10 Hauntingly Healthy Halloween Snacks

Pear Witch Project

This ghoulish girl is quite a sight, with her shocking orange hair. Her hat's a cone, her mouth an apple, her head is half a pear!

What you'll need

• Sharp knife
• Fresh green pear (makes 2 heads and noses)
• 2 raisins (eyes)
• 1 chocolate chip (wart)
• Red apple (mouth)
• Canned chocolate frosting
• Oreo ice-cream cone (hat)
• Large, soft chocolate cookie (hat); we used an Archway Dutch Cocoa Cookie
• Carrot (hair) and grater

How to make it

1. Cut the pear in half lengthwise and remove the core (a parent's job). Place one pear half on a plate as shown.
2. Slice a piece off the top of the pear, cutting away from the forehead at an angle. Shape that piece into a nose; carve a notch into the witch's face to hold it, and set it in place.
3. Attach the eyes and wart by carving small circles in the face to hold them.
4. Cut a grin from the red apple. Carve out an area on the face to hold the grin, and put it in place.
5. To make the hat, use frosting to glue the cone to the cookie. Let the frosting harden a bit, then place the hat on the head.
6. Grate lengths of carrot hair and tuck them underneath the hat. Tip: If your child is too young to handle a knife, cut the nose and mouth and have him assemble the face with frosting.

Carrot-Finger Food

Hungry goblins will love getting their hands on these crunchy carrot snacks.

What you'll need

• vegetable dip
• 4 long carrots
• 1 medium carrot
• softened cream cheese
• sliced-almond
• baby carrots

How to make it

1. To prepare them, just fill a serving bowl with your favorite vegetable dip. Wash and peel 4 long carrots for fingers and 1 medium carrot for a thumb.
2. With a paring knife (a parent's job), cut a flat, shallow notch in the tip of each carrot. Then use a dab of dip or softened cream cheese to glue a sliced-almond fingernail atop each notch.
3. Stick the fingers in the dip, as shown, and serve with plenty of peeled baby carrots for dipping.

4. Eerie Eyeballs

   

   These edible peepers may be a frightful sight, but here's the good news: made with three kinds of dried fruit, they're naturally sweet and nutritious.

   What you'll need

   • Apple rings (1 per eye)
   • Dried Apricots (1/2 per eye)
   • Raisins (1/2 per eye)

   How to make it

   1. For each pair of eyes, gently flatten two dried apple rings with the palm of your hand.
   2. Carefully slice a dried apricot through the middle so that you end up with two circular halves. Press a half, sticky side down, onto the center of an apple ring, covering the hole.
   3. For pupils, use kitchen scissors to cut a raisin in two, and press the halves, sticky side down, onto the apricots.

5. Ghost Toasts

   
   
   

   Looking for a treat that truly embodies the spirit of Halloween? Try serving some of these flavorful phantoms.

   What you'll need

   • White Bread (1 slice per ghost)
   • Whipped cream cheese
   • Currants

   How to make it

   1. For each, toast a slice of white bread and then cut a ghost shape from it. You can do this freehand using a knife, or you can use a gingerbread-girl cookie cutter.
   2. When the cutouts have cooled, spread on a generous coating of whipped cream cheese.
   3. Add currants for the eyes and mouths.

6. Melon Brain

   
   
   

   Made from nothing more than a small, round seedless watermelon, this spooky cerebral creation is bound to turn heads.

   What you'll need

   • 1 small seedless watermelon

   How to make it

   1. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the entire green rind, exposing the inner white rind.
   2. Slice off the bottom of the melon to create a flat base that will keep it from rolling. With a toothpick, outline squiggly furrows that resemble the folded surface of a brain.
   3. Finally, carve narrow channels along the tracings with a sharp paring knife (a parent's job) to expose the pink fruit beneath the rind.

Salty Bones

It wouldn't be Halloween without a skeleton -- in this case, one that's been reassembled into a pile of tasty bones to pick.

What you'll need

• 1 tube of refrigerated breadstick dough (we used an 11-ounce tube to make 12 bones)
• Coarse salt

How to make it

1. 
   Unroll a tube of refrigerated breadstick dough and separate the rectangular pieces.
   
2. 
   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 11/2-inch slit in the center of each end.
   
3. 
   Roll or shape the resulting four flaps of dough into knobs that look like the ends of a bone.
   
4. 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 until they are light golden brown, about 12 minutes.

Cheese-Finger Food

Partying in costume calls for easy-eating fare, and these cheesy monster digits fit the bill.

What you'll need

• Mozzarella string cheese
• Green bell pepper
• Cream cheese

How to make it

1. 
   Wearing plastic gloves or sandwich bags over your hands to keep the cheese as smudge-free as possible, use a paring knife (parents only) to cut each string in half and then carve a shallow area for a fingernail just below the rounded end of each half.
   
2. 
   Mark the joint right below the nail as well as the knuckle joint by carving out tiny horizontal wedges of cheese, as pictured.
   
3. 
   For the fingernails, slice a green bell pepper into 3/8-inch-wide strips. Set the strips skin side down on your work surface and trim the pulp so that it's about half as thick. Then cut the strips into ragged-topped nail shapes and stick them in place at the ends of the fingers with dabs of cream cheese.

Monster Mash

Set your Halloween table with this fun green dip and a spook-tacular party prop (such as the monster hand shown here; available at party stores), and kids will soon be "goblin" it up.

What you'll need

• 4 ripe avocados
• 1/4 cup light or fat-free sour cream
• 1/3 cup tomato salsa
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

How to make it

1. 
   Cut the avocados in half and remove the pits. Spoon the meat from the skins into a medium-size bowl, then mash it with a fork.
   
2. Add the sour cream, salsa, lemon juice, and salt. Stir well and serve immediately. Makes approximately 2 1/2 cups.

Snack-o'-Lantern

Our healthy lanterns sport their own spoon stems for scooping up the refreshing fruit salad filling.

What you'll need

• Navel orange
• Canned or fresh fruit salad

How to make it

1. 
   To make one lantern, use a small knife to slice the top off a navel orange and cut around its interior to hollow it out. Scoop out the orange segments, chop them, and mix them with canned or fresh fruit salad.
   
2. 
   Carve small facial features in one side of the orange, then cut a slit in the lid to accommodate the handle of a green plastic spoon. Fill the lantern with fruit salad. Insert the spoon and set the lid in place.

Pizza Mummies

Disguises aren't just for Halloween. Surprise your family with these dressed-up, spooky-looking snacks any time of year. Kids can help by spooning the pizza sauce on the English muffin and making the mummy face with the cheese and vegetables.

What you'll need

• English muffins
• Pizza sauce
• Black olives
• Scallions
• Red or green pepper
• Cheese sticks or slices

How to make it

1. 
   Heat the oven to 350º F. For each mummy, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce onto half of an English muffin (toast it first, if you like).
   
2. 
   Set olive slices in place for eyes and add round slices of green onion or bits of red or green pepper for pupils.
   
3. 
   Lay strips of cheese (we used a pulled-apart cheese stick) across the muffin for the mummy's wrappings.
   
4. 
   Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the muffin is toasty.

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