Board Game Night Menus Slideshow

The dessert train should stop at your house on game night if you're playing Candy Land. Decorate a table with all of the sweets fit for a queen an ice cream sundae bar and perhaps a color-coded candy buffet filled with lollipops, licorice, gumdrops, mints, brittle, and toffee. For an added activity, dare we suggest making gingerbread houses? There's no such thing as too much sugar on a Candy Land night.

There are two ways to create a menu based off the classic mystery game. First, you could serve filled foods — ravioli, pierogies, empanadas, etc. — and have guests guess the flavor. Or, you could create a menu based off the characters, serving dishes that are a riff on their names:

Colonel Mustard: Pastrami on rye with grainy mustard

Miss Scarlett: A red wine tasting bar

Professor Plum: Plum-filled sandwich cookies

Mrs. White: Mashed potatoes, rice, dumplings, etc.

Mr. Green: Risotto verde, linguini with pesto, arugula salad, green beans

Mrs. Peacock: Blueberry pie

This is an easy one — a cheeseboard. Make the main characters' cheese-loving rodents dreams come true and have a cheese sampling board. Create pairings with wine, nuts, and charcuterie. If the kids are playing, create a grilled cheese bar!

When it comes to Scrabble, it's all about words. Create a table of alphabet-inspired snacks to get the brain flowing. There are quite a few letter-infused snacks: alphabet soup or pasta, Alpha-Bits cereal, ABC tater tots, Scrabble-edition Cheez-Its, and alphabet pretzels. Pair the tots with various sauces and the Cheez-Its with dips to make them even more delicious.

Celebrate life's greatest moments with a bite at each stop along the road when playing The Game of Life. You graduated college? Great! Have a beer. Land your first big job? A celebratory dinner is in order — we're thinking steak, lobster, the big league stuff. You had a baby? Pink- and blue-themed foods like cotton candy or blueberry pie for dessert. When you've crossed the finish line, toast yourself with a chilled glass of champagne. Isn't life grand?

Pick a letter, any letter and eat a snack shaped like that letter. For instance, for the letter "O," serve bagels, Cheerios, and donuts. For the letter "V," serve pizza, and so on and so forth. If you want to make things a little easier, get letter cookie cutters and cut sandwiches in the shapes of each letter, or make letter-shaped pancakes or cakes for something sweet.

Welcome to the boardwalk, ladies and gents. On this menu were serving up classic summer-at-the-beach fare: corn dogs, soft pretzels, fresh-squeezed lemonade, popcorn, and cotton candy, all of the classic bites you can find in Atlantic City, where the game was born. If you're not into that idea, create a lowbrow-to-highbrow menu, to match up with the four sides of the board, from the bad neighborhood to the fancier side of town. Start with cheap eats like pizza and chicken fingers and work your way around until you're having steak, lobster, and champagne. Don't worry, you can space out the courses — there's plenty of time since its the longest game to play... ever.

This may sound confusing, but create a bar of the ingredients to make classic dishes like tacos, ice cream sundaes, and burgers, but leave the main ingredients out so guests can guess based on the other items what they're going to be eating. It's a play on the game, get it?

Rather than what to serve, we were thinking about what not to serve. Imagine this: finishing a nice piece of garlic bread or a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup and then bending over backwards in another players face gross. Avoid flavors like garlic, curry, onions, and spicy Mexican when preparing for Twister time. To avoid overeating altogether, serve smart foods like salads, sandwiches, and breads just to play it safe.

Serve stackable foods, it's only fitting. We're thinking sandwiches, grilled cheese, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, french fries, etc. In addition to the Jenga game, hold a stackable tournament to see how many steak fries you can stack before they all come tumbling down.