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Friday, November 1, 2013

An Unprocessed Halloween

Lets face it, generally, the words "unprocessed" and "Halloween" don't really go together. Trick or treating is all about getting as much processed junk as possible; and we whole-heartedly participated in this tradition. However, I thought I'd balance the scales a little bit with a really healthy, chemical-free dinner for our little Halloween party. Gavyn and Alli had their friends Madison and Emma over (and their Mom and Dad) for fun food, games, and trick-or-treating. We had a blast, and our dinner definitely made up for the lack of nutrients in the candy I was about to let my child eat. Also, after eating a nice hearty dinner and a not too sugary dessert, he didn't even want to much candy.

This was so fun for me. As much as I love cooking, I love being a Mom more. I've dreamed about having parties and making memories for my children since, well, since I was a child myself. Yes, I got to make some really cute, fun things, but I also got to create wonderful memories. Gavyn may or may not remember this Halloween, but I will. I also have lots of pictures to show him!

This isn't a single-recipe post. So I'll just show you the pictures and describe what I did in each one. I'll provide links to recipes I used, both from my blog and from other sites as well.

I made these the day before. I knew I wanted to do pudding cups because it is a relatively low-sugar snack, but I didn't want to put standard gummy worms on top. I got this idea from Family Fun magazine and am so happy with the way they came out. It was a pain in the you-know-what to put the sunflower seeds on, but worth it.


I also made whole wheat sugar cookies for the tombstones, and a few pumpkins for good measure. I used this sugar cookie recipe, subbing whole wheat flour and using vanilla extract.


I also made my homemade pudding recipe, and added in 6 oz. dark chocolate chips to make it chocolate pudding. I made just the cookie part of my homemade oreos. I didn't cut them out or anything - I just baked them in a sheet because I knew I was just going to be grinding them up for the "dirt" on the dirt cups. I put the pudding in the little clear cups while it was still warm and let it sit in the fridge overnight.


The day of, I whipped up some cream to place on top of the pudding in the cups, and grinded my chocolate cookies. Just a couple hours before the party I added the tombstones and the bugs. I didn't want them getting soggy or stale in the fridge.



Also the day of, I made some homemade pizza dough, because I think it makes for really good breadsticks. I portioned it out into 12 little balls and rolled 8 of them into about 8 inch long ropes. I ran some wooden skewers through a stick of butter so the bread wouldn't stick, and wrapped the rope around the skewers. I beat an egg and brushed the tops with it, and sprinkled with sesame seeds. The eyes are made with tomato paste. I didn't have any olives which would have been a lot easier!

I served them with my homemade marinara sauce.





Next up were corn crisps. I used this recipe exactly, and they were so so good. My baby girl especially loved them!




 Then some simple veggies and dip, and a fruit plate. I made this sweet potato hummus which came out really good! I didn't add any chilies, and instead added some smoked paprika.



And tortilla chips! I love little ghosties! I just took some corn tortillas and used a cookie cutter to cut them into ghosts. I placed them in a single layer on a sheet pan and added a light coating of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. 12 minutes in a 400 degree oven and these also tasted good in the hummus!


I also roasted an organic chicken, and I'm using the carcass as we speak to make stock.

I didn't feel so bad digging through my son's trick-or-treat bag at 10 pm to get some whoppers after having this healthy, light meal!

2 comments:

  1. You are amazing! I miss living near you. I would love to go be your apprentice.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks T! You are doing great things of your own! Hopefully we will leave near each other again and we can learn from each other :)

      PS. Make babies.

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