Healthy And Fun Halloween Recipes From Disney FamilyFun

Kids on candy overload? I’ve got me six fun – yet healthy – Halloween snack recipes for parties and snacks from the folks at Disney FamilyFun magazine.

Black Bean Cat Crudite´s

No bones about it, this kitty skeleton makes a healthy centerpiece for Halloween parties or school gatherings. Just arrange assorted fresh vegetables and a bowl of your favorite black bean dip in the shape of a spooky cat.

Edible Eyeballs

Set out a platter of these creepy peepers, and your party guests are bound to do a double take. Simply slice carrots into 1-inch-thick chunks, top each with a blob of cream cheese and one half of a pitted black olive, and they’re ready to serve.

Salty Bones

It wouldn’t be Halloween without a skeleton—in this case, one that’s been disassembled into a pile of tasty bones to pick. Unroll a tube of refrigerated breadsticks we used an 11-ounce tube to make 12 bones) and separate the rectangular pieces. Working with one piece at a time, stretch the dough to lengthen it a bit and then use kitchen scissors or a knife to cut a 1K-inch slit in the center of each end. Shape the resulting four flaps of dough into knobs that look like the ends of a bone. Place the dough bones on an ungreased baking sheet, spacing them a few inches apart, and sprinkle on a little coarse salt. Bake the bones at 375° until they are light golden brown, about 12 minutes.

English Mummies

These yummy mummy pizzas make a quick and fun Halloween lunch or dinner. To create one, first spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce onto half of an English muffin (toast it first, if you like). Set olive slices in place for eyes and add round slices of green onion or bits of red or green pepper for pupils. Lay strips of cheese (we used a pulled-apart cheese stick) across the muffin for the mummy’s wrappings. Bake at 350° until the cheese is melted and the muffin is toasty, about 10 minutes.

Pumpkin Roll-Ups

Here’s a wholesome snack to serve before the kids head out to trick-or-treat. Lay American cheese slices or spread cream cheese on sun-dried-tomato tortillas, then roll them up and cut them into 1-inch sections. Use a toothpick to secure each roll-up, topped with a sprig of cilantro or parsley.

Melon Brain

Created from nothing more than a small, round seedless watermelon, this spooky cerebral creation is bound to turn heads. First, use a vegetable peeler to remove the entire green rind, exposing the inner white rind. Then slice off the bottom of the melon to make a flat base that will keep it from rolling. With a toothpick, outline squiggly furrows that resemble the folded surface of a brain. Finally, carve narrow channels along the tracings with a sharp paring knife (a parent’s job) to expose the pink fruit beneath the rind.

Thanks to Disney FamilyFun for offering me these tips to share with you!

Finger appetizers

CARROT FINGERS

Ingredients to make one hand centerpiece:
any dip
4 long carrots
1 medium carrot
softened cream cheese
sliced almonds
vegetables for dipping

Fill a serving bowl with your favorite dip.
Wash and peel 4 of the long carrots for fingers and 1 medium carrot for a thumb.
Cut a flat notch at the end of each carrot.
Place a sliced almond into the notch, holding it in place with a dab of the cream cheese.
Stand the fingers in the dip as a centerpiece.
Serve with vegetables for dipping.

CHEESE FINGERS

Mozzarella string cheese
Green bell pepper
Cream cheese

Wearing gloves, cut each piece of string cheese in half widthwise, so both halves have a rounded end.
Cut a shallow notch on one end to make fingers.
Carve a shallow area just before the rounded for a fingernail just above the rounded end of each half.
Make a tiny cut right below the fingernail and right above the other end to form knuckle joints.
Slice a green bell pepper into 3/8-inch-wide strips for the fingernails.
Set the strips skin side down and trim the pulp so that it’s about half as thick.
Cut the strips into ragged edge nails.
Place nails on ends of fingers, holding in place with dabs of cream cheese.

Halloween Guessing Game

Players will reach into a box and try to guess what the items are. The person with the most correct answers wins.You need shoebox size boxes with lids, 1 for each item that you’re playing with.
Cover it, paint it or decorate it for Halloween.
Cut a hole in the lid big enough for a hand to fit through.
Place one items inside each box, making sure that the box is the right size or that there is enough of the item in it to feel.

• Eyeballs - grapes or peeled cherry tomatoes
• Intestines- Cooked Spaghetti
• Skin- oil a piece of plastic bag
• Brains- scrambled eggs
• Hair- an old wig
• Bones- cleaned chicken bones placed in sand
• Vomit-chunky salsa
• Fingers-hot dogs cut in half
• Teeth- corn nuts, pine nuts or popcorn

Have fun!

Spiderweb Cookies

1 can (12 oz) whipped fluffy white frosting
Orange paste or gel food color
1 can (12 oz) whipped fluffy chocolate frosting
1 pkg (11 oz) soft 31⁄4-in. oatmeal cookies
Regular M&M’s and mini M&M’s candies or M&M’s mini baking bits

Tint white frosting orange and frost 5 cookies.
Frost remaining cookies with chocolate frosting.
Put remaining orange and chocolate frosting in separate small ziptop bags.
Cut a tip off 1 corner of each bag and pipe a web on opposite-color frosted cookies.

To make spiders
Place an M&M on each web; lean a mini M&M of the same color slightly against larger candy.
With chocolate frosting, pipe legs on both sides of each “body.”
Pipe orange or chocolate eyes.
Refrigerate until set.

Fanged Spider Cupcakes

Whatever mix you need to make 24 cupcakes
1 pound black shoestring licorice
1 (16 ounce) can white frosting
48 pieces candy corn
48 cinnamon red hot candies
1/4 cup orange decorator sugar

Prepare cupcakes according to package directions.
Let cool completely.
Cut licorice into 3 inch sections.
Working with one or two cupcakes at a time, so the frosting doesn’t set before decorating, frost the cupcakes with the white frosting.
Insert licorice pieces into the outer edges of the cupcakes to make the legs of the spider, 3 legs on each side (4 takes up too much space).
Place two pieces of candy corn on the front of the cupcake for fangs and use two red hots as eyes.
Sprinkle with decorator sugar.
Repeat with remaining cupcakes.