so any sort of southern comfort food would be perfect.  May I suggest a super easy (and yummy) Chicken Pot Pie and Buttermilk Cornbread.

If you’re too pooped for movie night, you can pop in The Princess Bride, serve grape Nyquil in the cups and tell the kids that some of them contain poison, some grape juice.  They can trade them amongst each other and then drink.  Of course, all said cups will contain Nyquil.  Carry the kids to bed and enjoy the peace and quiet.  …just teasin, bad idea.

14 comments

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  2. For Princess Bride night, serve up some ROUS’es!!
    RAVIOLIS of Unusual Size!

    Find some teeny-tiny ones, or the super-giant ones. PERFECT!

    One of my favorite movies is Bride and Prejudice – a Bollywood take on the classic story. I’d serve up some Indian food for that one.

  3. Napolean Dynamite and Princess Bride are two of our favorites! I love this idea….both of them :) Of course, no Nyquil (heeeeheee), but maybe grape juice or even a smoothie for effect. Our kids love movies and I love the idea of adding a themed meal. Will have to add it to the summer fun ideas. I will have to find the “The War”. Never seen it and we live in Charleston, so southern comfort food is a staple around here :)

    Love both your websites! Read them daily! Thank you for all you do!

  4. Bad idea? Noooo! That sounds like an excellent idea!

    Yessss, mummy will have peace and quiet tonight. Muahahahaha.

    Seriously though, fantastic…and you made me hungry.

  5. What a fun idea. I think this may become a summer tradition this coming summer. We are a huge movie family and I think this is something we can agree on. Maybe I could even have one of my boys be in on it with me and make it a secret each time. FUN!!

  6. Love the princess bride idea. Too funny, and you know we’ve all thought it….lol.

    I am so totally going to find a copy of the Incredible Shrinking Woman. I haven’t seen that forever and we loved that movie when I was a kid.

  7. So fun! We’ve done this with the movie “How to Eat Fried Worms” and we had gummy worms in an Oreo Pudding. The kids loved it!

    1. I am reading “How to Eat Fried Worms” out loud to my kids right now. I remember my teacher reading it in 2nd grade and when we watched the movie she brought us all a bag of fried worms. I don’t remember exactly what it was … I’m thinking it was either french’s fried onions or chow mein noodles, either way it was a great effect! I plan to serve up fried worms while we watch the movie, too!

  8. omg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    I am DROOLING all over myself right now!!!
    This food looks sooooooooooooooooo good!
    Its 9 am and I want to eat them NOW! :D
    Thanks for the great ideas! :)

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