How to have Halloween fun with your kids and without candy!
“Why do you have to be a dietitian, Mom?, it ruins all of our fun!” my 5 year old pouted at me after I told him that we couldn’t have just halloween candy for lunch.
“Why does all fun have to involve candy?'' I thought to myself. My gut reaction was to defend my fun-mom-ness by reminding him of all the fun things we do together, many of which involve candy. (I do love candy, I just don’t think it needs to be involved in every fun thing we do)
Instead, I took a deeeeep breath and counted to 4 (thanks for the tip Daniel Tiger). My kid was pushing my buttons to try and get what he wanted, and arguing would not help the situation.
Arguing is not something fun-moms do.
Then I realized that I could show my kids how to have fun without candy. Showing is more effective than telling.
TWO FUN HALLOWEEN FOOD CRAFTS
Using google, I found two fun-tastic halloween lunch ideas: mummy pizza and ghost toast. I’ve since re-created them and posted them here and here.
Both recipes are FUN, healthy and within-my-food-crafting-abilities (they require ZERO skill).
We got into our Halloween garb, assembled the fun-food together and had a fun-filled Halloween lunch.
We had fun without candy.
The next week I made these crafts with 10 grade school boys at a party. They all loved them and asked for seconds.
Show your kids how fun you can be by trying these WIC friendly recipes this week. Let me know if they improve your fun-mom-score and if you have any other healthy fun halloween ideas to share: nicolebuhlerRD@gmail.com
WHAT WE ATE LAST WEEK
For those of you that want it, here’s my menu for last week:
Monday: broccoli cheese soup + french bread + green salad + pears
Tuesday: pumpkin curry + “stonefire” naan bread + apples
Wednesday: potato corn chowder + cornbread + applesauce
Thursday: chili + rolls + apple slices
Friday: greek meatballs + tzatziki + hummus + naan bread
Saturday: chocolate milk + pumpkin muffins
Sunday: enchiladas + canned corn + honeydew melon
