Open Talk Mom

Five Yummy Halloween Treats

Posted on13. Oct, 2009 by Mary Lutz.

Halloween is just around the corner. Whether you’re hosting a Halloween party, going to a Harvest Party, or just have a pack of hungry ghouls, it’s fun to make creepy Halloween snacks. Here are five ideas that are sure to please kids of all ages.

1. Worms in Dirt

Ingredients

Orange or green Jello

Gummy worms

Crushed Oreo cookies

Clear plastic cups

Instructions

Prepare Jello as directed on package. Place a gummy worm in the bottom of each plastic cup. Pour Jello on top of the gummy worm, filling cup to about ½ to 1 inch from the top. Refrigerate until Jello is set. Add a layer of crumbled cookies to the top of each cup. Place a few gummy worms on top.

2. Halloween Snack Mix

Ingredients

Count Chocula or Frankenberry cereal (found in some stores around Halloween)

Candy corn

Raisins

Mini marshmallows

Small pretzels

Chocolate chips

Instructions

Mix ingredients in a large bowl or plastic pumpkin in proportions of your choice.

3. Jack O’Lantern Sandwiches

Ingredients

Whole wheat bread

Sliced ham, turkey or other sandwich meat

Sliced cheese

Mayonnaise

Instructions

Toast bread lightly. Assemble sandwiches, making sure the mayonnaise is on the bottom and the cheese on top. Use a pumpkin cookie cutter to cut a pumpkin shape out of each one. Remove the top slice of bread, and use a small triangular cutter or a knife to cut out eyes, nose and mouth. Replace the top piece of bread.

4. Fruit Eyeballs

Ingredients

Pitted dates

Cream cheese

Raisins or dried cranberries

Slice each date lengthwise. Stuff with cream cheese. Place a raisin or dried cranberry in the center for the pupil.

5. Witch Finger Cookies

Ingredients

1 c. softened butter

1 c. sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp. almond extract

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 ¾ c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

¾ c. whole blanched almonds

Red paste-type food coloring

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix dry ingredients except whole almonds. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, egg, and almond and vanilla extracts. Beat in dry ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

While waiting, dilute some of the red food coloring with water. Brush onto the almonds.

Remove one-fourth of the dough from the refrigerator at a time. Roll heaping teaspoons of dough into a finger shape, making them somewhat smaller than you want the finished cookie to be. Press an almond into one end as a fingernail. Squeeze the center of each cookie in slightly, and use a knife to make slashes for knuckles.

Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until pale golden brown. Let cool on wire rack.

photo credit: lostinmiami

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Creepy No-Bake Spider Cookies

Posted on12. Oct, 2009 by Mary Lutz.

Halloween is a holiday that is filled with lots of sweet treats. For a nice change of pace from candy, try these fun and whimsical no-bake spider cookies. They make a great alternative to the usual candy for trick-or-treaters, and they are also a hit at Halloween parties. And of course you can always make them to keep on hand for snacks at home!

Ingredients

1 bag milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 bag butterscotch chips

1 cup salted peanuts

4 cups chow mein noodles (also known as fried or chinese noodles)

Instructions

Place chocolate and butterscotch chips into a double boiler on medium-high heat. Stir constantly with a rubber spatula until completely melted and smooth. Remove from heat.

Pour chow mein noodles into the chocolate and butterscotch mixture. Stir with rubber spatula until thoroughly coated. Add peanuts, and mix until all ingredients are covered with the mixture.

Use the spoon and rubber spatula to remove a spoonful of the mixture at a time. Place onto cookie sheets lined with wax paper. Use the spoon to shape the cookies into a spider shape as best you can. Refrigerate overnight or until set. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve to prevent melting.

This recipe can make up to 48 cookies, depending on how large you make them. The larger the cookies, the longer it will take for them to set.

Tips

* You can also make these cookies in the microwave. Place the chocolate and butterscotch chips in a microwave safe bowl, and heat 30 seconds at a time. Stir every 30 seconds to aid in melting and prevent burning. When all chips are melted, mix for uniform color and proceed as directed.

* If you want smaller cookies, break the noodles into smaller pieces before adding them.

* For those who are restricting their salt intake, use unsalted peanuts. These cookies also turn out nicely with walnuts or any other kind of nut.

* You could try making these cookies with two bags of milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips, or with two bags of butterscotch chips.

* For a fun touch, press two raisins onto the top of each cookie before refrigerating to make “eyes” for the spiders.

* If you’re in a hurry, place these in the freezer until firm. They also freeze nicely if you want to make them ahead of time.

* This is a great recipe to make with the kids. Just be careful that they don’t get burned when mixing the noodles and nuts in with the melted butterscotch and chocolate chips.

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Healthy and Organic Trick-or-Treats

Posted on09. Oct, 2009 by Mary Lutz.

With October 31st literally around the corner, now is the time to be stocking up on goodies for the little goblins coming to your door or that you’ll see at your local Harvest party. Before you go out and stock up on sugary sweet stuff that isn’t healthy for kids or adults, let me give you some “food for thought”.

How would you like to give your trick-or-treaters something healthy and nutritious as well as help out a worthwhile cause? Well now you can and have a little bit of fun too!

If you’re on Facebook, you can join in on the fun simply by “trick or treating” your friends. When you add the app to your page, you will have the opportunity to print coupons for Hershey’s Chocolate Milk and Organic Valley Chocolate milk. And every time you or your friends play, 10 cents is donated to the World Wildlife Fund. Each of those 10 cents can add up very quickly.

Another fun way to participate is on Twitter. You can vote for who you think is the “scariest” (i.e. the one with the most tweets) and see how they rank. For every tweet 10 cents is donated to the World Wildlife Fund. Click here now to get in on the “twick-or-tweet” fun!

You can also participate on the web. There, when you upload pictures of your friends, when they open the email, their picture will be on dancing bodies of monsters. Every “trick or treat” sent, ten cents is donated to the World Wildlife Fund. Be sure to check out the blog there too for healthy and helpful tips.

By giving cartons of healthy chocolate milk this Halloween, you’ll not only be helping kids be healthier, you’ll also be helping the environment and supporting a worthy cause, not to mention all the fun you’ll have doing it!

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