I love Halloween festivities with the kids, but I’m always a little disheartened when it’s always sweets and cakes that take all the limelight. Especially when we have such a variety of delicious foods around us that can be equally as exciting – right?
Now I’m not saying we shouldn’t give children sweet foods, but I want to highlight some other, less sweet and more nutritious food options during these times too, to help little ones get excited about ALL foods (not just ones that have plenty of sugar and salt!)
I’ve got SO many recipes that are great for this time of year and plenty to get the kids involved with too. So here I’m sharing some of my favourite Halloween recipes and ideas.
Healthy Halloween Ideas For the Kids
Use pumpkins for food
Pumpkins can work wonders as food options. There are SO many different ways to use them, from adding them to porridge, pies, soup, or simply cutting pumpkin slices into bat shapes and roasting them. You could add some roast pumpkin to make a yummy Halloween hummus dip. A little cooked pumpkin added into my carrot and sweetcorn fritters would make for a fab baby led weaning option. My chickpea and pumpkin soup recipe or my cannellini bean and pumpkin soup recipe are perfect warming options for the colder weather too!
Pumpkin can work well for sweeter options, too. These cinnamon pumpkin pancakes are SO delicious and a little bit different. Halloween biscuit cutters can go a long way as well if you have any at home (try them with my home-made oatcakes or make some Frankensteins out of my scones.)These ‘Spiced Pumpkin Muffins’ from Dr. Pippa Gibson are so delicious and contain no added sugar.
This INCREDIBLE ‘Make Your Own Pumpkin Patch’ from Dr. Pippa Gibson would be SUCH a fun activity to do together with the kids. Check out the full video on her instagram here.
Healthier sweet treats
If you’re looking for some sweet treats that are likely to be of interest to your little ones, there are still plenty of these ideas too. I’ve included some of my favourites below:
- Focus on fruits. There are so many varieties of fruits and so many colours – try squashed brains (mashed banana), blood (squashed red fruits), spiders (raisins with legs).
- You could try making homemade cakes and sweets so that you can add a little less sugar to them. Again, you can also base these on fruits. Apricots, bananas and strawberries dipped in chocolate, flapjacks with writing on them, cornflake cakes with red berries squashed on top. These lower sugar Halloween biscuits are ideal and super easy to make! My no-added sugar banana bread recipe is also a nice easy bake to do.
- Try making some spooky Halloween characters with my low sugar gingerbread men recipe!
- Tangerines and bananas also make a great treat, especially if you can draw some spooky faces on them.
- These kid-friendly chocolate, date and nut butter bats are a really fun activity that kids can help with too!
- Making mini popcorn bags can be fun too. Make some plain popcorn and top them off with a sprinkle of paprika so they have a rusty, halloweeny look, or you could dip them in squashed raspberries too. (Remember that popcorn is a choking hazard for under 5’s)
Of course these are just a few options for fun foods for kids at this time of year. But realistically (and if you want to avoid your house being egged!) you may also need to offer up some run of the mill sweets too.
Other ideas for a Healthy Halloween
My ‘Monster’ pancakes from my book How To Feed Your Toddler are a really fun way to try something a little different and make a more engaging meal. You can find the recipe, plus plenty of other pancake recipes here.
Take a look at this great spread of Healthy Halloween treats from my friend and colleague Catherine Lippe.
Hello Fresh UK have also shared some brilliant ideas for healthy, fun Halloween treats too:
This website also has some fab foodie ideas with a real Halloween twist.
And some non-food ideas…
Why not try something different to make Halloween fun? You could try spooky games, sword fights, Halloween themed dinners or simply decorating the house with your little ones. Parents can dress up too or get involved in a ghost walk with the whole family. And who doesn’t like carving a pumpkin with the kids?
If you’re trying to cut back on the sweets, Halloween themed toys may also work instead of sweeties. So why not opt to give out small toys, magazines or miniature games for children to play with. It might make a nice change for them and is something that will last at least past their bedtime.
Happy Halloween!
I hope you all have a lovely Halloween however you spend it. For more food inspiration, check out these fab Healthy Halloween recipes Mimi’s Bowl shared on my blog.
If you’re looking for more low sugar options, check out my Sweet Low Sugar Recipes for Kids where you’ll find lots more sweet recipes with less sugar.