Halloween Food

Halloween Food is often not healthy food with lots of halloween treats, and halloween candy available during this time.  Treats are often made to look like pumpkins, ghosts, or skeletons, the scarier the better!  If you are a kid, Halloween is a much beloved Holiday, because you can often eat more goodies than normal!

Below, you can find some tips and tricks, and ideas on making this unhealthy holiday, a little healthier, and some ideas on what to do with any excess candy.

Above, is a Pumpkin Cheesecake Bar, made by Kerry of Healthy Diet Habits. She has made it festive for Halloween, by serving it with a few Candy Corn on the side.  You can find the recipe at the link, on her Healthy Diet Habits website. (link will open a new browser page)

Healthy Diet Habits for Halloween

This is a funny section to write, because I am not sure that there is a healthy way to enjoy Halloween, when candy and treats abound. As parents, we try to encourage healthy eating, and keep sweets limited. It's difficult to let kids trick or treat, and then ask them to dispense with part of their candy; that just does not seem fair. Yet we send such mixed messages. I would encourage:

• Letting your kids indulge in a few treats right after trick or treating, and then limit your kids to a certain amount of pieces per day. Keep their stash out of site, and in your control.

• Serve their candy treats with something healthy like a glass of milk, or a healthy snack first, and then have kids brush their teeth.

• Encourage them to only keep their favorites.

• Pull the chewy candy with all the food colors, and throw it away.

• Set the limits beforehand to stop complaining. Spin it positively.

• Buy your household candy at the last minute to avoid overindulging before Halloween.  You know you eat it!!! This is huge! 

• Consider handing out non sweet treats that are healthier, so you do not end up with lots of extra candy leftover.

• Do not buy your favorite candy bars to hand out.  Consider buying your least favorite candy to avoid temptation.

• Stay away from day after candy sales, when candy is very cheap. Slowly back away and run!!

• Do not send your extra leftover candy to your grown up kids.  My Mom has actually spent the money to send her candy to me, because she could not bring herself to throw it away! 

• Throw your excess candy away! I know it is extremely wasteful, but it is hard to encourage donating it to anyone. 

• You may however want to send your excess candy to the Military troops overseas. Box up your extra treats and donate them yourself to be sent overseas to the troops! This will mean a lot, a touch of love from home! Get your kids involved and have them each write a note to a troop, with their Halloween fun story!

• Consider buying back your kids candy, if they are motivated by money.

• Find a dental buy-back program in your area. Many dentists will purchase candy by the pound. Many are donating the goodies to overseas troops, which I love, military brat that I am!

• Because there will be candy and holiday treats in the house, be really diligent and healthy with your meals around this time.  If you plan ahead, there will be room for a few indulges without breaking the calorie bank!

• Freeze the extra small chocolate candies to use for Christmas treats and baking! You will need to hide them well in your freezer for husband and kid scavengers! Get creative!

• Be sure to check out our tips on making a Holiday Produce Tray. This is a great option for Halloween to fill up on fruits and veggies and limit room for sweets and treats!  Your produce trays can be designed either in the shape of a Pumpkin, or you can just have a higher concentration of orange colored fruits and veggies on your produce tray.  Or you can try putting some fruit skewers directly into a decorated Pumpkin, like what we found on Pinterest below. This is a great HEALTHY option for a school party treat.

Below is another fun fruit idea to try - Carve a watermelon like it was a pumpkin, cut the top off and scoop out the melon inside and use for melon balls along with other melons such as cantaloupe for the orange color.

These are just a few ideas that you can try.  It is a tough call though, and often parents just give in and let their kids indulge to their hearts content. They realize that Halloween is NOT a healthy diet holiday.  It's an isolated sweet fest, and they don't make a big deal of it. I am not so sure that is wrong.  We can each decide what works best for our families based on our individual circumstances.

Pinterest

Please Follow our Holidays and Observances Halloween Food - Holiday Board on Pinterest - below you will see our 30 most recent pins to this photo board!

Click on the SEE ON PINTEREST bar right above, (link will take you to our Pinterest Boards) to see all the rest of our photo's on this board, and to Follow the board. New photos will be constantly added!

Share YOUR Halloween Recipes

If you have any great Halloween Recipes, please submit them on our new Holiday Recipes page, and we will include them also on this page, and on any other relevant page! Thanks!!

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