Halloween is a fun holiday known for dressing up in costumes and eating a lot of candy. With a few steps to help your kids eat in moderation, Halloween can be a great holiday without eating too much candy. The empty candy calories add up fast! Four bite size chocolate bars contain approximately 320 calories.
There are a few ways to help eliminate eating too much.
- Eat a healthy meal before trick or treating.
- Limit the homes your kids visit while trick or treating.
- Have your kids bring all the candy home for a safety inspection.
- Allow a few pieces to be consumed when arriving home after trick or treating.
- Have a plan to allow a few pieces per day after Halloween and stick to the plan.
- Consider “buying back” some of the candy and trading it for a game or item your child would like. Or, offer a fun trade like a visit to a playground or a 15 minute bedtime extension coupon in exchange for the candy
- Combine treats with a healthy snack.
Child obesity is increasing, doubling over the past 30 years. Help kids focus more on having fun and less on eating candy and unhealthy treats. Get them moving!
Ideas for non food treats to provide activity:
- Jump rope
- Hacky sack
- Frisbee
- Bouncy ball
Healthy Halloween treats :
- Apple teeth – cut an apple into 12-14 thin wedges. Use two of the apple wedges and spread peanut butter on one side of each of the wedges. Place raisins and/or mini marshmallows between the peanut butter sides of the two apple wedges.
- Boonanas – peel bananas and cut them in half. Stand the halves up by placing them on the flat end. Make ghost faces using chocolate chips.
- Clementine pumpkins – peel several clementines. Cut a piece of celery lengthwise and then into one or two inch logs. Put the celery pieces in the middle of each clementine.
- Jack-o-lantern peppers – cut the tops off of a few bell peppers, scoop the seeds out and carve fun Jack-o-lantern faces into them. Fill the peppers with broccoli, baby carrots, strips of bell pepper, celery, and cherry tomatoes.
- Candy corn skewers – use pineapple, cantaloupe and bananas. Cut the pineapple ring into thirds to serve as the yellow section. Next cut cantaloupe into small slices to be the orange section and slice bananas to be the white section. Carefully put the three slices on a wooden skewer.
- Pretzel brooms – Peel a mozzarella cheese stick and cut it into thirds. Cut the bottom of each cheese stick piece into strips diagonally to make it look like a broom. Take a pretzel stick and place it inside the top of the cheese.
- Vegetable monster – Grab a small bowl and fill with vegetable dip. Use lettuce leaves to form the monster’s hair on the top of the bowl of dip. Take two black olives and place them on top of the dip as eyes. Use celery stalks as the shoulders, baby carrots as the arms, and cauliflower florets as hands. Place several cucumber slices overlapping each other in a row to look like a spine and use bell pepper slices as the ribs. Use sliced mushrooms as the hips. Place celery stalks for the upper legs, cauliflower as the knees, bell peppers as the lower legs, grape tomatoes as the feet and broccoli florets as the toes.
- Fruit and pretzel spiders – use a plum as the base of the spider. Poke a few holes in the side of the plum with a toothpick. Poke a hole in grapes with a toothpick. Stick a pretzel stick into one of the holes in the plum. Slide the grapes over the pretzel stick until it is completely covered. At the end of the leg, poke another hole into the last grape. Place another pretzel stick inside the final grape. Begin the process of creating another leg. Repeat the process to make eight legs for your spider.
- Mashed potato ghosts – mound mashed potatoes and place 2 slices of olives for eyes at the top of the potato mound.
- French bread mummy pizzas – Cut french bread in half lengthwise. Spread pizza sauce on each half of french bread. Place 2 sliced olives for the eyes. Slice mozzarella into strips and place diagonally on pizza. Bake 425 degrees for approximately 8 minutes
https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/home-family/healthy-halloween-treats-for-the-whole- family/
https://extension.unh.edu/blog/2019/10/healthy-halloween-treats
https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/healthy-halloween-treats/
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