Dye-Free Preschool Snacks - Halloween Tricks and Treats, 2012

Tuesday, October 30 through Thursday, November 1, 2012

Monday she was home sick, so no snack. Which was a bummer, since that was the day the firemen came and the kids got to squirt the hose. 

...Oh. I mean it was planned. There wasn't a fire or anything.

Tuesday

Mini bagel w/reduced fat cream cheese, red and green grapes

I chose one of our large round snack bowls for this snack. Mine came from Target's Dollar Spot.
To make it festive-y (since it was practically my last chance!) I stuck a pumpkin food pick in with her grapes, and used some silicone baran to keep her bagel from getting too moist in there all night.

Wednesday (Halloween)

1/2 GF roll with SunButter and chocolate syrup, red and green grapes

I spread some SunButter and Trader Joe's chocolate syrup (since "nut-free" means so Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter!) onto most of a gluten-free Mancini's roll that I got from Whole Foods. Stuck into a silicone skull cup to keep it from getting moist against the grapes fortuitously looked like a brain. Scoooore!

I stuck a BOO! cupcake pick in with the grapes, and we were good to go!

I chose one of our large round snack bowls. Mine came from Target's Dollar Spot. I like that some of my taller silicone cups can fit in these.

Thursday

Pirate Booty, yellow carrot sticks, Ranch

Event though the Sassy Feeding Bowl was designed for taking baby food on-the-go, it's perfect for a preschooler snack bento! That little sauce box was from Daiso, but it appears to be discontinued.

Preschool Tricks and Treats

Cello bags, straws, clappers, rings, foam stickers, mini erasers, pencils,
assorted rubber bugs, large foam craft shapes

The "Trick" here is that most of the Halloween candy out there isn't safe for Z to eat. What doesn't have artificial colors contains artificial flavors and vanillin, which she happens to react to as well. Since I refuse to hand out something I won't let my own child have, I've been finding non-food items for holidays instead. And since we had planned to go trick-or-treating with my sister and her girls in our mom's neighborhood, we wouldn't be home for trick-or-treaters anyway. So I decided Z could hand out "Treats" to her classmates instead - and show them and their parents that you don't need junked-up candy to have a fun holiday!

I scoured a few Dollar Spots at Target and two Dollar Tree stores to find a great assortment of non-food Halloween treats to make goodie bags for her classmates. She has 18 kids in her class, including her, plus I made two more for her cousins. Some items, like the cello bags and plastic rings had [more than] enough for everyone in a single package, but others I had to get multiples. So I ended up spending around $25. But I am MUCH happier about these than I would have been about a $3 bag of dye-filled lollys!

And the teachers let each child who brought something to share pass them out themselves. She was more excited about that than the bag itself!

Which helped ease the sting of being able to eat virtually nothing from her Halloween loot. Luckily she had fun trick-or-treating with her cousins. And I had a stash of safe Unreal Candy and Surf Sweets Gummies and Jelly Beans for her instead.

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