Trick your Kids into a Healthy Halloween Party

Hey my haunting honeys are you planning a Halloween party in lieu of trick-or-treating but don’t want everyone bouncing off the walls from the sugar high?  Well that my sweets is what this blog is about! 

Halloween is probably one of the most exciting days of the year for children.  (Christmas and birthdays more than likely tie for first! Presents you know!)  They know that Halloween is the one day that they can beg for candy from strangers and not get in trouble.  What kid doesn’t have visions of candy bars, Sweet Tarts, and Smarties, oh my!  I’m sure mine start drooling at the thought! 

Unfortunately, there are some people out there who have spoiled it for the kids and have made us parents feel that it just isn’t safe anymore.  Boooooo!  Some of my favorite memories from childhood are going trick-or treating.  Sans parents even!  That is totally unheard of now!  Ah the good ole days!

Anyway, I’m here to give you some ideas to health up the party!  First, we know if we don’t make it fun, we might as well stop now.  Wait, our nutritious, healthy snacks have to be fun too?  Yes! And it’s easier than you think you just need a little imagination.  The best part is the kids are going to want to help because these snacks just look so cute!  Nothing feels better than bonding with the offspring while creating nutritious snacks that they and their friends will love.

Let’s get started!  The first snack is this cute little pumpkins made from tangerines and celery.  Depending on how many you need to make, these could take as little as 10 minutes to make!  They are so easy to make too, just peel the tangerines, then wash and dry the celery stalks. Then cut 1-2 inch pieces from the tops of the celery, include the leaves, and place in the center of the tangerine.  Make sure to arrange them to really look like the tops of pumpkins!  Easy peasy!  Not to mention YUM!

Next we have Witches Brooms made with pretzels, mozzarella cheese sticks and chives. Just cut your cheese stick in half, stick the pretzel through the middle of the cheese stick and wrap a chive around to secure it.  Then cut the cheese to make the broom fray.

Moving on to the celery mummies!  These little guys are so yummy! Celery, your choice of flavored cream cheese and deli sliced meat.   Pipe the cream cheese into the celery coffin, then top with julienned sliced deli meat in a criss-cross pattern.  For the eyes, you can use dried cranberries or raisins.

Who can pass up carrot fingers in cheese dip?  Attach almond slivers to the top of the carrots with a dab of cream cheese for the nails.  Then stick the carrot fingers in your favorite veggie dip and voila!  Creepy hand coming out of your dip!

Next is a favorite in my house!  Bloody bandaids!

These little babies are made from graham crackers, cream cheese and a small drop of strawberry jelly.  They are a big fav with the kiddos because they taste good but look so gross.

Of course no party is complete without pizza, haunted pizza that is!  This kid favorite is made with homemade or prepackaged pizza dough, homemade or store bought pizza sauce and the ghosts are made out of sliced mozzarella that is cut into shape with ghost shaped cookie cutters.  The eyes are black olives.

Here’s one for the fruit lovers, a puking watermelon monster!  He’s made by cutting the mouth shape and hollowing out the inside.  Cut the watermelon in cubes and mix with strawberries, pineapple, blueberries, or whatever fresh fruit you like.  Then take 2 cucumber slices and 2 blueberries for the eyes, secure with toothpicks, and stuff some fruit into the mouth and let it flow out onto a serving tray.

 Strawberry ghosts are next on our list.  I like to call them Strawbooies!  These scarylicious sweeties are made with strawberries dipped in melted white chocolate and the eyes are mini chocolate chips.                                                                                          

Last but not least we have these delicious popsicles made with plain or vanilla yogurt, orange juice and pineapple juice.  They look like candy corn when you hold them and they taste amazing!

These are only some of the easy, healthy treats you can make for a nutritious Halloween party.  The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.  You know what your kids like in healthy foods, just think monsters, ghosts, Frankenstein, mummies, pumpkins etc. and go with it!  If it looks like Halloween and your kids will eat it, you accomplished your goal!  Ghooood luck my sweets!