Trick or Low-Fat Treat

I've never been a huge fan of Halloween, even as a kid. Sure I loved the free candy and the chance to wear more make-up than my mom would ever let me wear the other 364 days of the year, but it was just not right.

Perhaps it was the penchant for decorating with spiders and the contradiction to "not take candy from strangers" except when you go up to their homes where they can snatch you. I have not celebrated Halloween in any big way since college.

For my adult years I have spent Halloween watching scary movies and eating a bag of candy corn or fun-sized Milky Ways or Almond Joys or frosted pumpkin cookies or well, you get the picture. Not dressing up has not stopped me from eating my fair share of Halloween candy.

With the nation's focus on childhood obesity (seriously we are condemning Cookie Monster for being a bad role model, he's a monster people, a monster...) I am curious what kids get for Halloween these days. I'm sure there is still plenty of candy, but I heard (from a good 8 year old source) that some people give out stickers (I would have LOVED that when I was 8) or small toys.

I'm sure there are still the folks giving out raisins and apples, and while I am a fan of both, neither really screams "special holiday treat" to me. Hungry Girl has a few suggestions on her website this week (fyi, if you don't know about Hungry Girl, she is awesome!). I kind of like the pretzels in the festive Halloween bags, a little salty to go with the sweet.

I don't get trick-or-treaters where I live, but I know people that do and another problem is planning how many treats to have and how many you will end up eating yourself. Some people opt to buy treats they don't really care for to eliminate the temptation (there are so few pieces of candy I don't like that would be hard for me). Some folks buy a very limited amount and when it is gone it is gone. I think I would be the person handing out stickers. It would be much too easy for me to turn off the lights and hide in the bathroom eating all the candy.

I had a couple snack- related catastrophes, "snacktastrophes" if you will, this week. I didn't eat an entire bag of fun-sized Twix bars (although I wanted to every single day) but I did over eat a couple of healthy snack items to the point of blowing my calories 2 days this week at least. Proving I cannot keep snacks of any kind in my house. That is a post for another day, in the meantime have a safe and happy Halloween however you plan to celebrate!