Spook-tacular Halloween Ideas from Kraft Foods {Prize Pack Review & Giveaway}

With the arrival of October, it has meant a sudden burst of trees with beautiful red, orange and yellow leaves, the sun going down earlier in the evenings and a slight chill in the air.

Along with being able to snuggle under fleece blankets or listen to the sound of the leaves crunching when we're out for a walk, I love seeing the excitement in my kids' eyes as they realize that one of the most festive (and favorite) holidays of the year, Halloween, is right around the corner! How could they not be giddy over getting to wear fun costumes and go trick-or-treating for yummy goodies?

This year, however, we have had much more than candy to look forward to, as Kraft Foods has gotten us into the Halloween spirit with some classic favorites and a few brand new products to create some delicious spook-tacular treats!

That's right! Kraft Foods has brought together five of our favorite brands — each with an exciting Halloween twist — to help get the entire family into the kitchen and prepared for a spook-tacular Halloween. How could we not be inspired to get into the eerie, spine-chilling mood with these delicious ingredients?

Right away I loved the festive Rachael Ray orange mini casserole dish and the way that it provides a colorful, stylish way to add to your serving dishes, while the Halloween Serving Dish is sure to appeal to any child who loves the holiday. 

As we looked over the tasty snacks and meal inspirations, I paused to look at the Velveeta Cheesy Potatoes (Au Gratin and Bacon Scalloped). With the smooth, creamy taste of Velveeta cheese sauce that my kids love, these 100% real potatoes are a great side dish to serve up so that little bellies aren't just getting filled with candy and treats.

But... even I have to admit that candy and treats are essential aspects of Halloween! Reaching into our box of goodies, we began our preparations for our pre-Halloween bash with everyone's favorite JELL-O.

JELL-O made it incredibly easy to create spooky, yet tasty, additions with their Halloween brain mold and JIGGLERS Halloween mold. Both can be purchased online from the Kraft store and comes with recipe ideas that help turn a regular treat into one that is frightfully fun!

Yes, Igor. I'll have one JELL-O brain and a side of JELL-O ghost, witch, black cat, pumpkin and bat, please {insert spooky evil laugh}.

We also came across Kraft's Halloween JIGGLERS Hands recipe and thought it was adorable! I love the idea of using these cute hands at a party, either as decoration, on plates, in a bowl of punch or more.

We simply made our JELL-O and let it set in a 13x9" pan. Then, after tracing each of the girls' hands on paper and cutting out the pattern...

...it only took a little cutting around the edges before we had a personal and very cute treat!

We couldn't just let the rest of the pan of JELL-O go to waste, so we had to try out these fun and tasty Halloween Dessert Cups as well.

We customized the recipe a bit by adding an extra festive touch on top with the new JET-PUFFED Jumbo PumpkinMALLOWS and GhostMALLOWS and assembling them in our glow-in-the-dark Halloween cups, but the result was just too cute!

We've been excited about all of the JET-PUFFED varieties and the way that they have made fall and Halloween so much tastier. As the weather continues to cool down, we can't wait to add these GhostMALLOWS to hot chocolate for the kids and the PumpkinSpiceMALLOWS to hot apple cider, pumpkin pie and more!

Plus, JET-PUFFED has to many recipes, coupons, new product news and tips right on their Facebook page, that I have no doubt that we'll be enjoying these puffed bites of yum in numerous other ways as well!

In fact, along with eating these JET-PUFFED marshmallows straight out of the bag (the girls love how big the Jumbo PumpkinMALLOWS are!), these helped inspire the Halloween Brownies that we made to deliver to friends.

While these might just look like a pile of chocolate (nothing wrong with that!), these brownies turned out festive and delicious — we were very happy with the results and they were so easy to make!

Ingredients

Brownie mix (or be adventurous and make them from scratch)
Oil (per the mix instructions)
Egg (per the mix instructions)
Water (per the mix instructions)
Chocolate chips (we used white chocolate chips and they ended up a toasted, light brown color)
Orange Mini M&Ms (or you could use candy corn)
JET-PUFFED GhostMALLOWS

Preparation

Prepare brownie mix as directed on the box and bake for 5 minutes less than the time indicated. At that point, pull the brownies from the oven and sprinkle the mini M&Ms and chocolate chips on top and return to the oven for the remaining 5 minutes.

When a toothpick inserted 2 inches from the edge of the pan comes out clean, remove brownies and place the pan on a rack to cool. Immediately place the GhostMALLOWS along the top so that they slightly expand and melt into the brownies. Let cool completely before cutting into squares. We added pumpkin party picks for a little extra fun, but YUM!

As our final Halloween treat, I was inspired by this PHILADELPHIA Indulgence Mousse recipe, so I had to give it a try.

Having never tried PHILADELPHIA Indulgence before, I was intrigued by the combination of the creamy smoothness of cream cheese mixed with one of their great flavors. What a delicious way to dip apples, pretzels and much more — they've even come out with two new flavors, Dulce de Leche and Cinnamon, which are perfect for fall!

But of course I can't pass up chocolate, so by mixing PHILADELPHIA Indulgence Milk Chocolate with COOL WHIP, I was met with an extremely delectable mousse. Top with a Halloween OREO cookie spider and these are an amazing dessert to celebrate the season!

I couldn't find black shoestring licorice for the legs so I cut a large Tootsie Roll into strips!

How fun are these Halloween OREO cookies? They are not only dressed up with orange creme for the season, they feature "Boo-rific" shapes on the side of each cookie: a witch, pumpkin, ghost, black cat or bats. Even the package is festive with a group of witches brewing up the orange creme!

We can't wait to continue to celebrate this October with these Halloween-inspired Kraft Foods products. With so many tasty and fun ways to add a little spooky touch to our lives, I have no doubt that the whole family will be eager to get into the kitchen to create delicious recipes no one will forget!

I have already received rave reviews from my kids, whether they were "helping" in the cooking process...

Thank goodness for the kid's Halloween apron, because she was covered!

...or the tasting process.

Are you feeling the Halloween spirit? Whether you are inspired to create your own new recipes or want to have fun browsing the large number of Kraft Halloween recipes, it is easy to find many Halloween snack or meal ideas that are creative, delicious and fun.

And, thanks to the generosity of Kraft Foods, one person will be prepared with a variety of goodies to help get their Halloween celebration underway, because...

One lucky person will win a Kraft Foods
Halloween Prize Pack* (ARV $100)!

*Prize Pack includes: (3) Halloween flavors/shapes of JET-PUFFED Marshmallows, (2) Halloween JELL-O Molds, (4) packages of JELL-O product, (1) package of Halloween OREO cookies, (2) VELVEETA Cheesy Potatoes, (1) free product coupon for PHILADELPHIA Indulgence, Rachael Ray mini orange casserole dish, kid's Halloween apron, Halloween serving dish, pumpkin party picks, and glow-in-the-dark Halloween cups.

(Enter with the Rafflecopter form below. If you have any questions or problems entering, there is a video tutorial found here that can help.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Kraft Foods is providing the prizes for this program at no cost to me and has provided me with a gift of equal value for review. This program is not administered or sponsored by Kraft Foods or its affiliates, but solely by Thanks, Mail Carrier.