Healthy Green Halloween Snacks

Two healthier Halloween minded snacks for you today, the first is an icy Halloween smoothie that I found a long time ago in Fitness Magazine. The downside is that it wasn’t organic; but you can change up ANY recipe to make it organic so I did. The second treat is a pumpkin seed bar from Taste for Life (loved by birds and kids alike) and it’s a healthy way to use up some of those Halloween pumpkin seeds.

Halloween Smoothie:

• 1 cup organic canned pumpkin
• 1 cup organic milk (you can use soy, or another milk as well, it works fine)
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/3 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2/3 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup ice

To make your smoothies (makes about 4 servings):

Blend everything minus the ice until smooth. Add ice. Blend until thick and creamy. Garnish with whipped cream and cinnamon or chocolate sprinkles – the chocolate sounds odd, but pumpkin and chocolate actually go really well together. It looks best with Fair Trade chocolate shavings I think.

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 (just a little) then press the seed mixture in.

Chill in the fridge overnight. Cut into pieces and serve. This treat is tasty and easily 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. My son liked these a lot and he doesn’t normally like seed-type stuff like trail mix.

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

[image via stock.xchng]