Here’s What to Eat While Watching Stranger Things

You guys! Season Two of Stranger Things is almost here (it’s coming out this Friday, October 27, to be exact). There’s a good chance gobbling up the entire season in one epic binge-watching session is your plan this weekend, and we support you. But listen: You’ll need sustenance to tackle your Creature fears (even if everyone on the show is so darn busy discovering a secret dimension and rescuing their loved ones from a mysterious nightmare creature that there’s barely a bite taken). You, on the other, are human. And you’re going to get hungry.

Comfort food and serious ’80s snacks are a given, but what exactly should you stock up on? That all depends. Are you an Eleven or a Barb? A suburban teen sweetheart who needs fuel to fight off ghouls? A harried police chief cracking the case of a lifetime?

It’s time for a choose-your-own-menu-adventure. Pick your favorite Stranger Things character and we’ll tell you what to snack on.

Eleven will put her life on the line to get her hands on a stash of Eggo waffles. When Mike tells her that there could be real food in her future, she doesn’t look all that interested in dishes that aren’t composed of defrosted bright yellow circles.

Meet in the middle ground between full-on family meals and solo Eggo binges with waffle egg sandwiches with spicy maple butter. Bonus: They’re handheld, so they’re even easier to eat in the woods or a basement tent.

That scene where Dustin and Lucas peer into the cold school fridge light and uncover a pudding wonderland? Priceless. Think like a 12-year-old boy with a new pudding cup stash and whip up some chocolate pudding cake with Coke frosting.

Since even ’80s kids can’t live off of sweets alone, pair this monster dessert with a big bowl of homemade pepperoni chips.

Start with an Irish coffee, the perfect drink to calm your nerves and keep you awake as messages from another dimension come through your walls. Once (spoiler alert!) the family is reunited, sans terrifying creature, it’s time for some hearty festive fare.

A loaded baked potato casserole sounds like the kind of quick, fun recipe that Joyce might throw together for family dinner. Chase it with a few easy-peasy funfetti mug cakes, which scream “Will is home!” and “It’s the ’80s; microwaves are still exciting!”

Long days of harrowing multi-dimensional police work call for a few bloody beers. Maybe add some homemade hamburger helper to the menu to balance out your beverages. Beer can’t always be the main course.

Easy rainbow icebox cake is easy to make and photographs like a dream. It’s also a little eccentric and deeply lovable, just like Jonathan. Your favorite moppy-haired photographer would probably be so busy snapping shots of this beauty that he’d forget to chow down on anything else.

Tough but sweet, spicy, gooey, almond popcorn with chocolate will fuel you up for any late-night monster fights or clandestine pool parties. Like Nancy, this snack balances sweetness and spice, and it isn’t afraid to get a little messy.

Mike and Eleven are loyal friends who are perfectly matched, just like peanut butter and jelly. And Chex Mix — well, is there a better culinary example of a group of friends that work way better together? Dustin, Will, Lucas, and Mike are like that classic snack mix.

Put them together and you’ve got a dreamy, double-whammy kids’ food: peanut butter and jelly Chex Mix. It’s the perfect snack for long Dungeons and Dragons games, and long Upside Down-channeling sessions.

Make an Orange Julius. It’s so ’80s, it’s so high school, it’s so mall — but you still have a soft spot for it. What could be more Steve? Sure, he seems pretty basic at first, then even downright awful, but he comes through in the end. I see mall dates in he and Nancy’s future, maybe with a round of these to chaperone.

French bread pesto chicken pizza has serious ’80s looks, while being seriously lovable. Is there a better description for Barb? She is the pesto French bread pizza of friends: warm, comforting, and totally there for you, even if you abandon her for a boy moments before she’s captured by an alternate dimension monster. But really, who hasn’t been there?

Karen is always dishing out family dinners, breakfasts, and holiday spreads. She would definitely make a mean stovetop macaroni and cheese, with an easy eggless Caesar salad on the side to balance the noodles. For dessert, a pile of peppermint cream squares (they’re festive and feminine, but have some bite to them). Karen may look sweet, but don’t mess with her: She’ll protect her kids, no matter what ominous scientists show up looking for them.

It looks like classic kid fare — what’s more normal than a grilled cheese sandwich? But stashed right under the surface is fermentation, heat, and a pop of blazing-red color. What’s right under the surface for Will, who we last spotted with a secret of his own? Could a secret splash of kimchi cure his case of otherworldly worms?

Black forest cupcakes are the cake incarnation of the creature: dark, sticky, and dangerous. It would just eat these, and as many as it could get its hands on (it’s not exactly the “balanced diet” type).