Healthy Halloween Snacks
With only a few days until Halloween many parents are worried about a day that is now all about sweets. As we all know the number of obese children is on the rise and the impacts can be detrimental.
A key element of your child’s diet should be fruits and vegetables. Just like adults children should be having at least five portions of fruit and veg a day. This can be a little hard on Halloween when most children only want to enjoy candy.
So, with this in mind we have selected 5 healthy ghouls and goblins snacks that will give your family a healthy Halloween! It may even leave you and your child screaming for more.
Veggie Skeleton
This snack is great fun for the whole family and sure to get your child excited about eating their veg.
What you will need:
- Homemade guacamole
- Celery sticks
- Carrot sticks
- Sliced Mushrooms
- Sliced Cucumbers
- Pea pods
- A few lettuce leaves
- Red bell pepper
- Olives
What to do:
Put the veggie dip into a small bowl and place at the top of a long platter/ chopping board. Now the fun bit time to build the skeleton, this is a great time to get your child involved. When kids are involved in the cooking process they’re more likely to give foods a try when it comes to eating them.
Empty the homemade guacamole into a ramekin dish, this will be used to make the skull. Use a celery stick for the neck, carrot sticks for the arms, mushrooms for the hands, cucumbers for the spine, red pepper slices for the ribs, mushrooms for the hips, celery for the legs, pea pods for the feet. You can give your skeleton some hair by using the lettuce, the olives can be used for eyes and create a mouth with a sliver of red pepper.
Orange pumpkins
A simple but effective snack is to turn your orange into a pumpkin
What you will need:
- An orange/ Clementine/ Satsuma
- Small piece of celery
What to do:
Simply peel your orange and split it slightly near the top so that you can insert a small piece of celery to make a ‘stalk’. They make edible decorations for the Halloween table!
Mummy toast
Turn a slice of bread into a spooky mummy your kids will devour!
What will you need:
- Sliced whole-grain bread
- A cup of marinara sauce
- Part-skim mozzarella cheese sliced into strips
- Veg/ olives/ ham to decorate the slice
What to do:
Start by toasting the bread. Then spread two tablespoons of the marinara sauce on to the slice of toast.
Now for the fun messy part- arrange the strips of cheese to look like bandages by alternating the direction and leaving spaces between each piece. The next step is to get your children to add their own style. For example the olives make great eyes and you can make ‘fangs’ out of ham.
Lastly grill the slice until the cheese has melted.
Scareberries
Turn strawberries into friendly ghosts for the whole family to enjoy!
What will you need:
- 400g large strawberries (washed)
- 500g low fat Greek yogurt
- handful of raisins (cut in half)
What to do:
This one is messy but great fun! Dip each strawberry into the yogurt to cover completely, holding on to the green leaf at the top. Set carefully on to a lined baking tray, then freeze for 15 minutes. At this point add the raisins on for eyes and mouth and then place back in the freezer until solid.
Pumpkin Dippers
A dip with the perfect Halloween twist, a pumpkin-patch- themed dish the whole family will love.
What you will need:
- Carrots
- Toothpicks
- Curly- leaf parsley
- Spring onion
- Low fat Hummus
What to do:
Cut carrots into coin shapes and spear in the centre with a toothpick. Add a parsley leaf to the top the carrot, and then cut a small piece of spring onion and thread it onto the toothpick, as the pumpkin stem.
Empty the hummus on to a platter/ tray and arrange the ‘pumpkins’ on top.
Have fun and don’t forget to post your ‘spooky’ efforts on to our Facebook page.