Jennie's Halloween Lunch
While my son was growing up, I made this Halloween lunch every year. He still mentions it around this time of year, even as a teenager!
For most kids, tricker or treating on Halloween evening is the cherry on top when it comes to celebrating this classic American holiday. But there's so much more we can do with our kids at home to bring the spirit of the season to life, including at lunchtime!
Whether you make it for a younger child as a surprise or work with your older children to create this healthy Halloween lunch together, this is a fun project in the kitchen for kids of all ages.
This lunch itself is easy to make and can be adapted depending on food allergies or preferences! The “main course” is an organic cheddar cheese and veggie sandwich with a spooky, Jack-o’-lantern face cut out of the top piece of bread. The orange cheese makes for a fun seasonal look, but swapping out the cheese for slivered orange bell peppers, shaved carrots, sliced tomatoes could also work!
The fruit snack is an “orange pumpkin.” Peel an organic cutie orange and stick a little stalk of celery out the top to create an edible pumpkin stem. Halloween is more fun with ghosts, so use a natural food coloring pen to draw a spooky face onto a stick of cheese.
The last two parts of this Halloween lunch are a bit trickier, but well worth the effort. They are crunchy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds and delicious Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Here's the recipe for the pumpkin seeds and I've listed below a link to the cookie recipe!
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients:
- Freshly scooped organic pumpkin seeds
- Olive oil
- Healthy salt free of microplastics*
Directions:
- Scoop the pumpkin pulp out of a fresh, organic pumpkin.
- To separate the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin, put everything in a bowl of water. The free pumpkin seeds will float to the top. Use your hands to free the ones embedded in the scooped out pumpkin.
- Rinse and thoroughly dry the pumpkin seeds.
- Coat the pumpkin seeds with a generous amount of olive oil.
- Toss the pumpkin seeds with a generous amount of sea salt.
- Spread the pumpkin seeds on a cookie sheet.
- Bake at 300° for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
*A recent study shows that microplastics — tiny plastic pieces smaller than a grain of rice — are found in 90 percent of commercial sea salt brands. The study "Global Pattern of Microplastics (MPs) in Commercial Food-Grade Salts" was conducted by researchers in South Korea and Greenpeace East Asia. So even though salt is good for the body, we need to be mindful to choose our salts wisely. Sea salt is an option to consider, but Himalayan salts and other non-marine salts are another option to research when it comes to minimizing exposure to microplastics.
We hope this easy Halloween lunch inspires your own creativity when packing lunch for your youngsters on Halloween!
Jennie Lyon is a green lifestyle writer and digital marketing professional who lives with her family in South Florida. Check out her blog to get the recipe for her yummy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.
