Feeding the Family on Halloween

Before sending your little superheroes and princesses out into the night on Halloween, make sure they eat a good dinner. With a little imagination, you can pass off ordinary foods as something spooky...

• Tomato soup (pictured) can be blood soup; and black bean soup can be bat soup
• Raw veggies can be arranged as spooky fingers or as skeletons
• Whole grain spaghetti and red sauce can be passed off as blood and guts. Eww!
• Cut Jack O' Lantern faces in quesadillas, but use whole grain tortillas and reduced-fat cheese, or make them with pieces of vegetables on whole-grain muffin pizzas
• Make hot dog mummies, but using nitrite-free turkey hot dogs and reduced-fat crescent roll dough
• Offer a fresh fruit cup in a hollowed out orange carved like a Jack O' Lantern

Once the kids return home with their candy, encourage everyone to select a few favorite fun-size pieces to enjoy over a few days, then ditch the rest, or find a local dentist who's prepared to trade it for a little money or a small prize.

_{"Blood Soup" photo © Fiona Haynes, licensed to About.com}