Highlights from Halloween

Well, it wasn't a completely "Healthie Halloween" ... mostly just cute. My caloric intake was not a total disaster that day, but let's just say I was hardly on track...

But back to the cute part! Here are some pictures and recipes of the treats I made on Saturday, which I dare say were the highlight of my holiday.

Pumpkin Cheese ball....

Recipe from Southern Living

I thought this was so cute!! I didn't even care if people ate it, I just wanted to make it. Just because... and let me tell you it was so easy! As easy as forming cheese into a ball and making divets with your fingers. We'll call this playdough for big kids. Hungry, big kids.

Next up, sausage balls:


If you look close up, you'll see I decorated some of them as bats, trying to mimic this adorable recipe for Bat Bites from All You Magazine. Basically I shmeared some cream cheese lightly on the sausage balls to provide some stick, rolled them in poppy seeds and stuck in some broken tortilla chips. I unfortunately did't get an up-close pic of them, but they were cute :)

(As for the sausage ball recipe itself, it was 1 lb. hot sausage, 1 lb cheddar, 3 cups biscuick and 1/2 cup of water. cook sausage and let cool, combine ingredients, form the bite-sized balls and cook on ungreased pan at 400 for 12-15 minutes.)


And finally.... Ghost cupcakes!

Idea based off of this recipe from All You

So - were there any "healthie highlights" from Saturday? Actually, yes.

You'll be glad to know that those chocolate cupcakes were made low-fat by substituting the oil for applesauce. In truth, I was going to make them the regular way, but realized we were somehow out of vegetable oil. I was forced to be healthy, but they were delicious in the end so I was glad! Because the ghosts were made with cool whip, I saved some significant fat and cals from regular icing.

Also, I had a strategy on Saturday that some may not agree with, but it was realistic for me. Basically, I knew I would be snacking as I cooked, and snacking throughout the party. So why bother eating a formal lunch or dinner? It was basically a landslide of snacking, but at least I didn't waste calories on additional meals when the snacking would have occurred anyway :) When possible throughout the day, I did snack on veggies and yogurt ranch dip to help fill up on the good stuff.

How was Halloween for everyone else?!