Spooktacular Halloween Snacks

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!

1. Witch Fingers

Transform ordinary pretzel rods into witch fingers for a spooktacular sweet-and-salty treat. The best part? They’re incredibly easy to make with just four ingredients, making them a perfect activity for little helping hands.

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:

1. Dip each pretzel rod into the candy coating (or white chocolate with green food coloring).
2. While the coating is still wet, attach an almond at the bottom of each pretzel rod to create the spooky fingernail. You can dye regular brown almonds black using food coloring for a more eerie effect.
3. Place them in the fridge for about 30 minutes to cool and harden. These witch fingers are a quick and easy alternative to the classic pastry version.

2. 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

1. Fill each plastic glove with water until it’s about 2 inches from the opening. Tie the opening into a knot.
2. Arrange the gloves in a tray, overlapping some to give the fingers a bent appearance. Freeze them for at least 4 hours or overnight until they’re solid.
3. Create “eyeballs” by placing a blueberry inside each lychee. Use a toothpick to add red food coloring on the lychee’s surface to mimic veins.
4. Place the lychee eyeballs into a large punch bowl.
5. Pour in the cranberry juice and ginger ale.
6. To serve, cut the knot off each glove, run them under warm water for 15 seconds, and slide the ice fingers into the punch. Ladle the punch into glasses, adding a few eyeballs for a spooky surprise.

3. Apple Teeth Bites

These apple teeth bites are a macabrely healthy delight for kids and party guests. They feature apples shaped like open mouths, complete with sunflower seed teeth and a sliced strawberry “tongue” for a playful twist.

Ingredients:

• 3 Apples
• 2 Strawberries
• 1 packet Sunflower seeds
• 6 tbsp Sunflower seed butter

Preparation:

1. Cut the unpeeled apples into quarters, removing the core, and slice an opening into each quarter to create an open mouth.
2. Insert sunflower seeds into the top and bottom of the open area to form the teeth.
3. Slice strawberries and place a thin slice in the center of each apple mouth to create a spooky tongue.

4. Spiders on Eggs

Looking for an easy and quick snack to satisfy those hungry trick-or-treaters before they embark on their candy-filled adventure? Look no further!

Ingredients:

• 6 Hard boiled and shelled Eggs
• 12 black olives

Preparation:

1. Begin by cutting the boiled eggs in half. Slightly mash the yolk to give it the appearance of foam or a cloudy spider’s web, which will be the spider’s dwelling.
2. Next, cut the black olives in half and place one half on top of each egg half to create the spider’s body.
3. Now, cut pieces of the olive into thin slices. These slices will serve as the creepy spider legs, which you can arrange around the spider’s body.

5. 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

1. Melt the chocolate or mix the Candiquik until soft.
2. Dip each of the strawberries into the mix, leaving the stems on for ease of handling to to form a scary style hat.
3. 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.

6. Mini Mummy Pizza

Absolutely, what kid can resist the allure of pizza? Halloween offers the perfect excuse to cater to their cravings in every way imaginable. While triangular pizza slices are a classic, you have the creative freedom to craft other fun shapes like circles (for pumpkin-inspired pizzas), squares, long, thin pieces resembling snakes, or any shape your imagination conjures up.

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:

1. Start by rolling out the pizza dough and molding it into your desired shape. You can use cookie cutters if you have them on hand, which can be adjusted to create shapes like pumpkins or bats. Pre-cook the dough shapes and allow them to cool.
2. Cover each pizza shape with pizza sauce. If you’re feeling adventurous and want a healthier twist, you can make your own sauce using fresh ripe tomatoes blended into a puree.
3. Apply thin strips or strings of Mozzarella cheese on top of the sauce to mimic bandages or wrappings.
4. Use black olives to create googly eyes.
5. Warm the pizzas in the oven just long enough for the cheese to start bubbling.

7. Oreo Cookie Spiders

Ingredients:

• Frosting, black
• 1 pack of black sandwich cookies
• 1 bag of pretzel sticks
• Candy corn
• Marshmallows
• Preparation:
• This one’s a breeze for the little ones. Simply take your black sandwich cookies and gently push pretzel rods into the soft cream center to create spider legs.
• To give your spiders eyes and teeth, add small candy corn pieces.

If you’re up for another easy variation, consider using licorice strands as legs. This way, your spiders can sit atop drinks or sandwiches, adding a touch of spookiness to your Halloween spread!

8. Hot Dog Mummies

Ingredients:

• Ready-to-use puff pasty. (Or feeling adventurous enough to make your own?)
• Sausages
• Candy corn eyes
• Ketchup
• Egg

Preparation:

1. Begin by cutting the pastry into long, thin strips. Wrap these strips around each of the sausages to create a bandaged mummy outfit.
2. Give your mummies a shiny finish by washing the pastry with an egg glaze. This will help prevent the pastry from unwrapping during baking.
3. Place your mummy-wrapped sausages in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry turns a delicious golden brown.
4. Once they’re out of the oven, allow them to cool slightly. Then, attach googly eye candy to give your mummies some character.
5. To add an extra creepy touch, squirt ketchup across them for that realistic, “bloody” effect!

9. Pumpkin Quesadillas

Ingredients:

• 2 thin quesadillas or pancakes
• Grated mixed cheese, or a sweet filling like chocolate spread or jam

Preparation:

1. Cut out a Jack-o’-lantern face on one of the quesadillas or pancakes. You can have the kids draw the face on, and then you can carefully cut it out.
2. Take the uncut quesadilla and pile a generous amount of mixed grated cheese on it.
3. Place it under the grill until the cheese is bubbling and starts to brown.
4. Then, take the quesadilla with the Jack-o’-lantern face and place it on top of the cheesy one.
5. You’ve just created your very own pumpkin quesadilla treats! These are perfect for adding a festive touch to your Halloween meal.

As a bonus, you can also try the same concept with pancakes, filling them with something sweet like chocolate spread or jam that doesn’t require heating.

10. 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!