Spaghetti and Meatballs Dump Dinner Activity
This Spaghetti and Meatballs Dump Dinner Activity is the perfect way to bring your family and friends together over a meal most everyone loves!
What Is A Spaghetti And Meatball Dump Dinner?
Okay, stay with me here.
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A Spaghetti and Meatball Dump Dinner is when you cook your spaghetti sauce, meatballs, and pasta…
and then when it’s time to eat, you dump it all out in the middle of the kitchen table!
What happens next?
The whole family digs into the pile of food and starts eating!
Super simple.
A little messy.
A lot of fun!
Spaghetti and Meatballs Dump Dinner Activity – Are You Nuts?!
I know this sounds crazy, but it’s actually a blast.
Need convincing?
- It’s not actually all that messy! – I’ll give you some tips for containing the mess below, but really, there’s not much more clean-up than a typical dinner. Everyone will be washing their hands before and after anyways, right? That’s just regular mealtime manners. The table would need to be wiped down after dinner finished anyways, right? Sure, the dishcloth may need to be rinsed out a couple times, but clean-up is not much more than the typical mealtime routine.
- There will be fewer dishes! – You won’t have many dishes to wash if you don’t use any in the first place! Other than the pots you cook the spaghetti itself in (and any drink glasses, of course), no other dishes will be used – not even any serving spoons.
- It’s an easy meal to make! – Spaghetti noodles with pasta sauce and meatballs is one of the most budget-friendly and time-efficient meals you can make on those busy weeknights. Of course, you are more than welcome to make homemade meatballs and marinara sauce from scratch. You can even make the noodles from scratch if you like. Though around here, we like to keep things simple!
But if you’re looking for a fun and tasty meal that you can make with simple ingredients from the grocery store, and with minimal prep, this is it.
- It’s a hit with the kids! – Kids love making messes! It’s actually a really important part of their development. Since not every time and place is appropriate for mess-making, it’s important for parents to carve out moments when kids are given the green light to get as messy as they want. I’m not advocating for a pasta fight here, but eating spaghetti and meatballs straight off the table is a great sensory activity!
- It’s a fun way to make a family memory! – It’s important to nurture a sense of the family unit, and a great way to do that is to incorporate special things that are unique to your family. It’s something that gives children a sense of pride and a sense of place. This easy dump dinnertime activity is something that children can look back on and say, “My family used to dump spaghetti and meatballs out on the table and we’d eat it!”
What fun memory-making!
Tips For This Fun Dinner Activity
There’s not much more to spaghetti and meatball dump dinner than, well, dumping out the spaghetti and meatballs!
Though there are things that can make the activity easier for you, making it more likely for you to try it.
- Cover the table – Maybe you read what I wrote above about the clean-up not being all that bad. You might have even rolled your eyes. I get it. Try covering your table! You can use aluminum foil, parchment paper, those large school-size rolls of brown paper, or a plastic tablecloth. Tape down the edges under the table, and then clean-up is as easy as throwing the tablecloth away.
- Use less sauce – The messiest part of this whole activity is the sauce. So by adding less sauce to the table, you’ll significantly cut down on the mess! You might even try cutting out the tomato sauce altogether the first time you do it. Butter noodles sprinkled with parmesan cheese is a great way to get children (and spouses) used to this idea without dealing with the high level of mess.
- Use plates – Maybe it’s not the mess but the communal aspect of the dump dinner that gives you pause. Eating from a central area may not be how most of us eat, but it’s the norm for many cultures and time periods. If you’d prefer, dump the meal out on the table. Then use serving utensils so that every person can fill their own plate or bowl from the pile.
- Keep them separate – You can place the sauce and meatballs directly on top of the noodles. Or you can dump them off to the side, keeping both halves of the pasta meal separate. This lets each person decide just how much sauce they want on their pasta. It has the added bonus of making it easier to deal with leftovers! When the noodles and the meatballs are placed in their own airtight container, it’s easier to pull out just the leftover meatballs to make delicious meatballs subs the next day.
Spaghetti Options For Dump Dinner
Spaghetti and meatballs is a simple recipe that is a family favorite.
I know you don’t need me to tell you how to make it!
However, there’s more than one way to make spaghetti, and I love having options that make it seem like a completely new dish!
Here are some you can try.
- Use a slow cooker – For a meal that’s ready as soon as you get home from work, use an appliance. Dump a box of pasta, a jar of sauce, and a package of frozen meatballs into a slow cooker or Instant Pot. Before you know it, your spaghetti dinner will be ready and waiting for you to dump out on the table.
- Add seasonings – Even if you use premade ingredients, you’ll be amazed at what a difference a shake of seasonings can make. Use Italian seasoning, garlic powder, fresh basil, or red pepper flakes.
- Change the meat – Spaghetti is a great recipe, even without meatballs! Switch them out for ground beef crumbles or turkey meatballs.
- Switch the pasta – Maybe you can’t call it spaghetti and meatballs if you use penne pasta or elbow noodles instead, but I won’t tell.
- Add sides – The typical side dishes that we associate with pasta entrees, such as garlic bread and a side salad can be added to the mix. Perfect additions to this meal!
We hope you have so much fun with this family activity!
Be sure to report back and let us know what your crew thought of it!
Dessert Idea: Oreo Ice Cream Pie
This Oreo Ice Cream is so delicious and would be the perfect dessert to serve after a pasta dinner!
Do you have any other ideas for dump meals?
I’ve thought about this, too! I think my kids would love doing it with chicken and mac and cheese – hahaha – but we’ve not tried that yet! I need to keep thinking on this!