Did you know that Halloween is a celebrated on the 31st of October as it is the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows? It is the start of a thee-day remembrance of the dead, specifically Christian Saints and Martyrs. Historically, Christians abstained from eating meat on Halloween and just ate vegetarian foods during this time.
Nowadays, this has changed and we indulge is things like Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins, apple bobbing, playing tricks on unsuspecting neighbours and eating piles and piles of sweet treats!
As I am sure you can appreciate, as nutritionists, we are not all too enamoured by the amount of sugar passing our children’s lips. Don’t get us wrong, our kids eat sweets now and again but they are by no means a daily occurrence and so we wanted to look into some more healthy food options to showcase for this Halloween.
After looking into more about the history of food and Halloween, I discovered that one of the most popular foods to eat were potato cakes during abstinence of meat. These are still applicable now in 2019! They are a great way of adding lots of leftover vegetables into a meal and they are great for little hands to pick up, as well as being full of goodness! I have adapted a basic potato cake recipe to make it perfect for babies and the whole family!
We are lucky in this day and age via the power of social media and the web that we can find all sorts of wonderful alternatives to sweet treats. You only have to go on Pinterest to see some amazing ideas of Halloween inspired foods which are not laden with sugar, colourings and preservatives. Have a search around, be creative and help your little ones to enjoy this spooky time without the sugar high (and consequent behaviour which comes with it). Maybe give our potato cakes a go as a bid to the old style Halloween celebrations which were observed in a very different way to how they are now!
Guest Blog by Happy Tums
