{ boo }

Nothing kills a festive Halloween mood like realizing what a nutritional nightmare this holiday can be. After the fun of dressing up and trick-or-treating are over, kids are left with a pile of artificially sweetened, high fructose corn syrup loaded candy that wreaks havoc on their health. What we try to do is to focus more on creating halloween crafts and baking healthy treats rather than eating candy.

Here are some tips to create a healthier halloween in your home.

1) Buy organic, fair trade dark chocolate.

2) Create organic Pumpkin masterpieces.

Buy organic pumpkins. Search for organically grown or pesticide-free pumpkins in your area at www.localharvest.org. Decorate pumpkins using least-toxic, water-based or tempera paints. Hearthsong makes a pumpkin decorating kit that doesn't involve knives, just colorful wooden features children stick into pumpkins to make faces.

4) Make whole wheat pumpkin pancakes and top with fresh fruit instead of syrup. I sneak some whey protein powder into the pancake mix too.

5) Let your kids pick out 5 pieces of candy to keep (one for each day after halloween) and throw the rest away! {i know, that sounds mean, doesn't it?} :-) But kids and sugar just don't MIX.

6) We've been making tissue ghosts and other halloween crafts and are gearing up to bake pumpkin bread and apple muffins this weekend.

7) Make your halloween greener with these tips or by visiting this Green Halloween.