31 Days of Kitchen Inspiration Day 20: Fun Ways to Dine Part IV, Plan a Mystery Dinner

Now this is not the kind of mystery dinner where you have to find out “Who done it.”  This is a mystery dinner in that you don’t know what food you will be having for your evening meal.

I went to one of these once with our homeschool group and thought it so much fun.

So here’s what you do.

Plan Your Mystery Dinner

Decide on the food.  It would probably be wise to choose food you know the kids will like otherwise they may not want to eat at all.  I can’t stand picky eaters but it’s a fact of life and if you do it with kids other than you own, you might as well go with the flow.

You are going to be serving the meal in courses, so you will want some:

• Appetizers
• About 4 main dishes
• Several sides
• Desserts
• Drinks (or you can just give them a choice once you’ve served them their meal)

Enlist help because you will wish you had if you don’t!

Make up a menu for each person but don’t put the names of the real food items on it.  Make up clever and humorous names instead.

For utensils, there are a few ways you can do it.  You can give forks and spoons a unique name and they have to choose one that will be used for their meal.  Have you ever tried to eat soup with a fork?  It’s interesting. Another way is to use large utensils, like tongs, chopsticks, etc. and use them with or instead of forks and spoons.  Be sure you give them a mystery name and that you have enough of them on hand ahead of time.

Have Fun!

When the kids arrive, they shouldn’t be allowed to go in the kitchen because the “mystery” foods will be discovered. 🙁

Scuttle the kids into a different area of the house and give each of them a menu and  pencil.  Have them put their name at the top of the paper.  They then are to circle 1 appetizer, 1 main dish, etc.

For added mystery, they can draw a number out of a hat that will tell them which table they are to set at.

Collect their menus and get to work in the kitchen… with your helpers, of course. 

It’s 31 Days of Kitchen Inspiration for October.  Join me!