So, my kid’s birthday was rolling around, and he’s totally gone nuts for aliens and outer space these days. He put in a special request for an alien-themed bash, and well, you know how it is – you gotta make it happen. I figured, alright, let’s do this. Themed food is always the part I secretly enjoy the most, even if it sometimes makes me want to pull my hair out.
Getting My Alien Food Ideas Together
First things first, I plonked myself down and just tried to think of anything and everything ‘alien’. Green, for sure. Googly eyes, obviously. Weird shapes. I wasn’t aiming for anything super fancy because, let’s be real, I’m no gourmet chef, and I had a mountain of other party bits to sort out. I thought, keep it simple, just make it look the part.
- Fruit Skewers from Another Planet: Dead easy, a bit healthy, and you can make fruit look pretty freaky if you try.
- Green Alien Slime Dip: Guacamole was the no-brainer here. Give it a gross name, and the kids will be all over it.
- Flying Saucer Mini Pizzas: Little pizzas, cut into circles. You just can’t mess up pizza.
- Bog Water Punch: Green, fizzy, maybe chuck in some gummy worms for good measure.
The Big Shop for Supplies
Then it was mission time at the supermarket. My shopping list was a bit of a crazy mix. Green food dye was top of the list, naturally. Loads of fruit – grapes, melons, kiwis (because they’re already green, clever eh?). All the bits for guacamole. Mini pizza bases, cheese, tomato sauce. And for that punch, some fizzy pop, pineapple juice, and yup, more green food dye. Oh, and those candy eyeballs! Those things are a godsend for themed food, seriously.
Kitchen Takeover: Operation Alien Grub
Okay, this is where the real action, and a fair bit of mess, kicked off.
First on the agenda, the Alien Fruit Skewers. I got chopping with melon (went for cantaloupe and honeydew for a bit of color variety), grabbed some big green and red grapes, and kiwis. The main aim was to make them look a tad otherworldly. I tried cutting the melon into slightly funky shapes, nothing too precise. Then I just poked them onto skewers. I managed to stick a candy eye onto a grape at the top of a few using a tiny smear of honey. They actually looked pretty decent and didn’t take forever.
Up next, the Green Alien Slime Dip. This was pretty much my usual guacamole – avocados, squeeze of lime, bit of onion, some coriander, pinch of salt. Mushed it all together. I did sneak in a super tiny drop of green food dye just to make it look extra, extra alien. Served that with some blue corn tortilla chips that I decided to call “asteroid chunks.” Simple stuff, but it worked.
Then it was time for the Flying Saucer Mini Pizzas. I used those ready-made mini pizza bases to cut down on faff. Spread on some tomato puree, sprinkled over the cheese. I attempted some basic patterns with bits of olives or peppers, trying for little alien faces or spaceship windows. Whacked them in the oven. Easy peasy. I knew the kids would wolf these down, alien or not.
And to finish off, the Bog Water Punch. This was ridiculously simple. I just mixed pineapple juice with some lemon-lime fizzy drink in a massive punch bowl. Then, the moment of truth: adding the green food dye. I might have gone a bit heavy-handed at first; it was nearly black! Had to water it down a bit with more fizzy pop. Note to self: easy does it with the green. I tossed in a few gummy worms to look like little swamp monsters swimming about. Some dry ice around the bowl would’ve looked amazing, all smoky and mysterious, but I decided it was probably a bit much with little ones running around.
The Cleanup and The Final Say
Right, so by the time I was done, the kitchen looked like a small, green bomb had gone off. There was green food dye in spots I didn’t even know food dye could get to. But, when I put all the food out on the table, it actually looked pretty cool, if I do say so myself.
And the kids? They went absolutely wild for it. The “Alien Slime” was a massive success, probably just because of the name. The fruit skewers disappeared way faster than I thought they would. And the pizzas, well, they’re pizzas, aren’t they? The punch was gone in what felt like seconds. Even the grown-ups seemed to get a kick out of how it all looked.
Was it top-chef material? Definitely not. Was it fun and did it nail the theme? You bet. Sometimes, it’s just about making things look a bit daft and creating some good memories. And scrubbing a bit of green dye off the counter is a pretty small price to pay for that, I reckon. I’d probably do it all again, maybe I’d even try to get a bit more adventurous with the food shapes next time!
