Spooky Solutions for Hallowe’en

Trick or treat, smell my feet or give me something good to eat!

Ah, how I remember those trick or treat Hallowe’en days of the past when my children (and sometimes myself closely behind) trailed from one house to another filling a special bucket with sweets, candies, chocolate and other ‘edibles’ late October. Decked out as ghouls, skeletons, witches, wizards or just the plain strange, we virtually terrorised family and neighbours into parting with their sugar and fat laden treats!

These days, with children well and truly grown up, I don’t go calling but do have the odd caller to my own door for Hallowe’en and whilst I’m no party pooper and like to enter into the spirit of things I have developed strategies that I think help me and impressionable youngsters from a sugar-fest of epic proportions. I like to join in the fun but without the guilt so have been to the pound/dollar store to get my goodies ready for Thursday night.

Instead of the usual sweets and candy I stock up on lots of other things that will bring a smile…and keep the temptation out of my own house, leaving others to indulge in the usual way. These include:

* pencils, crayons and stickers

* glow sticks, rubber snakes, spider rings and caterpillars

* spooky bracelets, badges, temporary tattoos and masks

* super bouncy balls, blow bubbles, finger puppets and toy cars

* mini puzzles, crayoning books and children’s mini magazines

And if I do have to hand out the sweets/candy then I opt for the following and make sure that by buying less than I might have done in the past, it all goes to a better home than my own!

* small bags of crackers, pretzels and crisps/chips

* mini bags or boxes of raisins, dried fruit and nuts

* a chewy packet of pepperoni

* a tiny pack of sugar-free mints

So with the callers taken care of what about ‘treats’ for the bariatric?

Well spooky food is a cinch for those watching the calories, fat and sugar. Consider soups made from your hollowed out pumpkins or squash lanterns. Roasted squash made into a soup is especially good. I like to add a swirl of fat-free yogurt to the top and swirl through with a skewer so that it resembles a spider’s web.

For a TV snack or lunchbox ‘scare’ why not make devilled eggs (hard-boiled/hard-cooked eggs mixed with a little low-fat mayonnaise and curry powder) spooned bag into their hollows and decorated with a spider olive?

Other good finger food could simply be long thin carrots, topped with a flaked almond (as a fingernail) to serve with a dip (we call our favourite herby yogurt one Fang Drool Dip). These are known as Frankenstein’s Fingers and we serve them alongside Dead Sheep’s Eyes … discs of carrot topped with hummous and a radish or stuffed olive eye. Likewise I have often done the same with a small meatball topped with a stuffed olive eye for great protein!

Other bariatric food-friendly treats include a bariatric pizza or Mummy Bread – top your usual tortilla base with tomato sauce or salsa and then strips of low-fat mozzarella cheese to make a ‘bandaged’ mummy face and add a couple of cherry tomato or olive eyes and a slice of pepper for a deliciously grinning mouth. Spooky or what?