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!