Skip to main content

Halloween Festivities


By Meghann McMillan

It’s that time of year again where the leaves have changed colors, the air has gotten cooler, picking and carving pumpkins is a must and everyone seems to have tons of candy to share. With Halloween right around the corner it is easy to get caught up in the festivities, allowing a healthful eating to slip down the drain. This year, why not make some traditions a little healthier?

Can’t seem to get enough of any sort of pumpkin spiced drink that’s out there during the season? Ditch the high calorie drinks loaded with sugary pumpkin syrups and artificial colors and flavors for something more natural and chuck full of vitamins and minerals. Spice up your day with a homemade pumpkin spice smoothie! Pumpkin is loaded with anti-oxidants and vitamins A, C and E. One serving of pumpkin gives your body more than 250% of your RDA for vitamin A! Pumpkin is also a good source of B vitamins and is rich in minerals such as potassium and calcium. Combine that with the ingredients below and you’ll have a nutrient dense, low calorie delicious treat to give you a boost during the fall season.

Pumpkin Spice Smoothie

  • ½ can of pumpkin puree
  • ½ frozen banana
  • 1 small carrot, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • Pinch of ginger
  • 1 cup vanilla almond milk
  • 3 ice cubes


  1. Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until contents are combined and smooth. 
  2. Add more Almond Milk as needed to think smoothie to your liking. Best enjoyed in the fall!

If one of your Halloween season activities includes picking and carving pumpkins, try turning it into a nutritious and delicious activity to add to the fun. Instead of tossing the “guts” of the pumpkin as you scoop them out to carve, put them aside and roast the seeds. Pumpkin seeds are just as nutrient dense as the flesh. Pumpkin seeds are packed with antioxidants, especially tryptophan. Pumpkin seeds contain heart healthy mono-unsaturated fats. They are loaded with fiber and protein and provide our bodies with tons of iron and zinc. To roast pumpkin seeds, preheat your oven to 170 degrees F. Spread the seeds on a baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt (you could also toss in olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary, cayenne….whatever flavors are your favorite!). Once in the oven, let the seeds roast for 15 - 20 minutes. Enjoy these crispy treats on salad, in a snack mix, in your oatmeal or by the handful! 

With all the fall and Halloween festivities comes the Halloween parties. Halloween parties may mean the over consumption of many different sugary treats. This year, forget about bringing the traditional sugar laden candies and make your own sweet treats….without all the refined sugar! Check out this honey sweetened dairy free delights that are brimming with antioxidants and heart healthy ingredients.

Fall Dark Chocolate Treats

  • 1 cup coconut butter
  • 1 cup raw cacao powder OR 1 cup 100% Dark chocolate chips/bar chunks
  • ½ cup honey (raw is my favorite!)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Pinch sea salt
  • 1/3 cup toasted almonds
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberries


  1. Melt coconut butter in a nonstick pot over a stove top on medium heat. Make sure not to burn by stirring. 
  2. Once melted, stir in dark chocolate until smooth and combined. 
  3. Next add honey, vanilla and sea salt. Continue to stir until contents are combined and smooth. 
  4. Lastly, add the almonds and cranberries. Take off of heat. 
  5. On a parchment lined cookie sheet, drop spoon fulls of chocolate clusters. Let stand until hardened or store in the refrigerator until solid and ready to eat.

With these Halloween ticks, you will certainly be in for a treat this fall season, adding a little health to your fun. Enjoy and be safe!

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

4 Tips To Avoid Stress Eating During Finals

It's the week of finals and suddenly there's so much to do and not enough time to do it. With projects, papers, studying, all-nighters, and early wake-ups, indulging in your favorite (and maybe not so good for you) foods seems like the perfect way to relieve some of that finals stress. When we turn to food to relive stress, it tends to be food that comforts us and makes us feel good, which a lot of times is a carton of ice cream, a slice of pizza, or your favorite piece (or bag) of candy. The truth is, finals may not only be a stressful time of the semester but a time where weight gain occurs in stressed out students. The combination of a large amount of sedentary time studying and test taking, little to no exercise, and stressful or late-night eating is a recipe for weight gain. Another truth is that we may not even recognize that we are in fact stress eating due to being completely preoccupied. So how do we avoid this stress eating before it takes place? Here are four tips to...
Post a Comment
Read more

To Juice or Not To Juice?

Depending on who you talk to, juice is either part of the latest health trend or on the list of things to avoid. Understanding what juice does and doesn’t offer can help you decide if it is right for you. The Up Side: Fruits and vegetables offer a variety of health-promoting nutrients, many of which are still available in the juice squeezed from them. Juices can be a convenient and tasty way to get those nutrients. Juices also offer a way to get fruits and vegetables that you may not usually eat in the whole form. For example, cranberry juice is a popular alternative to whole cranberries and a great way to get some important antioxidants. People who don’t normally eat spinach may find that when juiced with other vegetables and fruit, they enjoy it. The Down Side: With about 50-115 calories per cup, fruit and vegetable juices are not low calorie drinks. For that reason, drinking a lot of juice could potentially make weight management more difficult. Research suggests that people who dri...
Post a Comment
Read more

Plant Forward

A New Way of Eating There’s a relatively new term buzzing around the food world that you may or may not have heard of, plant forward. What does that mean you ask? Plant forward focuses on more vegetable centric dishes with meat playing more of a supporting role. Think blended burgers, stir-fry’s or grain bowls where meat is almost like a condiment. Flavors are bold and it’s all about the dish’s deliciousness whether it happens to be vegan or vegetarian, or not. Diners aren’t interested in completely removing meat from their diets so embracing a diet that is mostly plants with some meat here and there provides a comfortable middle ground. The Challenge with Red Meat Conventional animal agriculture is resource intense and less than stellar for the environment. Ruminant animals release methane gas into the atmosphere which is about twenty five times more intense than carbon dioxide. Let’s face it, our country’s enormous appetite for beef is not so great for our health and the heal...
Post a Comment
Read more