Macaroni and Peas

Halloween is tomorrow. So if you don’t have your fill of Halloween treats just yet, try one of these recipes:

Caramel Apples

Image Credit: Nina Shannon

You’ll need roughly three ounces of caramels per apple. I prefer the individually wrapped caramels. They’re cheap and easy. Have the kids help unwrap them and put them in a microwave safe bowl.

Melt the caramels in the microwave on about half power. Remove the bowl from the microwave and stir it every minute or so.

Have the kids wash and dry each apple very well. Then push a popsicle stick into each one.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Put a pile of decorations/toppings on the cookie sheet for each apple. These can be anything you want - nuts, chocolates, sprinkles, etc.

Roll the dry apples in the melted caramels until well coated. Place coated apples on the cookie sheet and roll them around in the toppings of choice.

To make them a little more festive, melt some white choclates or almond bark. Stir in orange food coloring (or a combination of red and yellow - I can never find orange). Drizzle the mixture over the finished apples.

Eyeballs and Crackers

Buy a whiteish cheese ball and stick it in the freezer. When the cheeseball is nice and hard, cut it in half. Place the halves on a serving dish.

Drizzle with tomato sauce or ketchup in the shape of veins. Pour some into a plastic baggie and seal the top. Snip one corner off and squeeze gently.

Top the cheese ball halves with an olive slice or a raisin. Refrigerate your creations.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Grab your best Halloween cookie cutters and flour tortillas or pita bread. Try tomato tortillas - they’re orangeish red and very festive.

Cut out fun shapes with the cookie cutters. Lay your shapes on a cookie sheet coated with cooking spray. Spray the tops of the shapes too.

Bake for 5-8 minutes - keep an eye on them. You want them crispy but not burnt. Turn them over about half way through the baking time.

Spread the crackers around your eyeballs and serve to your ghoulish guests.

Duncan at Halloween 2007

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. Yeah, I dress up to take my son trick or treating. And yeah, we do a gazillion Halloween related activities. And of course, Halloween is full of tons of treats in our house.

Halloween has offered up one of my biggest challenges. I’m all about healthy food that kids still love to eat and Halloween is all about candy and other sweet treats. It’s not easy to transform candy corn into a healthy food without losing all of the kid appeal.

Here’s my theory on Halloween (and most other major holidays): It’s special, right? It only comes once a year. So a complete and total ban of treats is akin to cruel and unusual punishment.

Like everything else in life, it’s all about balance.

That being said, parts of the treat I’m about to suggest are healthy and others are decidedly not. It is intended to be prepared with the help of your kid(s).

Pumpkin Cupcakes

These are painfully easy to make and they’re always a hit.

Mix a can of plain, pureed pumpkin (not the pumpkin pie stuff) with a box of spice cake. The mixture will be super thick and gooey…that’s normal, don’t add any liquid. Scoop the mixture into a muffin tin lined with festive Halloween themed papers. The cups should be about ¾ full. If you’re not going to use papers, spray the muffin tin very, very well with cooking spray. These cupcakes are very sticky.

Depending on the age of your kids, they can help stir the mix and scoop it into the pan.

Bake your masterpieces at 350 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes. Since these cupcakes don’t really turn brown as they cook, check one of the center ones with a toothpick to see if it’s done. It should come out with crumbs or nothing at all.

Let the cupcakes cool for about 10 minutes. Remove them from the pan and let them cool completely on a cookie rack. While they’re cooling, you can mix up the frosting and get out your decorations.

You’ll need two tubs of white frosting, funky food coloring (purple, black, orange, and lime green are great), and other goodies like sprinkles and candies. Mix up a small batch of each color of frosting. Once the cupcakes are cool, get a base coat of frosting on them. Mix it up, you’ll want a few in each color.

Put each type of decoration in a small bowl or cup. I love using colored sugars, sprinkles, mini m&ms, and chocolate chips. Don’t be afraid to add bigger things like marshmallows, chocolate kisses, peanut butter cups, or licorice.

Now, step back and let the kids go to town. Oh sure, you can find all sorts of recipes for perfectly cute Halloween cupcakes, but most of them require you to follow directions and stuff. That’s not nearly as fun as going crazy with the toppings.

I’d love to see pictures of these creations (and any other Halloween treats you and your kids make).

I’ll post a new treat every few days between now and Halloween, so check back often. Better yet, you can subscribe via RSS or email to get updates automatically.

Halloween is far and away my favorite holiday of the year. I love dressing up, trick or treating, pumpkins, bonfires, corn mazes, and everything else about Halloween. Today, I’m sharing my favorite tips and tricks for getting the most out of the holiday.

Trick or Treating

• Go door to door with your kids. If they’re old enough to go alone, they’re probably too old to go door to door begging for candy.
• Only hit up the houses with their lights on. The unofficial “I’m out of candy” or “I hate Halloween” sign is a house with the porch light off.
• Try to avoid taking homemade treats from people you don’t know. I think homemade treats are great fun, but be sure you know who made them before you take them.
• If your neighborhood isn’t very big or Halloween friendly, look into other places to go trick or treating. Our local mall has a great Halloween event and many schools have carnivals or parties.

Creative Costuming

• Making a unique and fun Halloween costume is a huge deal for me. Last year, my son wanted to be a zombie punk rocker. We created an awesome costume that got tons of compliments. I’m not sure if we can top it this year.
• If you’re planning on trick or treating outside, take the weather into account. Dressing like a cheerleader or Captain Undrepants isnt’ a great idea if you live in a cooler climate.
• Make sure the costume itself shows on the outside of whatever layers you need to add to keep your kid warm. I grew up in Alaska and often had to hide my costume under a big winter coat and hat. Not fun.

Candy Collections

• Give your kid one trick or treat bag. Make sure they can carry even when it’s full. Do not bring extra bags. Once the bag is full, it’s time to go home.
• This is a great way to limit the total volume of the candy stash. It also takes into account a kid’s size…bigger kids will be able to carry bigger bags and will end up with more candy than small kids.
• When you get home, go through all the candy yourself. Chances are, there’s no need for an x-ray, but a once over is a good idea. Make sure all the candy is individually wrapped and still sealed.
• Remove any candy your kid shouldn’t eat. For example, little ones shouldn’t have hard candies that aren’t lollipops and kids with braces shouldn’t have sticky stuff.
• Beware of caffeinated candy. Snickers Charged has about 60mg of caffeine and Jelly Belly Extreme Sport Beans have about 80mg. Just for comparison…a Red Bull has about 80mg of caffeine.

Healthy Handouts

There are a few theories here. Don’t try all of them in the same year.

• Pick only candies you and/or your kids don’t like. This keeps you from nibbling while passing out candy to the local trick or treaters.
• Make something yummy. Popcorn balls, trail mix, and caramel apples are all great choices. Just make sure you know the kids and their parents before handing out homemade stuff.
• Give out something other than food. Just make sure it’s fun. No pencils or toothbrushes. Check out your local dollar store or one of the gazillion Halloween stores online for cheap goodies.

Fall means different things for different people. For me, fall is a wonderful time of year. Memories of school books, crisp weather, and good food.

Fall Foods

The weather starts to get crisp in the fall. That means warm, cozy foods. Although many of these foods are traditionally very time consuming to make, I’ve got tricks for all of them. More on that later. Here are some of my favorites:

• Chili with Cornbread
• Soups with Crusty Bread
• Winter Squash (spaghetti, acorn, pumpkin, etc.)
• Hot Apple Cider
• Roasted Root Veggies

Fall Fun

Fall is the season with my all time favorite holiday: Halloween. Oh yeah, there’s Thanksgiving too…but Halloween takes the cake for me. Fall also brings the harvest and tons of fun things to do. Here are some of my favorites:

• Pumpkin Painting/Carving
• Roasting Pumpkin Seeds
• Making Halloween Costumes
• Silly and Scary Halloween Decorations
• Hay Rack rides
• Fall Leaves of All Colors

Yesterday, we went to a local pumpkin patch with one of my son’s friends. It was a lovely day, warm with a light breeze and crystal clear. We cooked hot dogs and marshmallows over an open fire, petted goats and a camel, took tons of crazy pictures, went on a tractor ride, and went through the haunted house. It was a blast.

What do you love about fall?

Thanks to the good folks at Mom Central, I was given an opportunity to test out a new game from Hasbro. There’s a new line coming out from Hasbro that focuses on learning social skills in a fun way. The Noodleboro set has three games: Fun Park, Picnic Basket, and Pizza Palace. Each focuses on a different social skill: sharing, manners, and listening.

I was very excited when my game arrived. We got to test Pizza Palace. a listening game. Parents order a pizza by drawing several cards from a deck of pizza toppings and placing them face up. The parents read the cards to the kid and then flip them over. The kid then takes chips that correspond to the cards the parent drew and puts them on a pizza. Last, but definitely not least, the kid delivers the finished pizza to the parent who checks to make sure the pizza was made correctly.

Kids have to focus on listening to their parents in order to properly make the pizza. To make the game harder, the parents can choose more toppings, change the order of the toppings, or change their order altogether.

My son is six and we had a blast playing the game. He found it challenging to remember the toppings, the order of the toppings, and to do it quickly. He had a blast delivering pizza to me and his dad all afternoon.

The game also comes with a book and a CD. The book has a story about the pizza palace. The story is read on the CD and it contains several kids songs. Kids music isn’t really up our alley, so it’s not been our favorite CD. However, the book is a hit.

Of course, the toppings range from the traditional (tomatoes, mushrooms, pineapple) to the wacky (shoes, hats, soccer balls). We make pizzas at home quite often, so my son had a great time with this game. “You can’t really have a pizza with soccer balls, mom!”