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Halloween is my favorite holiday! And there are so many reasons why. But let’s be honest…I love candy! Like love it. With posts like Sugar Coma Bars and Pumpkin Toffee it is pretty clear that I am not exactly a health food blogger. But my dirty little secret is that on Halloween, I usually send my kids to bed, and then sort and raid their haul. We all do it! I mean, it can’t just be me!
Anyway, my love for Halloween comes in many forms. We dress in a theme costume. We decorate our house. And we always make sure we have a killer candy bowl. No hard candies or tootsie rolls from us. You are going to get chocolate, and plenty of it.
My philosophy is a successful holiday should be easy, tasty, and fun. So I wanted to show you some of the ways I accomplish this: a favorite Halloween recipe the kids love, my tips for decorating your front door with stuff you probably already have around your house, or can pick up for super cheap, and of course the key to a great candy bowl!
Food Activity
Every year, my kids and I do a 30-day count down where we make a different Halloween food item each day to get us in the spirit of the scary, the creepy, the morbid, and fun.
For today we made Butterfinger Rice Crispy Treats shaped as bats and pumpkins. This is a super fast and easy treat the kids love to help make and eat! When I was at Walmart picking up candy for my bowl, I saw the cute molds for bats and jack ‘o lanterns in the Halloween section. So I bought them so we could make these.
They are very simple to make, and if you are anything like me you will get addicted, and then make them for birthday parties and Valentine’s Day and everything else!
Decorate
We also decorate! And we start with the front door. As a kid, I always knew the houses with good decorations would probably have good candy. So let’s talk about achieving an awesome door/entry without a lot of work or money.
- Plastic table cloth- $1 at Walmart
- Construction paper or vinyl – You can even use old school papers!
- Cardboard, paper plates, etc.- This is kind of optional, but we liked the 3D aspect of it. We use a black garbage bag for the hair.
Optional: Props- Cotton balls from your bathroom, plastic rings and things from Walmart that cost $1, more black paper to make bats, pumpkins, corn stalks from your garden, a hay bale, or whatever you have on hand that can add to the spooky fun!
We went with Frankenstein. But you could do a white tablecloth and black facial features for a skeleton, or orange and black or yellow for a jack ‘o lantern.
Last, we added some flare and fun around the door with a spider web, and as Halloween gets closer we will add Jack ‘O Lanterns, and more decor!
Candy Bowl
But the true testament to a Halloween lover is the candy bowl
A good candy bowl can make up for lack of decorations!
So how do you build a better candy bowl?
1. Get the right bowl: No plain old kitchen bowls, have fun with it. Why miss out on an opportunity to amp up the Halloween spirit even more? Isn’t this bowl darling? You can find the tutorial for how to make it at Travel Parent Eat.
2. Fill that bowl with the right candy: A cute bowl is important, but the right candy is key. To me that is Chocolate!! I went to Walmart and bought Butterfinger Snack Size bars, a Nestlé Jumbo Variety Bag, and the Butterfinger Assorted Jumbo Bag! I snagged a few out of the bags to make my Butterfinger Rice Crispy Treats, but trust me, there are still plenty for the trick-or-treaters. I love using this variety because you get the cups, the bars, the classic chocolate, the nuts, and of course the peanut buttery, nutty, goodness of Butterfinger! So in other words, something for everyone. No unhappy kids at this house!
You can find the Nestle candies on the Halloween candy aisle at Walmart as well as in several other places throughout the store: the traditional candy aisle, middle aisles, and right when you walk into the store there is a huge candy display!
3. Be generous: I realize every neighborhood is different, so if you are getting a bajillion kids visiting yours you might have to limit how much you hand out. At the very least, let the kids pick their own candy out of the bowl, that way if you have a variety they are sure to get the kind they like best. I usually tell the kids to take as many as they are old! This is always a huge hit with the older kids, who sometimes get left out of the Halloween fun!
There you have it, my favorite Halloween treat, and tips to make your Halloween even better this year with a great entry, great traditions, and an awesome candy bowl!
Butterfinger Halloween Rice Crispy Treats
Ingredients
- 10 ounces marshmallows
- 1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1/2 cup margarine
- 12 fun size butterfingers
- 10 cups rice crispy cereal
- Black and orange candy wafers about a cup each
- Silicone Halloween molds for pumpkins and bats Can get these at Walmart
Instructions
- Put butter in a large pot, and melt over medium heat
- Unwrap fun-size butterfingers and chop into small pieces on a cutting board, and add to melted butter, reserving a third, and stir. The heat should melt the candy center.
- When the candies are mostly melted, add in the marshmallows, sweetened condensed milk, and continue to stir to melt the marshmallows.
- When marshmallows are mostly melted, add in other third of chopped candy bars, and rice crispy cereal
- Remove from heat and stir it all together, and set aside.
- Put candy wafers in 2 microwave safe bowls, one for each color, and melt by microwaving for thirty seconds, then stirring, then microwaving for thirty seconds, then stirring, and then microwaving for 10-20 more second
- Fill bottom of Silicone Halloween Molds with the melted chocolate/candy wafer
- Using cooking spray, or shortening, cover hands, and then press rice crispy treat mixture into mold
- When full, place in refrigerator until chocolate is set and treat is no longer warm
- Pop out of mold and enjoy!!
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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