I waited until the last minute, i've been surfing the net all weekend looking for ideas. I've looked on allrecipies, marthastewart, taste of home etc etc.
I thought i would toss this out here. I volunteered to bring the main snack for the preschool halloween party. THe school has a no cookie/junk food rule, which is normally good but very frustrating at the moment. I'm looking for cute festive, but not goulish or sugary snack ideas. I've gotten the impression that they want me to bake something or make it by hand, not just buy halloween pretzels. I know last year they made little spiders from ritz crackers with peanut butter and licorice. So something on that order.
If i have to i'll just bring sliced apples and dip, but if anyone has any cute ideas i would soooo welcome them. Happy Halloween!
what cute ideas! thanks everyone.
I've decided to go with apples and a carmel/creamcheese dip that is supposesd to taste like carmel apples and i think i'll buy festive cupcake liners to hold individual servings of dip. I'm also going to try to make baked cinnamon tortilla chips cut out to look like pumpkins and bats.
I'm not real clear on how strick they are about the sugary dip or the cinnamon and sugar on the chips, but If all else fails there will be Apples and Water eh?
Hi there!
I am making "smiley apples" for my sons party....you slice apples into wedges, spread each side w/ peanutbutter, add a few mini marshmallows for teeth, then top w/ another apple slice- to make it look like a mouth. Hope this helps & Have a fun partying!!! :)
Kristi S. If you have time make a bunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and use holloween shaped cookie cutters. the kids will love them and pb&j is a decent snack. You could also get clear gloves fill with popcorn and tie off with black and orange ribbon and put a spider ring on the ring finger of the glove and give to the kids. Popcorn is not a bad snack but you have to watch that the little ones dont choke. Good luck J.
How about breadstick snakes? You can use refrigerated breadstick dough and make little eyes out of black olives and a little red tongue out of red pepper. I've seen these in a magazine and they looked so cute and easy, definitely pre-school level scary!
NEWTON® Monster Pops
Prep time: 20 min
Ingredients:
Wooden pop sticks
FIG NEWTONS Fruit Chewy Cookies
Decorating gels and frostings
JET-PUFFED Miniature Marshmallows
LIFE SAVERS GUMMIES
Colored sprinkles and assorted Halloween candies
Preparation:
Insert 1 pop stick into each cookie.
Decorate cookie with gels, frostings, marshmallows, candies and sprinkles to create monster faces.
Let stand to set. If desired, stand pops in a floral foam block inserted into a Halloween container to use as a centerpiece.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spooky Gloved Munch Mix
Prep time: 10 min
Ingredients:
6 cups POST ALPHA-BITS Wholesome Sweetened Oat & Corn Cereal
4 cups popped popcorn
2 cups JET-PUFFED Miniature Marshmallows
1 cup dried mixed fruit
1 cup candy-coated milk chocolate candies
100 candy corn pieces (about 1 cup)
10 clear large plastic food handlers' gloves
10 pieces raffia, each about 8 inches long
Preparation:
Toss cereal, popcorn, marshmallows, dried fruit and chocolate candies in a large bowl or witch's toy cauldron.
Place 1-1/4 cups of the snack mix in each of 10 small plastic bags. Give one to each child along with 10 pieces of candy corn, a plastic glove and piece of raffia.
Have each child place 2 pieces of candy corn, with the white tips down, in each thumb and finger section of the plastic glove to resemble fingernails. Then, fill gloves with the snack mix and tie closed with the raffia.
Family Fun ususally has some cute snack ideas - not always healthy though. Here is a link to their recipe page. http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/ Be sure to check with the daycare staff regarding any food allergies.
If all else fails what about filling Halloween cups or treat bags with a homemade snack mix made of cereals (cheerios, chex), little pretzels (or pretzel stick broken in half), goldfish crackers, etc.
Hi Kristi!
Look at these ADORABLE cheese pumpkins!
http://www.bettycrocker.com/Recipes/Recipe.aspx?recipeId=...
Let us know what you decide!
~C.
www.daisybows.com
http://thepurplepear.etsy.com
I am aslo having a no junk food halloween party. How about sliced apples with straw jam(call then vampire claws). I saw this on a web site. My main snack is a fruit/cheese/meat plate
I send in banana nut muffins, a strawberry or orange smiley plate.
Hi Kristi,
Schwans.com had a couple halloween recipes. My 2 favorite were the hot dog mummies and meatball spiders. I don't know if either of them would work, but here are the recipes. Good luck!
Hot Dog Mummies
Ingredients
1 8 oz. can refrigerated crescent rolls
2 slices American Processed Cheese
1 pkg. Skinless Franks
Ketchup or mustard
Steps
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Unroll crescent roll dough and press to seal the perforations. Cut vertically into 20 strips. Cut slices of cheese into 5 strips.
2. Wrap each hot dog with 2 pieces of dough and 1 strip of cheese. Leave about ½-inch from one end for the face and stretch dough to wrap as bandages on the mummy?s head.
3. Place on ungreased baking sheet and bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until golden brown.
4. Draw features on face with ketchup or mustard.
Meatball Spiders
Preparation Time: 20 Mins
Total Time: 30 Mins
Number of Servings: 4
Make some frightful fun!
Ingredients
12 Italian Style Meatballs
8 slices American Processed Cheese
12 round tortilla cihps
1 cup chow mein noodles
2 Tbsp. milk
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
Steps
1. Prepare 12 meatballs according to package directions.
2. In a microwaveable bowl, add 8 slices of cheese and 2 tbsp. of milk and microwave for 1-1/12 minutes. Stir to mix well.
3. Dip warm meatballs in melted chese, roll over shredded cheese and place on tortilla chips.
4. Stick 6 chow mein noodles on both sides as legs, and decorate with chopped black olives as eyes.
what about something like apple or pumpkin muffins? they are actually healthy if you substitute the wet ingredients with applesauce or pumpkin pack. then you can put something "halloweeny" on the top for a decoration. For the pumpkin muffins, I just take a box of white or yellow cake mix and 1 can of pumpkin, mix it together and put it in muffin tins. that's it and they are very healthy!
This maybe too ghoulish but... Someone brought in for our Halloween party last year carrots with almond slivers somehow glued to the tips (maybe with some cream cheese?). The almond sliver was the “nail” for the “finger” carrot. They looked cute.
Yikes! I would be in your condition. It is very hard to find "healthy" halloween party food. I may sound mean but sometimes you have to omit the healthy rule :( The popcorn glove with candycorn fingernails is not too unhealthy. You just get clean clear gloves and put a candycorn in each nail...then fill with popcorn and tie up. A fun touch is a spooky ring over each tie.
Try veggie booty, it's a natural corn puff cover with powdered kale and broccoli. It's green so that might help with the festive season. Other than than try taking 2 green apple slices with peanut butter between then and "glue" on 2 green grapes, with peanut butter for eyes, then add 2 chocolate chips for pupils and there is your apple frog or monster.
I hope this helps.
Krisit, for our party of no junk food I am doing orange finger jello, I found really cute Halloween cookie cutters at Target that I am going to use with the jello. Good luck!
One easy, healthy snack idea is fruit skewers or just fruit that you can "cut out" halloween type things and put them on a tray decorated for halloween. I would not recommend using any type of peanut products since so many kids have an allergy to nuts. Good luck!
I make Chocolate Pretzel rods for my kids to share. They do have a bit of chocolate but not as much as a candy bar. I dip about half of a pretzel rod in melted chocolate ( the wafers work best) and then put a pinch of sprinkles on them. I buy halloween sprinkles at Wegmans in the bulk candy section. It's cheaper than the craft stores. Just line them up on wax paper until they dry.
have you tried Familyfun.com yet? They usually have good fun snacks that are not too hard to make. There is alot of other stuff on the web site too.
M.
Hi Kristi,
All I can say is enjoy your preschool's relaxed "no junk food policy" now--My son is in Kindergarten this year and guess what the school-mandated "snack" for their party is? Apples and water. Yay.
P.S. I see you have a few responses that involve peanut butter or nuts. Personally I would avoid those because of the allergy issue.
Rice krispie treats are easy and you could make them into pumpkins/ghosts with cookie cutters. If you want to get creative, you could use orange/black icing to decorate them. Good luck!
Ask your Preschool teacher when you drop/pick up your child. They have magazine and all sorts of resources that they would love to share. They are parents also. They have been in our shoes before. Maybe even try a neighbor that teaches elementary school.
I know there are things out there I just do not have them at my finger tips to help right this minute. Sorry!!!!
Good Luck!!!!
K. B
You have a lot of great ideas! I am a teacher and we do have a healthy rule in our school- a healthy option must be offered in addition to the sweet stuff. Not to sound too simple, but the students go for any kind of fruit that has sprinkles thrown over it! I was shocked when a mother brought the tray in and the kids chose it over the cookies! These other ideas are great too though- I am thinking of trying some! Thanks everyone!
pe.
For our playgroup Halloween party I am bring pumpkin bread. There is a delicious and easy recipe to follow on www.epicurious.com. I suggest looking at the reviews because there are many suggestions on how to cut down the sugar. You could send in cream cheese and raisins and have the kid decorate there own slice. good luck.
Try www.kraftfoods.com and www.familyfun.com. They always have lots of ideas.
Dear Kristi,
I have not made these yet myself, as my party was cancelled. I am happy to pass on a few recipes I got from Holistic health counselor Ilona Hatch of Hatch Wellness, ###-###-####
J.,
Here are a couple of ideas for delicious, healthy and easy snacks to make for your party….the brownies are a hit for
sure, and some of my colleagues LOVE the haystacks!
1.Coconut-carob/chocolate haystacks (raw recipe) from RAWvolution.
1/2 cup carob or cocoa powder
3 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup agave nectar
In a medium bowl combine the carob or cocoa powder and shredded coconut and mix well. Add the coconut oil and agave nectar and mix well. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop into 16 mounds. Freeze for at least 30 min. before serving. They can be stored in the freezer.
2. BROWNIES by Christi Collins
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. carob semisweet chips*
2 c. garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
4 eggs
1 c. sugar*
1/2 tsp baking powder
Instructions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl melt carob chips in microwave for 2mins.
In blender or food processor, combine beans and eggs.
Add sugar, baking powder, and chocolate, process until smooth.
Pour batter into a 9" or 8X8" non stick pan.
Bake for 45 minutes.
*You can use regular chips instead of carob chips.
*I make these bars with 3/4 cup brown rice syrup instead of sugar. Brown rice syrup is a gentler sweetener that you can find at a health food store or the "healthy" section of your local grocery store. It has a 'butterscotch' kind of taste.
Best of Luck and Thumbs UP for keeping it healthy.
J. M.
