Turning Tricks into Treats

Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat! The time of year every kid loves, but parents probably not so much. There’s certainly nothing wrong with having a sugary treat or two, but it can Halloween can get out of hand, especially when it involves pillowcases of candies and sweets and healthy eating goes out the window. There are however many ways to keep both food and healthy the focus. Below some festive treat ideas parents can try for costume parties, family suppers, trick or treating, and more.

Treat #1: Sweet tasting fruits like mandarin oranges and fruit cups. Small clementines, or fruit cups individually packaged in water or juice can make a fun tasty treats. Place spooky stickers on packaged fruit cups, or use a black marker to draw pumpkin faces on oranges. These treats are perfect if you prefer not to hand out treats or want to pack a festive nutritious snack for a brown bag. Other packaged ideas aside from the candies and chocolate can include: animal crackers, packaged pretzels, granola bars, mini raisin boxes, plain dark chocolate, sugarless gum, trail mix, small bags of roasted pumpkin seeds or prepackaged cheese and crackers.

 

 

Treat #2: It’s no trick that fresh veggies can be made fun too. Try using chopped pieces, like celery, peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, and baby tomatoes to arrange in the shape of a human or animal skeleton. Plate baby carrots to assemble a festive pumpkin. Add sliced cucumber halves for the mouth and dips for the pumpkin eyes. These treats are great for an afterschool snack or party at school.

 

 

Treat #3: Have fun with spooky shapes. Larger cookie cutters are great to make sandwiches fun. Small cookie cutters can be used to make cheese and fruit like melons into fun ghost, pumpkin and witch hat shapes. There’s also so much to do with the color orange, i.e. reference to pumpkins. For supper try carved pumpkin faced stuffed peppers, salad stuffed in pumpkin faced hallowed oranges, or even Halloween cookie cutter sweet potato fries.

Treat #4: The pumpkin! How many people crave the pumpkin and roast the seeds, but then that’s it? Instead of buying one pumpkin buy two. One for the craving, and the other for eating. The orange flesh that’s left inside after seeds have been scooped out is vitamin A rich. Fresh pumpkin is something we can usually only get this time of year. Canned pumpkin is quite expensive. Baked pumpkin can be a delicious addition to baked goods like cookies, cakes and muffins, and is excellent as a soup.

Treat #5: Cooking together as a family. Fun ideas like mini mummy pizzas, edible pretzel and cheese broomsticks, and spider crackers can help kids get excited about preparing healthy food and curate essential cooking skills that will last a lifetime. Another fun festive snack can be apple slices spread with nut butter or jam each on one side with between the slices, marshmallows for a mouth with teeth, or sliced almonds for a mouth with fangs. All cute ideas for kids Halloween parties.




For many of these fun healthy ideas I’ve referenced Pinterest (pinterest.com). If you’re not familiar this site it’s an online pinning board where you collect your thoughts and see those of others. There are so many unique Halloween food ideas posted there. Don’t let Halloween scare you as it doesn’t have to be all about the junky foods. Think about it in the opposite - a fun way to get kids to eat healthy while trying and gaining an appreciation for new recipes and foods.

As seen in The Telegram October 29, 2012