Dinosaur Theme Dinner & Party Ideas for Kids
A dinosaur theme dinner gives kids a chance to play with their food in a good way. Build dinosaur skeletons from vegetables, serve dinosaur wings, make fossil cookies and turn ordinary foods into a prehistoric meal.
This theme works for a family dinner, dinosaur birthday party, classroom cooking activity or simply a fun afternoon in the kitchen. Before you begin, let kids create their own dinosaur menu or party invitation and decide which foods belong to the carnivores and which belong to the herbivores.
Choose one dinosaur-shaped food, one hands-on food activity, one "herbivore" fruit or vegetable and one prehistoric dessert. Add a few toy dinosaurs or homemade decorations and your dinosaur dinner is ready.
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Easy Dinosaur Dinner Centerpiece
Dinosaur Eggs
For a simple edible centerpiece, arrange hard-boiled eggs on a platter of lettuce or other salad greens. Place a few clean toy dinosaurs around the platter so the eggs look like they have been discovered in a dinosaur nest.
Dinosaur Theme Party Menu
Build your dinosaur menu around foods that kids can shape, decorate or rename. Some can be prepared ahead of time while others become part of the party activity.
Dinosaur Skeleton Veggies
Give kids cut vegetables and let them build an edible dinosaur skeleton before eating their creation.
Dinosaur Fruit Pancakes
Turn pancakes and fresh fruit into a dinosaur for breakfast, brunch or breakfast-for-dinner.
Dinosaur Wings
Rename chicken wings as dinosaur wings and choose between the teriyaki-style or sticky version below.
Dinosaur Fossil Cookies
Press clean dinosaur shapes or shells into shortbread dough to create edible fossils.
Dinosaur Cake
Cut and arrange simple baked cake pieces to create a homemade dinosaur-shaped dessert.
Dinosaur Eggs
Hard-boiled eggs can work as both the centerpiece and an easy protein for the meal.
- Veggie sticks in small cups for the herbivores.
- Chicken, meatballs or sandwiches for the carnivores.
- Broccoli florets as prehistoric trees.
- Green grapes or melon balls as dinosaur eggs.
- Crushed graham crackers or cookies as edible "dinosaur dirt."
- Fruit arranged into dinosaur footprints.
Build a Vegetable Dinosaur Skeleton
Set out a variety of cut vegetables and let kids arrange them into their own dinosaur skeleton. There is no right way to build one—use the ideas below or invent a completely different prehistoric creature.
Vegetable ideas:
- Carrot sticks and carrot circles
- Cucumber circles
- Olives
- Asparagus spears
- Lettuce or salad greens
- Celery sticks and leaves
- Tomato slices
- Water chestnuts
- Red or green pepper strips
- Green onions
Dinosaur Fruit Pancakes
Create a dinosaur breakfast by arranging pancakes and cut fruit into a dinosaur shape. Use one pancake for the body and smaller pieces for the head or feet, then add sliced fruit for spikes, a tail and facial features.
This also makes a fun breakfast-for-dinner option for your dinosaur theme night.
Dinosaur Wings
Chicken wings become much more exciting when they are renamed dinosaur wings. Here are two versions from the original dinosaur menu.
Teriyaki-Style Dinosaur Wings
Ingredients
- 5 lbs. chicken wings
- 1/2 Cup brown sugar
- 1/4 Cup soy sauce
- 1/4 Cup water
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 clove garlic, minced
Directions
- Combine the brown sugar, soy sauce, water, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, ginger and garlic.
- Place the chicken wings in a resealable container or bag and pour the marinade over them.
- Refrigerate for several hours.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Arrange the wings on a baking sheet or in a shallow baking pan.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Carefully drain excess liquid if needed and turn the wings.
- Continue baking for about 20-30 minutes, or until browned and fully cooked.
- Chicken should reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
Sticky Dinosaur Wings
Ingredients
- 5 lbs. chicken wings
- 2 envelopes onion soup mix
- 1 Cup molasses
- 1/2 Cup soy sauce
- 1/2 Cup salsa
- Up to 3 teaspoons hot sauce, or to taste
- 1/2 Cup lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Stir the onion soup mix, molasses, soy sauce, salsa, hot sauce, lemon juice and garlic together.
- Add the wings and coat them well.
- Arrange the wings on a baking sheet or in a shallow baking pan.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Carefully drain excess liquid if needed and turn the wings.
- Continue baking for about 20-30 minutes, or until browned and fully cooked.
- Chicken should reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
Dinosaur Theme Party Desserts
Dinosaur desserts can double as hands-on cooking activities. Fossil cookies let kids make their own prehistoric impressions, while a shaped cake can become the centerpiece of the dessert table.
Dinosaur Fossil Cookies
Use clean dinosaur toys, toy footprints or shells to press fossil patterns into shortbread cookie dough.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cups flour
- 1/2 Cup powdered sugar
- 1 Cup butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
- Mix the flour, powdered sugar, softened butter and vanilla until a soft dough forms.
- Shape the dough into a log and wrap it in waxed paper or parchment paper.
- Chill in the freezer for about 20 minutes.
- Slice the dough into circles and place them on a baking sheet.
- Press a clean dinosaur foot, shell or other textured object gently into each cookie to make a fossil impression.
- Chill the shaped cookies for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden.
- Allow the cookies to cool before serving.
Dinosaur Cake
You can also try shaping your own dinosaur cake. Bake one 13x9-inch cake and two small loaf cakes. Cut and arrange the larger cake into the body and use pieces of the loaf cakes for the legs, head or tail.
Once you like the shape, frost the pieces together and let kids add decorations such as candy eyes, frosting spikes or colored sprinkles.
Dinosaur Party Activities
After the cooking is finished, keep the prehistoric theme going with a few simple dinosaur activities.
Dinosaur Party Video
Dinosaur Party Invitation
Invite guests to join your prehistoric meal with a dinosaur-themed invitation. Kids can also make their own invitations and add dinosaur footprints, eggs or drawings around the edges.
Make your own Theme Dinner Party page.
Have you put together your own Theme Dinner Party? Do you have a theme menu or theme dinner idea to share? Tell us about it and we will create your own theme dinner party page.
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