Healthy Halloween Treats

Here are some Halloween snack ideas' that are not only healthy but festive for both children and adults!
Oct. 26, 2011 | By: The Health Local Staff

It seems that each year you try to find healthy treats and snacks for Halloween and all you can find are the typical sugary delights or pretzels if you want to find something “healthy.” That’s IT?!? No, as a matter of fact it’s not. With a little creativity, you can liven up any party - for kids or adults. Here are some ideas to get your imagination going.

Ghostly Pita and Hummus
Super easy. Cut Pita bread into ghost shapes, using scissors or metal cookie cutters and serve with hummus and baba ganoush, along with cut veggies and tzatziki. This creates a nice variety of flavors and a colorful display as well.

Feline Take on Crudités
Or, If you really want to get creative, you can gather your favorite raw vegetables, along with a container of black bean dip and make a creepy cat-shaped presentation. Using the bowl of black bean dip as the head, add cut radishes to make the eyes and other veggies to make the nose, mouth and ears. Then, assemble celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, sugar snap peas, baby carrots, sliced zucchini and mushrooms to complete your spooky feline skeleton!

Vampire Apples
Far more simple than you’d expect, but they look like much more work. Simply choose some of your favorite apples. Red look the best, but green can give a more festive look. Core and cut the apples into quarters. Remove a section at the center for the “mouth.” Add almond sliver “teeth” and you’re all set. If you aren’t serving them right away, you can baste them with orange juice to avoid browning.

Monster Sandwich Bites
Using your favorite sandwich fillings and whole grain breads, assemble sandwiches. Cut them with seasonal metal cookie cutters to make festive shapes. A quick and easy change to an every day snack.

Mummies
A little bit of a change up to your standard English muffin pizza, these pizza mummies add a little fun to any party, plus they’re portioned in guilt-free sized pieces. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Slather a bit of pizza sauce onto English muffin halves. Add halved black olives for eyes with green onion in the center for color if you’d like. Split string cheese into pieces and place on top of the sauce to look like “bandages.” Heat for ten minutes or until the cheese is melted and the muffins are toasted a bit.

Witches’ Brew
Mix two quarts of water and two cups of sugar with two packets of lime-flavored drink mix (Kool-Aid, etc.) Add one large can (46 oz.) of pineapple juice and a quart of ginger ale. To make this a bit more health-conscious, you can use diet soda, a sugar substitute and pineapple juice with no sugar added. This can be used for a kids’ party as is or your favorite clear alcohol can be added to make this an “adult beverage.” Just be sure that if you make two batches that they’re very clearly labeled. To make it perfect for Halloween, you can get a larger bowl to put outside your punch bowl and add dry ice for a smoky, spooky effect.