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Health & Fitness

Terrifying Trick or Treat

Halloween and Autumn dishes to fill Trick or Treaters tummies before they go marauding for treats.

My 5-year old body stiffened, my heart threatening to pound right out of my chest. I froze in place. I watched through two ragged oval holes in the old white sheet over my body as my siblings ran up the cracked and dirty walkway to the haunted house.

It was my first Halloween outing. I wore an older sister’s cast-off ghost costume from the year before. My veins turned icy as my sister rang the doorbell, paper grocery bag outstretched, and waited for the green-faced woman I was certain lived inside the creepiest house in the neighborhood.

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How would I get home when she locked them in her attic with her winged monkeys? That was my last clear thought.

A sea of faces floated over mine calling, “Wake up! You’re missing Halloween!” I’d fainted from a combination of fear and low blood sugar. Probably more the latter than the former. I’d been so excited to finally go Trick or Treating I hadn’t eaten breakfast and quieted my growling stomach with candy corn, Mary Janes, and a Snickers bar obtained at stops along our route. The sugar high carried me along for a few blocks, but the inevitable crash came on fast and hit hard.

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The group quickly dropped me at home and went along its merry way. They continued their quest for hours. But my day was done and my paper sack had little to show for it. That was the last time I went Trick or Treating without some solid food in my stomach.

Years later I struggled to feed my own kids, amped up with the excitement of their anticipated sugary hauls. Even my sternest rules about eating before Trick or Treating flew out the window when the first knocks sounded on the door and they stampeded past me. I solved my problem by creating quick meals that looked like the sights they were about to see.

My Pumpkin Babies*, Tricky Meatloaf Treat*, and Spooky Stuffed Peppers*,were hits. But simply making smiley faces with sausage and bell pepper pieces on Mini Pizzas** earned enough bites to prevent my kids from ruining their night of marauding for treats.

Do you have trouble getting your kids to eat on Halloween? Think outside the box this year. Find foods that look like the treats they anticipate and turn them into savory meals to fill their tummies.

 

*From Easy Weekly Meals for Moms on the Go, available in November, 2012.

**From Easy Weekly Meals for College Students, available now through our website,Amazon.comBarnesandNoble.com and the Apple Store.

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