Healthier Happier Halloween...

We know very well our kids are going to get their sugary fix on Halloween, so why not challenge them with a fun prelude by creating together spooky-themed healthy snacks, treats and food. I filled our family table with a chock-full of fresh produce and healthier ingredients to see what kind of master pieces they'll come up with. It's a fun-time of year and a wonderful time to be creative and cook together!

Also, in the spirit of Jamie Oliver’s Healthier Happier You campaign, we at Food Revolution want to know your ideas of a healthier Halloween. What healthy homemade treats do you make for the kids? What alternatives do you have for trick or treaters? Drop me a note! 

The night before, the kids and I went through the web looking for awesome creative junk-free Halloween-themed snacks and they all shouted for homemade pizzas for dinner-- landing on a few ideas that made up for the grocery list, everything was ready for them after school, to roll up their sleeves, wash their hands and getting cooking!

First up were clementine pumpkins-- so easy and cute with celery pieces or green beans for stems!

Next up, black olive spiders on hard boiled egg halves. I've seen people hollow out the yolks, mix them up with mayonnaise and spoon/pipe it back into the whites. To make it easy, we left them as is and topped with pitted black olives cut into half lengthwise for the body and into smaller wedges for legs. Six legs, eight legs doesn't matter, as long as the kids are having fun.... my older six-year old boys have been learning knife skills, and paring knives work perfectly. If you have more than one using a knife, just sit them further apart. 

I really like these creepy apple bites-- fill them with a spoon of PB or strawberry jam, poke in some toasted almond slivers spaced apart on the top and bottom, and you got a healthy mouth treat full of with rotten teeth.

We made this spooky pear chef on a whim! Cauliflower floret makes a great tall chef's hat!

And here is our first finished healthy platter of snacks...

My family loves guacamole, so I knew I wanted to get this in somehow. And I think it turned out disgustingly well vomiting out of a wonky warty pumpkin-looking squash (red kabocha) don't you? This is a great simple recipe the kids can help with from slicing into the avocadoes to mashing and seasoning.

Guacamole served with blue tortilla corn chips.

Next up is an incredible savoury tangy sweet dressing I tasted while serving lunch at a school for children's catering company Real Food For Real Kids. It was tossed in a simple grated carrot salad and I knew I had to get the recipe. Because it is brownish in colour, I thought how about using this as a mud/swamp water dip with a veggie monster claw coming out.

Using a bit of jam, I adhered pumpkin seeds/pepitas as fingernails to the end of four long thin carrots and one short one (thumb) shaped at the tips for fingers.

And last but not least, even though we were quite happy eating all the great snacks, we still made room for the finale-- pizzas. Extra dough was shaped into bones and brushed with garlic and oregano-spiked olive oil.

So who says Halloween can't be healthy and creepy? Here are some more food ideas from Halloween last year. Have a spookilicious Halloween y'all!!