| Halloween is a fabulous time of year and one which can be a joy for the whole family to celebrate! And it doesn’t have to mean oodles of plastic gadget-gadgets, sacks of hydrogenated fats and refined sugars, and tons of money shelled out for a whole lot of disposables.
Here we present Halloween – Earthy Family style! We hope you enjoy our suggestions for fun, healthy foods, trick-or-treat give-aways, and fun crafts and decorating ideas.
Jack O’Lanterns
Jack O’Lanterns date back to the Medieval times in Ireland and were originally made of candle-illuminated turnips. They were used to ward off the spirits of the dead and were particular to Halloween, as it was believed that the veil between the living and the dead was thinnest on this sacred night. When the Jack O’Lantern tradition crossed the Atlantic with the many Irish immigrants who were fleeing the potato famine, the super-abundant pumpkin replaced the turnip and it has now become one of the most popular symbols of this spooky holiday.
And while you can buy reusable Jack O’Lanterns, they’re usually made of plastic or foam (in other words, landfill cloggers), and they definitely aren’t as much fun. If you don’t have them growing in your backyard, pumpkins are super abundant at this time of year and you should be able to pick some up at a U-Pick farm or farmer’s market for a great cost. Doing it this way also makes picking them out a fun family adventure in and of itself. And the pumpkins you choose will make fabulous fall ornaments sitting around the house waiting to be carved, painted, or drawn into wonderful masterpieces right before Halloween.
    
Roasting Pumpkin Seeds
Cutting open the top of the pumpkin, reaching your hand into the ooey gooey mess of pumpkin seeds and “guts”, clearing it all out and beginning your canvas. Aaahhh – the fabulous sense of Halloween is upon you. But wait! After every good carving session, you really should enjoy the oh-so-seasonal treat of fresh roasted pumpkin seeds!
Start by rinsing all the pumpkin guts from the seeds, then pat them dry with cotton tea towels. In a bowl, mix your seeds with a little bit of cold-pressed sunflower or safflower oil, and a good shake or two of sea salt. Spread onto a baking pan in a single layer and bake in a 350 degree oven until are light, golden brown, stirring occasionally to make sure they are evenly roasted. Let them cool, then crack them open and splurge on the delicious innards. Now that tastes like Halloween!
| Did you know that pumpkin seeds are a fabulous source of protein, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, fiber and amino acids? They also contain calcium, potassium, zinc, selenium, folate and niacin! What a power packed Halloween treat! |
Healthy Halloween Goodies
Spiced Apple Cider
6 cups organic apple cider
¼ cup maple syrup (optional for those who like it sweet)
6 whole allspice
6 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 whole nutmeg
Pour cider and syrup into a medium sized stainless steel pot, add spices tied into a square of cheesecloth with cotton string and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Serve and enjoy. Alternatively, place tied spices, syrup and cider into a crockpot and simmer at low for several hours and enjoy the wonderful fragrance as well as the yummy taste.
Make your cider is a real magical treat by garnishing each cup served with a whole cinnamon stick. Cinnamon’s magical purpose is to bring wealth, health and success. For added mystical effect, you can toast your guests or family with a spell to attract wealth and health before they drink their first sip.
Vampire Repelling Pasta
Vampires can’t stand garlic, so be sure to eat up this yummy dish before heading off to partake in Halloween festivities. (The added bonus is that garlic is also a fantastic immune booster.)
4-6 cloves garlic
1 medium onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
½ medium zucchini, diced
8-10 mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 carrots, grated
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 small (5 oz) can tomato paste
1 ½ tsp dried oregano (or 2 tablespoons fresh)
1 ½ tsp dried basil (or 2 tablespoons fresh)
½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp Sucanat
Sauté 3 cloves of the garlic, the onion, pepper, zucchini, and mushrooms in olive oil until veggies are soft. Add the rest of the garlic and the grated carrots and cook another 1-2 minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, herbs, salt and Sucanat. Simmer for 20-45 minutes (depending on how long you have – the longer the better), and serve over whole grain pasta. Sure to ward off vampires and colds alike!
Pumpkin Pudding
 1 – 10 oz pkg of soft or silken tofu
1 – 16 oz can pureed pumpkin (or ½ small pumpkin, cooked and pureed)
½ cup brown sugar or Sucanat (unrefined sugar product)
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cloves
Puree tofu in food processor until smooth and creamy. Add rest of ingredients and process until well mixed. Pour into oven safe dish or small, hollowed out pumpkin and bake for 30 – 40 minutes at 350 F until lightly browned and starting to crack on top. Serve warm or cold for breakfast or dessert.
Bug Cubes
Dress up water or a special punch made of fruit juice and sparkling water with these super easy “bug” cubes. Fill ice cube trays ¼ - ½ full of water, freeze until solid, then place 1 or 2 raisins in each cube and fill to top. Freeze again and serve.
Spooky Sandwiches
For a really quick and easy Halloween meal (or a Halloween lunch bag), make sandwiches and then use Halloween cookie cutters to cut them into fun shapes. Give your fillings creepy names for added effect. For example, dress up a veggie sandwich with mashed avocado and call it werewolf’s blood, or top peanut or almond butter with raisins and call it “eye of newt” nut butter.
Trembling about Trick or Treaters?
Love the idea of trick-or-treaters visiting your home, but can’t stand the thought of handing out loads of refined sugar or hydrogenated fats? Consider some of these other, less health-destroying options. Save money by buying them at your local dollar store, or, if you’re opting for the healthy snack option, consider buying them at a bulk grocery warehouse.
- Stickers
- Decorative Pencils
- Fun looking Erasers
- Pencil Sharpeners
- Beaded bracelets
- Fruit
- Water bottles
- Juice boxes (be sure it’s 100% juice – not sugar-loaded “fruit drink”)
- Granola bars (not all granola bars are healthy – be sure to read labels)
- Small packages of trail mix (if you want to make it yourself, hand it out only to children whose parents know you, and include your name and number on the package, otherwise it’s likely to just end up in the trash)
- Single-serving applesauce containers or yogurt
- Dried fruit and/or veggie leathers
Crafts and Decorations With an Eye to the Earth:
 Walking through the stores or malls we’re bombarded with Halloween decorations, crafts, costumes and candies that all seem to have one thing in common: waaaaaaaaaaay too much stuff (wrappers, plastic bits and bobs, foamy odds and ends, etc, etc.) that is going to end up taking waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long to decompose in the landfill (which is where most of it will end up in a very, very short time).
The good news is, you can decorate with earth-friendly, recycled, recyclable and decomposable, natural materials and still create an incredible effect! Here are a few craft ideas to get you started, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Look around your house or your farmer’s market for treasures just waiting to take their part in your spooky decorating scheme.
Use an apple corer to hollow out the middle of mini pumpkins. Insert a tea light for beautiful little decorations on a Halloween table. Draw faces on them with black markers if you wish.
Spiderwebs are easily made from white yarn. Drape them over your indoor and outdoor plants. Add spiders made from bits of black paper from your recycle bin or black painted seashells with black-painted twigs glued on for legs.
Make a scarecrow by stuffing an old pair of pants and a shirt with straw (or pulled weeds from your garden). Insert a long stick (broom handle, or pruned tree branch) through the middle to anchor it into the ground and top with a pumpkin head.
Want to make window or mirror art? No need to purchase special supplies! Simply mix equal parts of tempera paint and dishwashing soap together (hand dishwashing soap, that is – one of the leading causes of poisoning incidents in children is dishwasher soap – if you have this in your home, do not use around children, and keep it in a locked cupboard where it won’t accidentally be found without supervision!). You can use powdered or premixed paint – either will work well. To take it off once the season has passed, simply wipe away with a dry paper or cotton towel (you will, however want to avoid getting it on your carpet, so lay down splash cloths if you think this may be a concern when you and the kids or decorating).
Make luminaries from recycled cans. Luminaries are often used to light up walkways or driveways, and Halloween themed little lights are a great way to welcome guests to a Halloween party.
| Caution: Because the luminaries have tealights in them, be very careful about where they are placed to avoid starting a fire either on your property, or on the trailing ends of someone’s costume. |
To make them, start with empty tin cans from your recycling bin (before you have flattened them). Make sure they are clean and have one end cut off cleanly. Fill them ¾ full of water, then place in the freezer until frozen solid (this will help the can retain its shape as you create holes for your candlelight to peep through)
Next, you will use a hammer and nail to poke holes into an interesting Halloween shape on your can (or cans, as the case may be). You can draw a pattern out first, then tape it onto your can, and “trace” the lines with small nail holes punched into the side, or simply make the pattern up as you go along. Consider making Jack O’Lantern faces, ghosts, spiders, words like “Boo!” or “Happy Halloween” (you’ll need a big can for this one), etc. Make as many as you want, but if you are lighting a walkway, you’ll likely want several of them. Now fill them ¼ full of sand, place a tealight candle in each, and there you have it – a recycled and recyclable decoration!
 Make Pumpkin People (like snowmen, but from pumpkins). By Halloween, winter’s breath can definitely be felt in the air. With winter, comes snow men and snow fun. Halloween, however, is a time of pumpkins, and pumpkin fun, so why not make pumpkin people? Similar to snowmen in shape, make a pumpkin person by stacking 3 pumpkins one on top of the other (attach with a thick stake if not very secure, and lean it against a wall to support it). Make a face in the top “head” pumpkin..
Make an apple witch. Apple dolls are a great way to start celebrating Halloween early. If you make your doll early enough, by Halloween it will turn into a witch.
Supplies:
A large apple with a stem for each person making a doll
A small paring knife
Lemon juice
Wire or pipe cleaners to shape a body
Scraps of fabric and/or yarn for clothes and hair
Instructions:
Peel the apple leaving a band around the top near the stem. Cut an exaggerated face (include a nose, slits for the eyes, a mouth, and maybe even cheekbones) into the apple (it will probably shrink by about ½, so make sure your features are deep enough - be careful, however, not to go right through). Rinse entire apple with lemon juice to keep it from turning brown, tie a string or thread around the stem and hang to dry. Each day your doll will become a little more wrinkled and witchy looking.
 When she’s dry, make a body from pipe cleaners, fashion clothes from material scraps and attach the body to the head by inserting the pipe cleaners into the apple. Get creative and use cloves for the eyes, rice for teeth, corn silk for hair, etc.
Make a Halloween tree. With the Christmas tree firmly in place in most homes, and spring trees (in the form of pussy willow branches) making their way to the limelight around Easter, it’s time for the Halloween tree to be welcomed into our homes! Bringing in a pruned tree branch that as shed it’s leaves to be decorated is a great way to honour the season. Stand it up in a terra cotta pot (which you may or may not want to paint to match the season) and anchor it with a handful or two of stones, and you’ll have a beautiful little Halloween tree just waiting to be filled with seasonal decorations. Make little ghosts, bats, witches, broomsticks, pumpkins and jack o’lanterns from items collected on nature walks (sea shells, twigs, acorns, seed pods, dried grasses and weeds, nuts, berries, leaves, rocks, pebbles, etc.), your spice cupboard (cinnamon sticks, whole nutmeg, allspice or cloves), and fabric scraps, or from scrap paper from your recycling bin. Attach it all with little pieces of thread or scraps of yarn.
Graveyard Tours. See if your town or city has any organized graveyard tours. Or research local history and go on your own family tour, learning about the past as you go.
|
