As we approach the spooky season, it’s the perfect time to start brainstorming those “spooktacular” snacks for your kids’ Halloween party or to delight the young trick-or-treaters who’ll come knocking. However, we all know that too much sugar can be quite the scare for our health. While indulging in sweets on Halloween is tradition, why not balance it with some healthier options? It’s all about embracing a partially healthy Halloween!
In my experience, the trick to getting my kids to devour healthier treats is to make it FUN! Halloween is all about fun, right? It’s astonishing how you can get your kids to enjoy foods they’d typically avoid with a bit of creative presentation.
Here’s a collection of ideas from our office survey on how to make healthy food “spooky” in the most delightful and delicious way. I hope you find these ideas as inspiring as I did. Roll up your sleeves and give these fantastic recipes a try!
Apple Teeth Bites
Macabrely healthy Halloween treats for the kiddos or party guests. All you need is an apple cut into the shape of an open mouth, stuffed with sunflower seed for teeth and a sliced strawberry “tongue” to convey the message.
Ingredients:
- 3 Apples
- 2 Strawberries
- 1 packet Sunflower seeds
- 6 tbsp Sunflower seed butter
Preparation:
- Cut the unpeeled apples into quarter pieces removing the core and then slice an opening into each quarter to resemble an open mouth.
- Push the sunflowers into the top and bottom of the open area to form a set of badly shaped teeth!
- Slice the strawberries and lay a thin slice in the center of the apple mouths, to create a spooky poking tongue.
Halloween Party Punch
Ingredients:
- 20 lychees, peeled and pitted
- 40 blueberries
- Red food coloring
- 12 cups cranberry juice
- 3 cups ginger ale
- 3 food-safe, powder-free nitrile or latex gloves
Preparation
- Fill each plastic glove with water until about 2 inches (5cm) from the opening of the glove. Twist the opening and tie it into a knot.
- Place in a tray, draping some gloves over others if you want some of the fingers to appear bent. Freeze for at least 4 hours, or overnight, until solid.
- Make the eyeballs: Place one blueberry inside a lychee.
- Use a toothpick to paint a bit of red food coloring on the outside of the lychees to mimic veins on an eyeball. Add the lychees to a large punch bowl.
- Pour in the cranberry juice and ginger ale on the bowl.
- Remove the gloves from the freezer and run under warm water for 15 seconds. Use scissors to cut off the knot and then slide the ice out of each glove and into the punch.
- To serve, ladle punch and a couple of eyeballs into glasses and enjoy!
Halloween Pizza Skulls
Hot Dog Mummies
Ingredients:
- Ready-to-use puff pasty. (Or feeling adventurous enough to make your own?)
- Sausages
- Candy corn eyes
- Ketchup
- Egg
Preparation:
- Cut the pastry into long thin strips and wrap around each of the sausages for a bandaged outfit.
- Wash the pastry with an egg glaze to prevent it pastry from unwrapping.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins until the pastry is golden brown.
- Let it cool, then attach the googley eye candy and squirt ketchup across for that extra bloody effect!
Mini Mummy Pizza
What kids don’t love pizzas? Halloween is a time to indulge their cravings in every way. Triangular slices are a classic, but you can make circles (for a pumpkin shape), squares, long thin pieces made to look like snakes, or just about any shape you can think of.
Ingredients:
- 12 Black olives
- 1/4 cup pizza sauce
- 4 oz (125 g) block Mozzarella cheese or cheese strips/strings
- 1 pkg seamless crescent dough, refrigerated
Preparation:
- Roll the pizza dough and mold it. Cut it into the shape of your choice. Do you have any cookie cutters? These can be used and tweaked into shapes of pumpkins or bats. Pre-cook the shapes and allow to cool.
- Cover each shape with the pizza sauce. For an extra healthy kick, make your own from fresh ripe tomatoes blended into a puree.
- Apply thin strips or strings of mozzarella cheese, to look like bandages or wrappings. Then use the black olives to create googly eyes.
- Warm in the oven just long enough for the cheese to start bubbling!
Oreo Cookie Spiders
Ingredients:
- Frosting, black
- 1 pack of black sandwich cookies
- 1 bag of pretzel sticks
- Candy corn
- Marshmallows
Preparation:
- Easy for the kids to do. Simply push the pretzel rods into the soft cream in the center of the cookie sandwich.
- Add small candy corn pieces for eyes and teeth.
Another easy version is to use licorice strands as legs, which makes your spiders easily sit on top of drinks or sandwiches!
Pumpkin Quesadillas
Ingredients:
- 2 thin quesadillas or pancakes
- Grated mixed cheese, or a sweet filling like chocolate spread or jam
Preparation:
- Another super easy ones the kids can help with. Cut out a Jack-o’-lantern face onto one of the quesadillas or pancakes. Kids could draw them on for mum or dad to make the cuts.
- Pile a bunch of mixed grated cheese onto the uncut quesadilla, and pop under the grill until the cheese is bubbling.
- Place the cut quesadilla on top and create your own pumpkin treats. The same can be used for pancakes with maybe a sweet filling inside that you don’t need to heat.
Pumpkin Punch Potion
Ingredients:
4 cups pumpkin spice punch (pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and vanilla extract mixed with milk or cream)
Whipped cream for topping
Cinnamon sticks
Carved mini pumpkins for serving
Instructions:
Hollow out mini pumpkins to serve as cups.
Pour in the pumpkin spice punch and top with whipped cream and sprinkles.
Garnish with a cinnamon stick and enjoy in a cozy, Halloween-themed setting!
Spiders on Eggs
Ingredients:
- 6 Hard boiled and shelled Eggs
- 12 black olives
An easy and quick snack to give to the tricksters before they go on their candy overload!
Preparation:
- Cut the boiled eggs in half and slightly mash the yoke to resemble foam or a cloudy web as the spider’s dwelling.
- Cut the black olives in half. Place one half on the top of the egg for the spider’s body.
- Cut pieces of the olive into thin slices to form creepy legs.
Strawberry Ghosts
This one has to be the most popular Halloween snack ever! There is a 48-hour period around Halloween where your child may live on mini Snickers bars, but this is an adorable way to get a piece of fruit into their bodies!
Ingredients:
- 24 strawberries, fresh
- 1 chocolate chips, mini
- 1 bar white chocolate or Vanilla Candiquik coating
Preparation:
- Melt the chocolate or mix the Candiquik until soft.
- Dip each of the strawberries into the mix, leaving the stems on for ease of handling to to form a scary style hat.
- While the mixture is still soft, pop on the chocolate chips to make scary eyes. Leave them a short while inside the fridge to harden the coating.
Witch Fingers
Witch fingers made from pretzel rods are one spectacularly spooky sweet-and-salty treat for Halloween! Best of all, they are super easy to make. It takes just four ingredients to make this ghoulish recipe. And it’s simple enough for kids to lend you a hand—or should I say, a finger?
Ingredients:
- 1 tube of gel food coloring, black
- 14 pretzel rods, large
- 28 almonds
- 12oz bright-green candy coating or white chocolate and green food coloring.
Preparation:
- Dip each of the pretzel rods into the candy coating. If you cannot find coating, a good alternative is to use white chocolate with a tinge of green food coloring.
- While the coating is still wet, press an almonds at the bottom of the pretzel rod to make the spooky fingernail. A regular brown almond could work, but for best result dye it black using the food coloring.
- Place in the fridge to cool and harden for some 30 minutes, and you’re done! This is a quick and easy alternative to the more popular version of pasty fingers.
And There’s More…
And there you have it, a fantastic lineup of Halloween treats to delight your little monsters! If you’re still hungry for more ideas, check out this super cool video for even more easy-to-make Halloween snacks. The possibilities are endless, so have a spooktacular time crafting these delicious treats for your Halloween celebration!
