Remember how every year you looked forward to celebrating Halloween, planning your costume, your decorations, the candy? Remember popcorn balls wrapped in wax paper and caramel apples on sticks? Halloween is the one time of year when parents actually encourage their children to be outside for several hours in the dark. It’s spooky fun!
Over the years, the way we celebrate Halloween has changed. During this time of Covid, there’s no need to skip the festivities. Weather permitting, you can host a family party in your backyard, on your porch, or in a cozy room at home. No matter how you choose to celebrate, the Veggie Fest team has you covered for Halloween this year with some frighteningly delicious recipes to savor and share with family and friends.
Food Treats
Let’s face it, the highlight of any party is the food. Decorations and games only carry you so far. Make some popcorn, fill a bowl with assorted candies, make some gorp with pretzels, peanuts, caramel corn, and vegan candy corn. Serve a vegetable tray complete with a miniature pumpkin filled with dip.
Here are some ideas for your party from our recipe files.
Get the kids involved in making these Mummy Pizzas! It’s more fun for your pirates and princesses to eat when they’ve made it themselves! This recipe was inspired by many recipes on the Internet.
Mummy Pizzas
Another easy-to-prepare savory food for even the pickiest of ghouls are Spider Sandwiches. Your sandwiches can be filled with anything you and your children like best. The link below suggests one of our favorite sandwich spreads but a simple peanut butter and jelly will do the trick.
Spider Sandwiches
Did you know that eight percent of candy sold during the year (and thirty-four percent of all holiday candy) is purchased at Halloween time? That’s a lot of sugar! I often find that presentation is more important than anything, so if you want to create a tasty and healthy Halloween treat, try these Apple Monster Mouths!
Apple Monster Mouths
What do you think are kids’ favorite treats? According to kidzworld.com, the top three types of candy that kids like are a variety of chocolate, sour candy, and fruit chews. If trick-or-treating is happening on your block—and you absolutely don’t want to give out candy, know that kids still like juice boxes, fruit roll-ups, eraser shapes, and (who doesn’t) money!
Any time during the days leading up to Halloween, you may want to piggy-back on the fun by serving some healthy recipes that are delicious and satisfyingly grisly. Try our green smoothie with lychee eyeballs!
Scary Green Smoothies with Lychee Eyeballs
For one of your party activities, consider providing our shaped sugar cookies or cupcakes and lots of frosting in different colors. A few bottles of Halloween-inspired sprinkles, and you are all set for at least an hour of fun. Think about having some disposable aprons on hand so as to not spoil those wonderful costumes!
For a smooth, shiny look for your cookies—like the ones in the picture below—google “vegan royal icing.” You will discover recipes that use aquafaba and corn syrup to create that shiny surface (once achieved only with egg whites).
Frighteningly Delicious Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
For a chocolatey decadent recipe, you can always serve our vegan, cream-filled Fauxstess Cupcakes. Of course, you can tint the icing and decorate according to your taste.
Fauxstess Cupcakes with Cream Filling
A special treat that can be created with children is our Candy Corn Parfait. You can modify this recipe for different holidays by using different colors to layer.
Candy Corn Parfait
It’s easy to make a fun party platter for your guests. Check out these dip recipes from our Veggie Fest recipe files:
Hummus
Spicy Eggplant Dip
Maple Mustard Salad Dressing & Dip
Ranch Dip with Veggies
Slice and prepare vegetables such as:
- Celery and carrot sticks,
- cut up broccoli and cauliflower,
- cherry tomatoes,
- radishes,
- zucchini “chips,”
- scallions,
- mushrooms, and
- an assortment of sweet pepper slices, cucumber spears, etc.
To assemble the platter, buy several yellow, orange and red bell peppers. Cut jack-o-lantern faces on some of the sides of the peppers like the picture indicates. Fill with an assortment of vegetable sticks and dipping pretzels.
You can also leave some of the peppers whole and fill them with an assortment of dips. If you choose to only have one dip, consider buying a mini-sized pumpkin (either real or plastic) and filling it with your choice of dip.
Arrange everything in a pleasing display on the serving tray. If you chose to fill a pumpkin with dip, just place it within easy reach of the vegetables. You can also fill small baskets with an assortment of crackers and/or breads. Ta-da! Your appetizers are finished and ready to serve!
Halloween Party Ideas
For some people, the best part of Halloween is the costumes. These sometimes take weeks to plan and create. When my daughter was in high school and going to parties, she asked me to buy her a black sheet. From that single black sheet, she made three costumes of her own for three years in a row: a nun, the grim reaper, and a zombie! All from one inexpensive sheet and a bit of trims!
Do you remember some of your favorite Halloween costumes?
If you’re planning to host a party, you don’t necessarily have to wallow around in blood and gore to set the stage. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of good, old-fashioned, Halloween slime and what-not. However, for the more mild-mannered celebrators, there are black cats and ghosts. Think corn stalks, pumpkins, and fall leaves. Think black and orange streamers and spider webs. The idea is to pick age-appropriate decorations.
There are a lot of party ideas on the Internet. Just google Halloween party tips. Check out this site: https://www.hgtv.com/design/make-and-celebrate/entertaining/our-favorite-halloween-party-ideas-pictures
Another hands-on activity is decorating pumpkins. They don’t always have to be carved or even real. Styrofoam and plastic pumpkins are available in craft stores. Provide stencils, stickers that include eyes and mouths, markers, glitter sticks, etc.
Games can be simple and don’t have to cost a lot of money. The blog, “Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom,” has all kinds of fun activities like Toilet Paper Mummy and a Donut Eating Race. https://www.scatteredthoughtsofacraftymom.com/17-halloween-party-games-for-kids/
No matter how you choose to celebrate Halloween, remember to enjoy the moment and find your own unique way to bring the holiday magic in your home, on your plate, and in your smile.
If you find yourself stressing, don’t feel alone. We’re all about healthy living at Veggie Fest, so visit our Jumpstart to Meditation page and choose a tip from one of our 7 days: Sit quietly and reconnect, remembering that a loving heart is all you really need to make any day—and every day—unforgettable.
— The Veggie Fest Team
