So Healthy! It's Scary!

It’s that time of the year again;  time to dress up in scary or cute  costumes and take our little ‘monsters’ out Trick-or-Treating. We all love Halloween. What’s not to love about dressing up? We can look as ridiculous as we want, in a socially acceptable manner (even though we would totally do it every day if we could), and watch our kids run around as princesses, zombies, and Power Rangers. We also love telling ourselves that this year we are NOT going to eat all of the candy that the little ones assiduously amass and voraciously devour. Three hours of ringing doorbells and 5 pillow cases full of candy later, the little ones are finally ready to call it a night. But you are not ready to call it quits just yet; you want to keep going just a liiiiiitle bit longer. After once again proving that a witch must have cursed you with the inability to resist candy on Halloween, and snacking on about two weeks’ worth of the sugary devils-in-disguise, you want to keep going around the neighborhood about 3 or 4……hundred more times to burn off some of those overly-indulgent calories!

            Every kid knows that Halloween is basically their “get out of jail free card” in terms of candy. It is the one day of the year that they are allowed to eat however much candy they want, whenever they want to. What if I told you that with a little creativity and effort we could ‘trick’ (no pun intended) our kids into eating delicious, HEALTHY, treats (okay that one was on purpose) on Halloween? We found some awesome recipes that neither you nor your kids will be able to resist! We’ll walk you through a full day of happy, healthy, Halloween munching!

BREAKFAST

Fruit and toast (with some orange juice) is a very healthy and balanced breakfast. Good luck getting your kids to eat that on Halloween morning instead of candy corn and pumpkin pie! If only it were this easy every day… 

Ghost Toast: All you need for this one is some wheat bread, non-fat cream cheese, and currants.

 Directions:

1. For each, toast a slice of wheat bread and then cut a ghost shape from it. You can do this freehand using a knife, or you can use a cookie cutter.

2. When the cutouts have cooled, spread on a coating of non-fat whipped cream cheese.

3. For eyes and mouths, add currants.

Snack O’ Lantern: Our personal favorite. Besides having a clever name, this is truly a Halloween treat that satisfies both the pallet and the waistline.

Directions:

1.To make one lantern, use a small knife to slice the top off a navel orange and cut around its interior to hollow it out. Scoop out the orange segments, chop them, and mix them with fresh fruit salad.

2.Carve small facial features in one side of the orange, then cut a slit in the lid to accommodate the handle of a green plastic spoon. Fill the lantern with fruit salad. Insert the spoon and set the lid in place.

LUNCH

Because it is unfair, and quite frankly, unrealistic to completely cut candy out of the day--allow the munchkins to snack on a little junk food between healthy meals! We’ll prepare a light lunch (to prepare for the sugar rush and inevitable crash later).

Cheese Finger-Food: Now, this is one of the coolest looking snacks that the kids will surely love to eat! All you need for this is some Mozzarella string cheese, green bell pepper, and light cream cheese (or anything that can be used as an adhesive).

 Directions:

1.Use a paring knife (parents only) to cut each string in half and then carve a shallow area for a fingernail just below the rounded end of each half.

2. Mark the joint right below the nail as well as the knuckle joint by carving out tiny horizontal wedges of cheese, as pictured.

3.For the fingernails, slice a green bell pepper into half-inch wide strips. Set the strips skin side down on your work surface and trim the pulp so that it's about half as thick. Then cut the strips into ragged-topped nail shapes and stick them in place at the ends of the fingers with dabs of cream cheese.

Apple Bites: Ok, you gotta check these out. If you like Dracula, vampires, or anything that is too cool for words, take a look at the recipe below. These treats are not only extremely fun to look at (and play with), but they are delicious and even more nutritious! What’s even better is how simple these are to make—all you need is an apple and some slivered almonds.

Directions: Quarter and core an apple, cut a wedge from the skin side of each quarter, then press slivered almonds in place for teeth. Check out how cool they look!

DINNER

Dinner will be a HUGE hit for everyone. Pizza and dip? Yes please.

Pizza Mummies: If the name hasn’t already won you over, the recipe will. For this you’re going to need English muffins, pizza sauce, black olives, scallions, red/green pepper, and cheese sticks or slices (or shredded cheese).

 Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 350º F. For each mummy, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce onto half of an English muffin (toast it first, if you like).

2. Set olive slices in place for eyes and add round slices of green onion or bits of red or green pepper for pupils.

3. Lay strips of cheese (we used a pulled-apart cheese stick) across the muffin for the mummy?s wrappings.

4. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the muffin is toasty.

Carrot-Finger Dip: This is another really cool one, and PERFECT for Halloween! It looks so good you won’t even want to eat it (so you don’t ruin the decoration!) For this little number, you need veggie dip, 4 long carrots, 1 medium carrot, softened low-fat cream cheese, sliced almonds, and baby carrots.

 Directions:

1.To prepare them, just fill a serving bowl with your favorite vegetable dip. Wash and peel 4 long carrots for fingers and 1 medium carrot for a thumb.

2.With a paring knife (a parent's job), cut a flat, shallow notch in the tip of each carrot. Then use a dab of dip or softened cream cheese to glue a sliced-almond fingernail atop each notch.

3.Stick the fingers in the dip, as shown, and serve with plenty of peeled baby carrots for dipping.

DESSERT

What we’ve been waiting for all day (while watching everyone else eat junk-food). This is a great combination of chocolate, fruit, and fun!

Banana Ghosts: These frozen spooksters are too delicious to be scary. This one requires a little time—good thing it’s for dessert you have all day to prepare!

 Directions:

1.Remove any stringy fibers from the peeled banana, then cut it in half widthwise. Push a Popsicle stick into each half through the cut end, then cover each pop with plastic wrap and freeze until firm (about 3 hours).

2.Next, place a 1.5-ounce piece of white chocolate candy in a microwave-safe bowl and cook on high until melted (it generally takes about 1 minute). 

With a butter knife, spread the melted white chocolate on the frozen banana halves.

I know, I know, now you wish everyday was Halloween so you could get your kids to eat healthy (and so you can secretly play with their food, even though you’ve told them over and over not to!) Phix wishes you a happy, HEALTHY, Halloween!

Your friends at Phix