Healthy Treats for Halloween School Parties

Let's face it, our kids will be all sugared up come October 31. So, how can we get them to eat just a little more healthy on this sugar-filled day?

One way to ensure that your child's Halloween school or class party will be more healthy is to contact parents. If your child's class has class moms, you can get in touch with them to talk about incorporating more healthy snacks for the Halloween party. If there is no class mom, another way to go could be to send out emails to parents, or give them a call and discuss it. Perhaps you can even set up a little meeting.

Here are some healthy snacks and treats that your child's class can enjoy for their Halloween school party.

Veggies are usually not on the top of your kid's list. Instead of broccoli and carrots, you can serve them scary monster shapes. Cut out veggies into shapes, and have the kids built their own monster. You can use black olives for eyes, a sliced mushroom for the nose and pepper slices for the mouth. You can make the teeth from corn kernels. They can dip their monster parts into scary sour cream dip, or gross guacamole!

However, if your kids are like most, they won't even want to touch the veggies, as cool as they may seem. If so, here are more ideas to have a great Halloween party for your child's class.

Halloween Pretzel Rods:
Mix dark and milk chocolate chips together and melt. (The dark is more healthy, and will be masked by the milk chocolate taste) Melt either in the microwave in 15-30 second increments, or use a double boiler. When chocolate is melted dip the 1/3-1/2 of the pretzel rod into the chocolate and place on a cookie sheet or plate lined with parchment or waxed paper. You can now sprinkle with Halloween or fall colored sprinkles. Put in the refrigerator to set.
To me, this is more healthy then, say, a regular piece of candy because there isn't that much chocolate on the pretzel, as compared to a piece of Halloween candy. This way, they will get full quicker and eat less.

Scarewitches:
Make your kid's favorite sandwich. Turkey with American cheese always seems to go over well with kids. Try to add some lettuce and tomato. (If a child doesn't like the veggies, they can always just take it out) Use Halloween cookie cutters to cut the "scarewitches" into scary and cool shapes. You can also try peanut butter and jelly, but just make sure there are no kids with peanut allergies in the class.

Involve your child.
This is a great way to start your child on the road to a healthy life. Talking to them about healthier choices will be a great way to spend time with them, and to get them thinking healthy. With these ideas, you can get the ball rolling and come up with more. This way you will have healthy treats for Halloween School parties year after year!

Tips:
- Just giving healthier things "cool" names will get some kids to eat things.
- When making cookies or any baked treats, use Splenda instead of sugar. Also, use egg whites instead of whole eggs when possible.