Happy Halloween families!

Halloween is one of the most beloved holidays for kids- they get to dress up AND get free CANDY. However, if consuming candy is not an option for your family or if you want to switch it up with homemade options, here are some ideas to help you explore familiar foods in different ways with a fun Halloween theme!

Spooky smoothies

You can invite your child to help! They can…

• Help gather ingredients for the smoothies
• Help place each ingredient in the blender
• Press the button to the blender
• Help pick what cup to pour the smoothie into
• Help draw Jack-o-Lantern or monster faces on the cups

Jack-o-Lantern Smoothie Ingredients:

• Frozen bananas
• Frozen peaches
• Vanilla extract
• Orange juice
• Milk
• Peach yogurt

Frankenstein Smoothie Ingredients:

• Spinach
• Frozen banana
• ½ Mango
• Handful blueberries (for the topping-as “hair”)

Bloodshot Eye Smoothie Ingredients:

• Beetroot (can substitute with raspberries, strawberries, cherries)
• Orange juice
• Apple
• Orange 
• For the bloodshot eye, slice a banana into rounds and scrape a tiny amount from the center to place the blueberry. Add some of the smoothie to represent bloodshot eyes

Directions for all smoothies:

• Place all ingredients in a blender
• Pour into a Halloween themed cup or cup of your child’s choosing

Witch Brooms

You can invite your child to help! They can… 

• Count the pretzel sticks/rods
• Help cut the cheese into rectangular pieces with a child safe knife
• Help create the fringes by peeling the cheese
• Placing the pretzel rods/sticks into the cheese rectangle

Ingredients:

• String cheese sticks
• Pretzel sticks/rods

Directions:

• Cut the string cheese sticks in thirds (approx 1 ½  inches)
• Make lengthwise cuts or rip one end of the cheese stick to resemble fringes
• In the uncut end, insert a pretzel stick

Spider Web Pancakes 

You can invite your child to help! They can… 

• Help pour all the ingredients into a mixing bowl
• Help mix the ingredients (with a utensil or with their hands to get messy!)
• Squeeze the pancake mix onto the pan or griddle
• Help decide toppings or dips

Ingredients:

• Pancake mix
• Follow pancake mix directions to make mix
• (can add additional toppings that are appropriate for your family)

Directions:

• Heat nonstick  pan over medium heat
• Pour or squeeze (from bottle/container) batter in thin lines to make a spiderweb design
• Once the batter bubbles/makes little holes on one side, flip it and cook the other side

Pumpkin Jack-o-Lantern Quesadilla 

You can invite your child to help! They can… 

• Help take each tortilla out of the bag
• Use a cookie cutter for the mouth and eyes
• Help place the tortillas on the baking pan
• Sprinkle the cheese
• Help cut the quesadilla into pieces 

Ingredients:

• Tortillas
• Shredded cheese
• (can add additional toppings that are appropriate for your family)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees
• Using a knife or cookie cutter, cut eyes and a mouth in the shape of a jack-o-lantern
• Sprinkle shredded cheese on tortillas that are not cut (this will be the bottom tortilla)
• Then place cut tortilla on top on the sprinkled cheese
• Place in oven for approx. 15 minutes

 

We can continue to practice responsive feeding while offering some Halloween excitement. By inviting your child to help with making a Halloween treat, you will provide more opportunities to support their internal motivation for exploring foods. This exploration might include some familiar or unfamiliar/new foods and ideas they have not tried yet. Exploring foods with a parent provides more fun, positive mealtime experiences with food, and children can feel safe exploring them with a parent. Creating spooky treats together can help build trust within the parent-child relationship by creating shared happy experiences.

 

Written by: Nicole Bing, OTD-S