I think some super sweet Halloween treats are perfectly justifiable. However, it is nice to have some healthy options on hand as well.

Healthy halloween treats - better than candy corn

This first Halloween treat is an icy Halloween smoothie that I found a long time ago in Fitness Magazine. It wasn’t organic, but you can change ANY recipe to make it organic, so I did. Babies, kids and adults like this smoothie.

Halloween Smoothie:

• 1 cup organic canned pumpkin
• 1 cup organic milk (you can use soy if you like)
• 2 tablespoons real, organic maple syrup
• 1/3 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2/3 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pure Fair Trade, organic vanilla extract
• 1 cup ice

To make your smoothies (makes about 4 servings):

Blend everything, minus the ice until you get a nice smooth mixture. Add ice and blend until thick and creamy. If you want to get crazy, garnish with organic whipped cream and a dash of cinnamon or chocolate sprinkles.

The second treat of the day is a pumpkin seed bar I found in Taste for Life, many years ago. This treat is a healthy way to use up extra Halloween pumpkin seeds, and if you have leftovers of this treat, you can leave them out for hungry winter birds.

Pumpkin Seed Bars:


Mix 1 and 1/2 cups of organic pumpkin seeds with 1/2 cup of dried cranberries. In another bowl mix 4-5 tablespoons of organic honey along with 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla or orange extract. Mix the seeds and berries into the honey mix until well combined. Coat a basic loaf pan with organic butter or organic olive oil (just a little) then press the seed mixture in.

Chill in the fridge overnight. Cut into pieces and serve. This treat is tasty and very portable. You can also try it with other dried fruit instead of cranberries like apples or blueberries and even add a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg.

You can serve both of these treats together at a Halloween party or as after-school snacks too.

Image via Spiders at stock.xchng

I thought I was done with Halloween posts actually, but then I saw these…

Tovolo Spatulart Printed Cupcake Molds, Halloween! – How cute right? You may remember that I have a little obsession with Tovolo popsicle molds, but I had no idea they made reusable muffin cups with designs on them. I have a ton of normal reusable silicone baking cups, which are good in terms of reuse but aren’t so festive. These are way cool for Halloween, without having to use disposable paper muffin cups.

Then I remembered that I hadn’t posted these little Halloween gems yet…

Organic Halloween Marshmallows by Have It Sweet. This company makes the most gorgeous marshmallows with hand blended all natural colored sugars and 100% organic colors. All of their packaging and shipping material are recyclable and biodegradable too. My favorites are the square colored marshmallows, because they’d make awesome Halloween s’more but they also have adorable Halloween ghosts and pumpkins.

PS – you have to see their beautiful harvest marshmallows!

Organic Cotton Frog Hat – too cute! Nora & Finn has some other cute hats too, but sadly, not organic.

Lastly, for some DIY cuteness, how about these adorable Pumpkin Cakes. I saw these at Country Living, and they seem fairly easy, but would make a big splash at a Halloween party. To make them, it says you can simply trim the bottoms of cakes baked in mini Bundt pans then join two cakes together so that the fluted tops are at either end. Drizzle with chocolate or vanilla glaze and sprinkle with coarse colored sugar or nonpareils before the glaze sets. Top with a Marzipan Pumpkin Stem. Don’t forget to use organic ingredients for your cake and glaze.

The other day we looked at edible green Halloween treats. If you don’t want to hand out candy there are some affordable options you can choose from.

A word about baggies. If you go with non-edible Halloween treats, it’s way cheaper to buy in bulk and divvy items up. Some items don’t require baggies, but others will. If you need treat baggies I personally wouldn’t go out of my way to find biodegradable baggies. Not only do biodegradable baggies cost more but there’s a good chance they won’t biodegrade anyhow.

I’d go with something cheap like Halloween Cellophane Baggies (11¢ per bag) or you could look for recycled plastic baggies at your local grocery store. Mainly, I wouldn’t stress about baggies. If you stay clear of plastic bags, plastic wrap, paper towels and other disposables all year round, your footprint is going to be lower than normal anyhow. If you need Halloween treat bags try not to freak.

SAFETY NOTE: Not all non-edibles are appropriate for all ages of kiddos. Use smarts when handing out treats. Also, if you hand out a questionable treat, such as soap or play dough, I’d highly suggest you label the treat baggie so kids don’t attempt to eat the item.

Now about the goodies. It’s tough to find non-edible green Halloween treats for 50¢ or less, but it’s not impossible. Here are some options…

20¢ each – Usually I’m not on board with pencils for Halloween (boring!) BUT I found the most adorable Dr Seuss Lorax Project Pencils the other day. These are recycled and way cuter than most pencils.

25¢ each – Make-A-Jack-O’-Lantern Stickers

50¢ (or less) each – Earth Laughs in Flowers Mini Wildflower Seed Packets or sunflowers.

22¢ each – OUCH! skull & bones bandages

40¢ each – handmade glycerin Pumpkin Patch Halloween Soap.

About 20¢ each – Silly Bandz -  silicone rubber band bracelets that come in various shapes including basic, zoo animal, pet animal, dinosaur, sea creature, holiday, alphabet, princess, western and more. These bracelets pop on your wrist then, when taken off, pop back to their original shape.

Crayons are always good, although you will need treat bags, or they may break or get messy. Good Halloween crayons…

• 39¢ each – Crayon Rocks
• 45¢ each – Crazy Crayons Eco Stars (100% Recycled Crayons)
• 50¢ each -Recycled Crayon Rings

Under 50¢ each – Mary’s Natural Softdough Tub – Orange – create little balls of dough and place them in a treat bag. If you want to go less expensive, take an hour and make homemade organic play dough or homemade goop instead.

25¢ each – OWLoween Stickers

42¢ each – Halloween Cookie Cutters

31¢ each – GREEN PUMPKIN Halloween Pencil-top Erasers

9¢-18¢ each – Eco-minded Temporary Tattoos

Under 50¢ each – Buy a pack of Iron-on Cool Transfer Paper. Head to Family Fun and print out their Halloween T-shirt Iron-ons onto your transfer paper. Cut iron-ons into single sizes and hand out. It’d be nice to include some directions too – which you can easily type up on the computer. Find directions here (pdf). Really, for more fun, your child could draw a Halloween design, scan that into your computer, and print that out.

Handing out eco-friendly Halloween candy and other edibles seems like a good plan (if you’re rich). However, those bulk bags of candy at the store cost SO much less than green treats and when you’ve got 80+ trick-or-treaters arriving on Halloween night, it just seems insane to pay a $1 or more per trick-or-treater.

That said, it’s still doable to hand out greener Halloween treats, even if you’re not rich. Here are some good, less expensive green treats along with a cost break-down so you can see how affordable green Halloween treats can be. The ONLY way I’d pay more than 50¢ per treat is if I saved money on the costume and wasn’t having a party. Then I might splurge a little, but overall, I don’t think it’s necessary to go over 50¢.

24¢ each – Fair Trade, Organic Dark Chocolate Minis – if you need a TON for say a party, you can also go major bulk and score these organic Fair Trade chocolates for just 20¢ each.

25¢ each – Mini Glee Gum Mix.

40¢ each organic honey sticks or the vegan honey stick alternative for 18¢ each -Organic Pomegranate Agave Nectar Sticks. Remember – babies cannot have honey, so be sure to set aside another treat for wee trick-or-treaters.

45¢ each – Annie’s Homegrown Bunny Graham Friends (Honey, Chocolate & Chocolate Chip).

8¢ each – YummyEarth Organic Lollipops.

35¢ each – Organic Fair Trade Vegan Chocolate Orange Bites.

25¢ or less – Stretch Island Original Fruit Leather – DO NOT buy these online – I placed the link so you could see them, but I know you can get them cheaper at your local grocery store. Most online stores sell these (even in bulk) for about 35¢ each, but I see them at my local grocer on sale for 4 or 6 for $1.00 often.

Yummy Earth Organic Candy Drops in various flavors, like…

• 5¢ each – Sour Apple Tart
• 5¢ each – Roadside Root Beer
• 5¢ each – Hopscotch Butterscotch

46¢ each – Franny’s Organic Select Raisins – personally I find raisins super dull, and likely would not pass these out at Halloween. However, I know some kids who love them… so, to each his own.

I’ll be back with some less expensive non-edible green Halloween treats soon.

I wouldn’t say it’s the worst day ever; but…

• Everyone is being hyper frustrating.
• My phone keeps ringing (while I’m working).
• Cedar woke me up at 4:30, AFTER I’d been up until 3am working.
• The electricity went out all over the neighborhood and I couldn’t easily find the candles.
• Client’s checks are late and sadly my bill people just don’t care.

So yeah, it’s been one of those days. All I want to do is look at cute green stuff to cheer me up. That said…

• Batty Owl Halloween card made with sustainable wood – CUTE!

• It’s the Great Pumpkin Recycled Storybook Purse – so flippin’ adorable. I wouldn’t carry this around on a daily basis, but it’d be awesome as a Halloween candy holder. The bag is made from a recycled copy of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” by Charles Schultz and recycled fabrics. Such a cool idea.

• Organic fall Apple cookies from Beautiful Sweets – man do I need some of these today! How cute right?!

• Pumpkin Pie – Organic Shea Body Scrub – okay, technically not “cute” but I’m a huge sugar scrub fan and I bet this would make me feel spicy and relaxed.

• Extra hyper cute Halloween strawberry treat for the kids! Use organic strawberries of course.

• MAX from Where the Wild Things Are costume – in organic cotton fleece. Sweet. All toddlers need this costume.

There, now I feel a little better.

You don’t just have to hand out candy treats on Halloween. You can also pop cool non-edible goodies into treat bags. However, with just a little over a week left until Halloween, you’ll have to jump on the ball asap. Here are some ideas…

1. Crayon Rocks
2. Little pretty rocks, acorns, or other small nature items kids might enjoy
3. Xeko cards
4. Paper Milk postcards
5. Small packs of flower seeds (as low as $0.15 per kid) – or if you garden save your seeds all year and make up little packs yourself with recycled paper envelopes.
6. Recolored Halloween Crayons
7. Homemade organic play dough or homemade goop – for containers save up organic yogurt containers all year or if you’re short on time use recycled foil to wrap your dough in and put your goop in small treat baggies.
8. Temporary tattoos
9. Biodegradable confetti
10. Little cards of plantable paper
11. EcoBeads
12. Wooden tops
13. Mini Halloween Cookie Cutter Set about $0.44. per kid.

Green Halloween has many more fun treat ideas too if you’re looking to go the non-edible route.