Homemade Halloween... A Guest Post from Real Moms Eat Food! :)

Welcome to the second day of my Homemade Halloween event! I am having so much fun with this, and am excited to share with you the next guest blogger for today, Beth from Real Moms Love To Eat. She has cooked up a spooky snack that any kid would flip over! Read on, friends! I will see you again this afternoon for another post {from yours truly!} featuring a simple Halloween decor makeover tutorial. Don't miss it! :)
xo-Holly

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This post is by Beth Aldrich, author of the upcoming book, Real Moms Love to Eat (Penguin Books, NAL, 2011) and Certified Healthy Lifestyle-Green Living Expert and mother of three hungry boys! Visit Real Moms Love to Eat here!

Serving Up Haunted Dogs, Real Moms Style!

This real mom loves to eat healthy, delicious food. But sometimes salads and reduction sauces just don’t kick it with my three hungry sons, so I’ve come up with a few kid-friendly options over the years. Last week, my third grade co-room parent asked me to come up with some cute, nutritious ideas for our classroom Halloween party. I couldn’t resist the urge to suggest one of my own childhood favorites, protein-packed, organic Haunted Dogs!

Remember Sunday morning pancakes and pigs in a blanket? Well, take that concept and think scary mummies with blood-red eyes (or even yellow zombie eyes) and BOO! You have yourself an all-in-one Halloween meal. Go for organic wieners—the little goblins and princesses won't miss the carcinogenic nitrates found in conventional hot dogs. And if you’ve got any vegetarians in your bunch, there are always Lightlife’s Tofu Pups, which are made with organic soy.

Haunted Dogs
Serves as many as you like!

Ingredients:

• Ready-to-bake crescent rolls


• Organic hot dogs (I like Applegate Farms dogs)


• Ketchup


• Mustard


• Cloves

Directions:

Roll each organic hot dog with one or two crescent rolls ready-to-bake dough (enough to cover entire “dog” leaving only the end of the top and tip of the bottom showing through the dough).

Bake each Haunted Dog according to package directions. When finished cooking, take dogs out of the oven to cool a bit, then add dots for eyes using either two mini cloves or dots made from ketchup or mustard.

As you can see, the recipe is super easy, and my kids absolutely love it. Sometimes the simple things are what make kid-friendly holidays the most memorable. I remember working for hours on an elaborate cake with a graveyard scene, and the kids tore into it in seconds, not realizing all of the hard work that went into it. So now, with a few years of experience under my belt, I’ve learned that less is best, as long as it tastes good and the plates are colorful.

Happy Halloween Meal Planning!