Halloween Bloody Baked Rats

Try freezing your cheese cubes a little before stuffing the rats. It cuts down on leakage.

Five stars for presentation! I used my own meatloaf recipe and halved the "blood" sauce. Also used cooked asparagus for tails, almond slivers for ears, and tiny bits of raisin for the eyes. Hubby suggested adding a cooked spaghetti noodle to the cheese inside to look like guts. ;D Great Halloween dinner!

My rats actually came out cute instead of scary, lol! I used raw carrots for the ears, red bell peppers for the eyes and I felt like it needed a nose so I stuck in a piece of cheese. I tossed spaghetti in some sauce and served my rats over it. I did have slight leakage of the cheese like other reviewers but this was definitely yummy! Also I didn't put too much sauce on my rats before baking and heated up leftover sauce and put it over before serving. I saved one strand of cooked spaghetti per rat and draped it over the finished rats as the tail. Thanks for the great idea and recipe.

I made these for my annual Halloween-themed dinner last night. These were so much fun and awesomely disgusting! Just after I'd pulled these out of the oven, my husband came over to tell me something and stopped short when he saw these. His laughing/surprised/disgusted expression was hilarious :) We both really enjoyed these, they tasted great and the presentation was so creepy! I used linguine for tails instead of spaghetti and I thought they worked much better than spaghetti would have. They looked more like real tails for the size of the body and they cooked all the way through. We did think the rats were a little over done after 45 min covered and 20 min uncovered, and my rats were pretty big. I would probably cut down a little on cooking time next time, but otherwise great recipe!! Thanks, Angela!

Good Recipe! The only changes I made were: I used 1 cheese slice per rat, I folded the slice until it wouldn't fold anymore. For the whiskers I used French Fried Onions and for the ears I used the corners of Doritos. Tip: Make sure the seam is sealed at the bottom and not at the top. I did half and half thinking I would save time and wound up with split top rats. Very fun to make and the gross factor sets it off!

These were a hit on Halloween! Everyone loved the look and the flavor. Yummmy! I used a noodle and cheese in each rat like suggested in another comment. And also froze the cheese cubes 15 minutes before using them. I also noticed that the onion, though adding flavor, breaks the meat apart. Perhaps chopping the onion very fine in a food processor would help. This would cut down on the cheese ooze during cooking. This is our new Halloween meat dish from here on out. Thank u so much for sharing :)

This was so much fun to make and serve! I used limp asparagus spears for the tails and almond slivers for the ears. The cheese did bubble through as it baked, however it simply added to the gore of the dish. Great Halloween fun! Thank you for this recipe Angela!

These were made as appetizers so were 1/4 cup size, then renamed "Baked Mice". Skewers were used for tails to facilitate "finger food". The cheese did melt out so was a waste (maybe 'cause they were smaller?) and used dried raisins for ears, didn't bother with the eyes. Great hit, much fun at the Halloween party.

I just used jar spaghetti sauce and used a piece of string cheese for the "guts". Used pieces of black olives for eyes because that's what I had on-hand. Was a fun Halloween meal, served on top of Tape Worms (linguine) with Dusty Bones (breadsticks w/ parmessan) and Graveyard Grass (salads). Very funny idea. Thanks! :)

My 7 year old was a little grossed out by these but my 3 year old son and my husband loved them. The sauce was a litle sweet for me though. I think next time I won't add as much sugar.

This is a five star presentation and it is REALLY good. It turns out that my family just prefers a chunkier more vegetable prominent meatloaf...I don't know if it will look the same, but I will try adding carrots and more onions next time. That said, this immediately hit my recipe box after I made it. UPDATE: For health reasons this year we had to switch to a different recipe. I was really worried because we used the turkey veggie meatloaf cup recipe on this site which is PACKED with zucchini so I was positive that it would not look the same--but it turned out great! I used a premade marinara sauce with worcestershire sauce to cut down on the sugar. It baked on really well and you couldn't even see the zucchini. I put this update so that others will see that this recipe can be played with and not lose its intergrity. I left my stars the same from last year when I followed the recipe.

My kids loved it! The only thing I changed was that I added pureed spinach to the meat mixture in order to sneak vegetables into my kids (the red sauce hid it well). It made way more sauce than I needed, but that was fine.

I'm rating the idea, not the recipe. These turned out so cute! Something I would have never thought of doing. This will definately be a Halloween tradition.

Made these for an adult party and they were a hit! Easy to make but great presentation. We used capers for the eyes, almond slices for ears, asparagus stalk for tail and stuffed some corn & peas in the cheese so guts oozed out when cut. We used a different sauce (chunky tomato, olive, basil) and served it with maggots (orzo pasta), bread sticks shaped like bones, string cheese fingers, and bloody eye deviled eggs. Great idea - will do it again. It was funny to see my friends trying to outdo each other on how to make this dinner grosser.

I love this recipe. I made this for a Halloween potluck and everyone thought it was the best! One of my co-workers actually asked me for the recipe. One suggestion I have is to make sure the cheese square you use is small. Otherwise the cheese melts out during cooking.

Love the rat idea...the kids said..."cool, dead rat for dinner!" It was such a hit...they wanted me to take photos. Thanks for the great idea. My tweaks included no processed seasoning mix..used my own seasonings, and no cheese! The kids look forward to making this again!

I didn't actually use the recipe, just the overall idea and cooking directions. My rats turned out great! They were so gross sitting on a pile of spaghetti. I put spaghetti sauce on them for the bloody effect. This was a fun, easy recipe. Kids would really love them!

This was great! I did not put faces or tails on the rats, but still got the idea, my kids loved it. I dont normally like meatloaf, but the sauce made this super yummy!

This is such a cute idea! I tried it for last Halloween, for a potluck at my work, where we had a contest for the best Halloween foods. I won with this recipe! I didn't use the peas for the eyes, and I used sliced almonds for the ears, which I added after the baking was finished. The uncooked spaghetti tails worked really well; they cooked enough to be limp, but didn't burn. And the recipe itself was delicious-- all the mice were completely gone before the potluck was over. Thank you for a wonderful recipe-- I'm using it again next year, for a party at my home.

I had a hard time getting the ears on right, but that's just me. Taste wise it was fine, but my family is more accustomed to my meatloaf, which never has tomato, and I don't used packaged seasonings. I think I'll make this again next year, but I might do it spaghetti and meatballs style (spaghetti can either be worms or the "rats nest" cuz my creativeness-less self could not think of something to fit it to serve w/ so I tossed it ontop of some shoestring hashbrowns and said they were in a rats nest lol

Halloween roadkill at its finest! Great recipe. Eat it on a stick!

soooo good and creepy. we don't have any kids in the house so it was fun to celebrate Halloween with food. i made cauliflower on the side for bloody brains and used the extra sauce from the baking dish. i also used g.turkey instead of beef. only thing we will do next time is smaller portions. wayyyy tooo much food. but it was delicious :o]

5 stars for the presentation alone! Fantastic idea!!

These were easy to make and the kids loved them! We don't like tomato sauce, so I skipped that.

This was definitely easy and creepy!!! We didn't make any changes to the recipe and it turned out great! The sauce is pretty sweet, but still tastes good! Happy Halloween!

It was fun to make, but I ruined it by cooking it on a weird platform with tin foil. I'll try it again with the proper cooking utensils.

Alot of fun and yumm too

I loved this idea. My mom always made a red gravy with her meatloaf, which works really well with this recipe. Use the drippings add a few table spoons of ketchup, flour and milk to desired consisitantcy, then salt and pepper to taste. I spooned out a little gravy under each "rat" for a bloody presentation.

Very cute idea, I ended up with some problems, though; the spaghetti tails burned (maybe not enough sauce to keep them moist? I used a diffent sauce). My "guts" oozed out while baking on most of the rats, and I couldn't get the pea eyes on. I suggest pre-planning and creating little pockets for later eye placement and making sure the meat is wrapped tightly around the cheese. I gave this four stars because of the presentation; great holiday idea, although honestly I used my own meatloaf recipe and sauce, so my rating isn't based on flavor. This made about 9 palm sized rats for us.

I made these for Halloween and my family loved them. Not only did they look fun, but they tasted great.

Absolutely fabulous! My kids loved them. First they named them and introduced them to each other. Then they gobbled them down. My husband didn't name his, but enjoyed the meal just as much. I made the recipe exactly as written, except I didn't have cubed cheese on hand. So I made little balls of shredded cheddar cheese to put inside. I will definately make this one again.

this was awesome.. really cute and tasty. my boys loved it. ;)

I hosted a dinner for friends the night before Halloween and made these and they were a huge hit! I followed the recipe exactly and they were very tasty and super easy. I posted pics of them on facebook and have had people emailing me left and right wanting the recipe. Great idea, thanks so much for sharing!!!

My kids adored these! They were just perfect for an October dinner. We used raisens for eyes because we didn't have peas. Will be made again and again!

Gosh these were a hit! I kind of used my own meatloaf, not even sure whatall I put in there, but I used almond slivers for the ears, and I cooked these the day before, so today for our party, I cooked some noodles and drained and added black food coloring and used these for tails. Just laid the rats on top of a tail. I didnt even do eyes, just ran out of time, but they were still cute.

Fun recipe and in the end you know its going to taste good :). Used my own meatloaf recipe but My cheese didn't melt as some said and oozing out on the plate as the guests were cutting into them got some laughs. I used red food dye to color some cauliflower for a "brain side" and rice for a nice serving of "maggots"

The rats were gory but great. A big hit with the kids. I did substitute baked pumpkin seeds for the carrots when making the ears. It is helpful to make an indention in the "rat" where you want to place the eyeballs before baking. A few "eyes" slid off but that just added to the gory look of the rats. This recipe was simple and fun to make.

Very cute! Were perfect for our halloween party. The cheesy centers were a nice extra touch. Tasted good with extra sauce.

What a FUN and delicious meal!!! My tail did not burn, I just made sure it was covered with the sauce while baking! I will be making these every year at Halloween time, for sure!

Good and fun!

This is very good and has become a new family tradition in our house!

Made these Halloween night for guests. I want you all to know that I followed the recipe as it was written and it was wonderful! It made 10 rats. I was afraid that the tails would burn but they did great. I was also concerned that the sauce would be way too sweet. And it is sweet I mean there is a whole cup of sugar in it. BUT, it was wonderful! A couple of the rats had the cheese come out while cooking but it did not effect the flavor. I will be using this recipe again because it made a very moist meatloaf. Would make great meatballs for spaghetti! Oh, I did attach the eyes and the ears before baking. The ears did fine but the eyes were not as vibrent a green as they would have been had I added them after they came out the oven. I served them with ghost mashed potoatoes and ectoplasm balls (green pea's) on the side. It was a big it and they were fun to make.

Used my usual meatloaf recipe, lightly cooked asparagus for the tails, and jarred spaghetti sauce on top. Served on top "rat's nest" spaghetti noodles for a Halloween dinner party. Everyone LOVED it! Thanks for the great idea!

I made this for april fools day, they looked awesome but tasted a little bland, next time i will add some extra spices for more zip!

My daughter LOVED telling Grandma that we'd be having "Bloody Rats" for dinner! I didn't do the cheese thing. I added the worcestershire sauce and some soy sauce and garlic powder to the meat. I shaped 7 rats, put them on a drip pan (not sure if that's what it's called) so that the fat would drip away from the meat. I baked it like this for 25 minutes. Then I put them in a baking dish with a large can of pasta sauce poured over and around the rats and baked them for 10 minutes, turned off the heat while I finished the rest of my dinner. It was perfect!!! And Grandma said, "I love these rats! We should have them more often!". My daughter got a kick out of this! I paired this all with witches fingers (biscuits shaped into fingers with almond slivers as nails), boiled brains (a whole cauliflower, cut in half and boiled for 10 minutes and drizzled with watered down ketchup when served), eyeballs (deviled eggs with an olive for the iris), worms (spaghetti pre-chopped into small pieces) and "Kitty Litter Cake" from this site. Dinner was horrific! lol

So realistic that my mother wouldn't eat them!

Loved making these. They were so much fun and instead of carrot ears I cut a pepperoni slice in half, bend them in half a little, and put them in the meatloaf. everybody loved them

I'm giving it 5 stars for the great and fun idea, but changed it so much, it doesn't really resemble the original recipe. Here's what I did: We don't eat beef so I used a salmon loaf recipe, which made the rat (one giant one) a weird "hairless" looking pink color. Then, since we love our pet rats and would never want to see them bloody, I set him on a bed of sauteed broccoli slaw (garlic and olive oil) so it would look like "Ratty" was sitting in the grass. I served green dill sauce on the side. I have to say, he was still pretty creepy. I left out the cheese because I didn't think it would work with the salmon. Since we really do like gruesome things on Halloween, the following year, I used the same salmon loaf recipe but shaped it in the form of a human head. I did use (homemade) tomato sauce, and used half of a steamed cauliflower for a semi-exposed brain. I made 2 pop-eyes out of radishes with a green olive slices for pupils. I then served it with a knife jutting out of it on a platter of shredded, roasted black kale . My zombie niece and nephew walked into the kitchen, to have a trick-or-treating dinner break, and one of them shreiked (I think it was my 9-year-old nephew) and they both fell on the floor laughing. That reaction made the whole load of work that went into it well worth it! I'm thinking this year maybe a mummy....

Meatloaf was fanstatic...I wasn't to crazy about the sauce being sweet. I know next time, I'll add a pasta sauce in the place of it. But if anyone decides to make the sauce, cut the sugar in half. I used a Splenda alternative in place of regular sugar by equal parts. It's a great great idea for some spooky fun for your kids at halloween time. I'll totally make this again next year for sure....just change up tomato sauce mixture.

A huge hit at our halloween party. Lots of assembly work, but the presentation is great.

These were a lot of fun, and teasted good too!!

I don't normally like meatloaf, but oddly these little meatloaf mice were great! Wonderful for our Halloween dinner after the children got in from trick-or-treating. This continued the fun and thrill of Halloween!

Like many others, I used my own recipe for the meatballs, but I must promote this idea with 5 stars because it is just too fun! Great creativity and my family and I loved it on Halloween night!!!

These rats were super fun to make and made the BF say "Eww those are ugly", so I guess it worked! I made my own meatloaf recipe but did wrap around a piece of monterey jack. I also made my own sauce and served with fettucine. Great fun dinner.

Fun and easy to make. Increase the prep time though. It took awhile to "decorate" them.

This recipe is so cool. To me it was meatloaf turned fun! I get a weird look for them but everybody likes them after all,as I knew they would.

Great recipe!! I made mine into 2 large rats .. used black olives for eyes , celery for whiskers .. cut out black paper ears .. and long green onions for the two tales i needed.. was a hit at my office for halloween pot-luck ...

Tasty and fun. Love the idea of cheese in the middle. My 5 year old, however, would NOT eat it. Freaked him out.

Alot of fun, although I froze the cheese cubes, they still seeped out. Tasty and fun!

A great concept for a Halloween party! They looked great, though the sauce was boring and too sweet and there was way too much onion. Next time, I'd use a Ketchup/BBQ Sauce and 1/2 the onions or go all italian with meatballs and pizza sauce.

Excellent Halloween idea. Thanks.

I made the rat body the same. Used pasta and sauce as the base, a red licorice string as the tail and whiskers, raisins as the ears and craisins as the eyes. Delicious and so much fun!!

I fixed these for company for dinner Sunday night and thought I'd do Halloween because they won't be here on the day. The "rats" were very good. Although, either the cook time or the temperature, at least for this altitude, was bit off. Also, I think there was a bit too much sugar, maybe 3/4 instead of full cup, and I think next time I'll use brown sugar rather than white.

Thanks, for weeks could not decide what to make for my gathering. These were a hit! Made two batches but only 1 1/2 batches of sauces with the sugar of one. Plenty for seconds and in soe ases as requested thirds.

These were actually really good along with being cute. We didn't have the cheese but they were still pretty awesome.

fun to make, got lots of EEWWWWW comments!

5 star rating = meatballs only, I didn't make the sauce. These meatballs were so simple and delicious. Everyone, adults and kids, loved them and ate them. I made each "rat" the size and shape of a large egg, and I got about 24 of them from 2 pounds of meat.

I'm rating a 5 for the idea only I am going to be using my own family meatloaf and special sauce for it.

This recipe is AWESOME! The rats taste so good. I got raving reviews. They were the talk of my party.

Made this last Halloween, BIG hit! Pretty much followed the recipe except, used my own homemade sauce, wrapped a cooked spaghetti noodle around the cube of cheese that I put in the middle so it would be ooze and guts! Used peas for eyes and pepper piece cut into a nose . Served over mashed potatoes, super cute and fun.

Wonderful recipe. I just follow directions from regular meatloft preparation and then I divided the portions onto little rats. I used black olives halves for eyes, carrots for ears and spaguetti for tail and mustache. I served over white rice and lettuce and tomatoes on the side. Super fun to Halloween dinner!!!

It was really good! The sauce is a little too sweet for me but my family loved it! At first my boys didn't want to eat them but after a little convincing that they were in fact not rats, they ate them.

This was very easy and fun to make! My kids loved it! I made orange mashed potatoes and black gravy and the kids were very unsure of what it was.

Easy to make and my kids loved them!

I made this tonight for my daughter and husband... my daughter got such a kick out of it! It was great but i wish I would have made a meat sauce to go along with it bc Im not a fan of just sauce and noodles with meatballs.

Good, but very sweet!

So cute/funny. Came out great!

Made these using canned meatloaf sauce to save time, and they came out fine. I also put them on sticks, so I think the bigger the rat the more juicy they were. Making them too small made them prone to dryness.

This sauce was awesome! Second time I have done Bloody Rats. Always a hit.

The only thing i'd change is the amount of sugar.. the sauce was pretty sweet. Went great with a side of mashed potatoes.

Made this recipe for a last-minute Halloween dinner. I just shaped my own meatloaf recipe into large rats. Covered generously with sauce and saved a little for after they baked. I applied all decorations after baking. I used black olives halved for ear,the star end of a black olive as a nose, slices of green olives for eyes, orzo as whiskers, and the rib of a kale leaf as a tail. My husband had no idea what we were having for dinner. When I put them on the table, he said "GROSS!" Guess that means they looked good! Served with twice-baked potatoes that I had piped into the shape of ghosts.

I made this for Halloween, but with a couple of changes. I didn't include the cheese, b/c knew my family wouldn't care for cheese inside meatloaf. I would recommend if you want to get the cute rat shape, be sure to form the loaves into distinct ovals; the meat will shrink a bit as it cooks. You may end up with more of a blob or a circle shape, so try to elongate them. I didn't do this enough and my rats were kind of rounder than I wanted. Three cans of tomato sauce seemed like a lot; I used 2 and it was plenty. I also only used 2 T of sugar, and it was still pretty sweet. I added garlic powder, onion flakes, oregano and a few dashes of hot sauce to my tomato sauce and that gave it a better flavor. Served this over mashed potatoes and it was a fun dish for the family dinner.

it is great for Halloween and i cant wait to make this for my friend

I made these on Halloween and they were a big hit with my family. The only thing I did different was put shredded cheese over them and then I put the sauce over all. They really turned out cute and were fun to make. Thanks for the suggestion.

Have a blast making these for my granddaughters. Halloween in January was a nice change.

HAHAHA Mice are welcome in my house. Thanks so much for a fun recipe.

They were much better than I thought they'd be! You can cut the cheese down to 1/5. Although what little cheese I did put in melted out, I think it's just more of a need to pack the meat tighter.

I didn't have any meatloaf mix so I used fajita mix, they tasted great! They were definitely done at the end of 65 minutes. I put the eyes and ears on before I cooked them and they got a little mushy but when I tried to replace them after the rats were cooked I couldn't penetrate the meat.

I made this as an appetizer instead of an entree and it came out great! I did leave out the cheese in the middle because I made them two-bite size, and I used black olives cut in half for the ears. By adding the uncooked spaghetti noodle tails after cooking, it made a great no mess skewer for my guests to pick up the mice and dip them into the extra sauce for more flavor. It was a huge hit!

on nov. 11 2018 I made this awesome recipe it was soo much fun making and baking I will certainly make this again I made it for some of my family and they thought it was awesome as well and it was easy to make too

They are definitely creeping looking . Although I am not a big fan of meatloaf these were pretty good. I used capers for the eyes and bacon piece for nose and added the cooked spaghetti tail after baking.

My review is positive. I didn't make these and I know I won't... BUT.. I had to make this review based on your great creativity, because I think your Rats are a VERY COOL idea for the Halloween enthusiast. Great!

Make with homemade meatloaf seasoning. Make sure the onions are cut very small. But the sugar in half. Fantastic!

Loved it myself!! Really spooky and cool and the meatloaf was super! Halved the recipe because only a few people at my home, would probably reduce the cooking time to 30 minutes in that case.. seemed a tad overcooked but still good. I think I will try ketchup diluted with either tomato sauce or water for the sauce .. sugar was a bit Much . Now.. for psychological eaters forget it.. the rats look so real.. 2 people in my family wouldn’t eat it.. too “creepy and bloody”!! there are only 3 of us.. more for me!!!

Used Quaker Oatmeal Meatloaf recipe and tomato sauce and let up for blood! GrandKids love it with bloody brains!