Let’s do Halloween with vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free treats! Can it be done? I say absolutely! These ghosts, pumpkins, spiders, haunted houses, and monsters add plenty of spooky silliness to your table. Watch everyone enjoy these healthy, silly, and clever Halloween Fun with Food snacks!
You may have guessed by now that I absolutely LOVE Halloween! I love decorating my house, getting dressed up, and including my kids in the fun. As someone who specializes in vegan, gluten-free, and refined sugar-free recipes you may be thinking, “Wait. How do you DO Halloween without Halloween candy?!” Well, I’m here to show you all of the spooky, tasty dye-free treats I make for and with my kids. It’s a non-stop party with ghosts, spiders, jack-o-lanterns, and even haunted houses!
Halloween Fun with Food: Boo-Nana Banana Ghosts
These Boo-Nana Ghosts are one of the easiest Halloween recipes you can make! Vegan chocolate chips are perfect for little eyes and mouths, and they take less than a minute to assemble. Every one of my kids gets a kick out of seeing these silly ghosts on their breakfast or snack plate, and “Boo-Nana” is as fun to say as it is to eat!
BOO-Nanas
- Prep Time: 3
- Total Time: 3 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 2 bananas, peeled and halved
- 12 vegan chocolate chips
Instructions
- Just before serving, peel the bananas and halve them. Place the banana halves on a tray or plate with the cut side down. Place 3 chocolate chips on each banana to make the ghost face (two eyes and an open mouth).
- Serve immediately.
- Category: Snack
- Method: No-Bake
Keywords: boo-nananas
Halloween Fun with Food: Clementine Pumpkins
This is another SUPER simple Halloween snack! Kids love it because it’s a simple spin on one of their already-beloved snack foods. Clementine Pumpkins are perfect for adding to a lunch or snack board. You could even leave the skin on and let them draw a jack-o-lantern on with a non-toxic black marker!
Easy Clementine Pumpkins
- Prep Time: 2
- Total Time: 2 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Quick, two-ingredient Clementine Pumpkins are a kid favorite every time! Make them with a peeled clementine or let your imagination run wild and draw a jack-o-lantern face on the clementine skin with a non-toxic marker.
Ingredients
- 4 clementines or tangerines (ideally without seeds), peeled
- For the stem: celery ends (shown in photo), green bell peppers cut into tiny stems, or jalapeno stems (not ideal but works in a pinch)
Instructions
- Just stick the stem into the top of the clementine or tangerine and serve immediately.
- Category: Snack
- Method: No-Bake
Keywords: clementine pumpkins
Halloween Fun with Food: Gluten-Free Guacamole Cracker Haunted Houses
I use grain-free Simple Mills almond flour crackers and pita chips to make little haunted houses! Guacamole acts as the glue that holds them together and the best part is that you don’t have to be perfectly tidy. If guacamole spills out and over the edges it just adds to the slimy, spooky overall effect! I use the avocado skin to cut little windows, doors, and chimneys. All of my Halloween Fun with Food treats work well as yard decorations next to these houses!
Halloween Fun with Food: Haunted Cracker Houses (vegan, gluten-free, paleo, refined sugar-free)
- Prep Time: 10
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Spooky Halloween Haunted Houses are so fun for kids to make and eat! Guacamole and grain-free crackers create the house, and you can fill the yard with your favorite spooky characters!
Ingredients
- 1 avocado, pitted and mashed (save the skin for the windows and doors) – [season with a little salt and a squeeze of lime. you can also add red onions, jalapeños and cilantro if desired]
- 14–16 crackers (I used Simple Mills grain-free almond flour crackers and pita chips)
- blackberries for bushes (optional)
- BOO-nanas in background
- clementine pumpkins in background
- strawberry tops (just the green leaves) as bushes behind the blackberries)
Instructions
- Place a thin rectangle of guacamole on a plate or small serving board. This is the foundation of the haunted house and helps the crackers stabilize. Balance the crackers to make a house and use the pita chips (triangles) for the rooftop sides of the house. Place more crackers from the front door toward the front of the platter/plate to make a sidewalk. Put guacamole between the crackers.
- Decorate the haunted house with avocado skin as chimney, windows and door. Add a guacamole door handle. Add blackberries and strawberry tops (just the green leaves) for bushes if desired.
- Place BOO-nanas and clementine pumpkins in the background of the haunted house for the full effect!
Notes
A simple avocado mashed with salt totally works here. Or, you can make guacamole. See my favorite guacamole recipe here.
- Category: Snack
Keywords: Guacamole Haunted Cracker House
Halloween Fun with Food: Hummus Bell Pepper Jack-o-Lanterns
Have you ever seen a spookier edible jack-o-lantern?! Orange bell peppers are the perfect base for these creations, and filling them with hummus just adds to their creepiness! Choose your favorite hummus to fill it up: Quick & Easy Creamy Hummus or seasonal Garlic Pumpkin Hummus for a classic slimy look. Everyone loves seeing the spooky faces you create with the bell pepper jack-o-lanterns, and they’re so fun to pull apart and dip in the hummus!
Bell Pepper Jack-o-Lanterns
- Prep Time: 15
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
The perfect edible jack-o-lantern: orange bell peppers! Get your kids in on the fun and have them choose what kind of spooky face you’ll carve into this Bell Pepper Jack-o-Lantern!
Ingredients
- 4 orange bell peppers
- 1 batch of my Quick and Easy Creamy Hummus or Pumpkin Garlic Hummus
Instructions
- Slice the top off each bell pepper and use a knife to cut out the insides of the bell pepper (including the seeds). Discard the insides/seeds and reserve the top with the stem. If the bell pepper doesn’t sit level slice a sliver off the bottom so that it will.
- Use a sharp knife (the tip needs to be very sharp) to cut a jack-o-lantern face into the bell pepper. Spoon hummus into the bell pepper and place the top back on.
- Category: Snack or Appetizer
Keywords: Hummus Bell Pepper Jack-O-Lanterns
Halloween Fun with Food: Date & Pretzel Spiders
Date body, chocolate chip eyes, and pretzel legs make for the best edible spiders EVER! My favorite gluten-free pretzels are From the Ground Up’s cauliflower pretzels. The kids and I both snack on them all the time and they make the ideal creepy-crawly spider legs. We even love making these spooky spiders “crawl” across their plate before eating them. Playing with food is encouraged when we make these spiders!
Date and Pretzel Spiders
- Prep Time: 5
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 4 spiders 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Whole, pitted dates are the best spider bodies around. Add pretzel “legs” and chocolate chip “eyes” for a treat that’s spooky, sweet, and healthy all at once!
Ingredients
- 4 soft, room temperature Medjool dates, pitted
- 16–20 small pretzels(ideally the ones in the traditional pretzel shape and not pretzel sticks)
- 8 vegan chocolate chips for eyes
- sunflower seed butter (or any nut or seed butter) as needed for “glue”
- Spider web: 1 banana peel (reserve from making BOO-nanas) [more options in directions]
Instructions
- Make sure you are working with stick, soft, fresh dates. Hard dates will be more difficult to work with here. I find it best to use dates that are fresh out of a new package and have not been refrigerated. Be sure they are pitted. You can stuff them with any nut or seed butter if desired.
- Break the mini pretzel twists into smaller pieces and use the pieces as spider legs. Place 8 legs into each date (which is the sider’s body). You may need to use nut or seed butter as “glue” to help.
- Place nut or seed butter where the eyes will go and then place the chocolate chips on top as the eyes.
- If desired, you can make a spider web out of the inside strands of the banana peel. You can also melt white chocolate chips, marshmallows or use vanilla icing and drizzle that into a spider web design.
- Place the date pretzel spiders on their web and serve!
Notes
Best served on a black serving board or plate.
- Category: Snack
Keywords: Halloween Date Spiders
Halloween Fun with Food: One-Eyed Apple Monsters
I just may have saved the best for last! These Apple Monsters are the perfect opportunity to let your imagination run wild. They’re made with marshmallow and chocolate chip eyeballs, sunflower seed teeth, and a strawberry tongue. Eek! Use your favorite nut or seed butter for the “glue” that holds different pieces on and let your little ones help you create the most outrageous, goofy monsters you can think of.
Halloween Fun with Food (vegan, gluten-free, paleo, refined sugar-free)
- Prep Time: 10
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 3 monsters 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 1 green apple, cored and cut into thirds
- 1.5 tablespoons any nut or seed butter (for the “glue”)
- 1 strawberry, hulled and thinly sliced (for the tongue)
- 3 vegan chocolate chips (eyes)
- 3 vegan, gluten-free mini marshmallows (you can also use a banana slice toward the end of a banana so it is small)
- handful raw sunflower seeds (teeth)
Instructions
- Once the apple has been sliced into thirds carefully cut out the mouth (be sure not to cut all the way through). You can eat the piece you cut out while you prep this one.
- Smear 1/2 tablespoon of nut or seed butter inside the mouth and add a dot where the eye will go.
- Place one strawberry slice in the center of the mouth sticking to the nut or seed butter. This is your tongue. It works best if you put the larger part of the strawberry slice in the mouth and leave the tip of the strawberry coming out.
- Add sunflower seed teeth to the nut or seed butter.
- Add a mini marshmallow as the eye ball. Place more nut or seed butter on top for the pupil (chocolate chip). Carefully place the chocolate chip on top of the marshmallow.
- Serve immediately. You may need to prop the apples up with something like a date so they appear more upright.
- Category: Snack
Keywords: one-eyed monsters
Are you as excited about a healthy Halloween as I am? I love using these snacks to keep my kids in the Halloween spirit while taking a break from the traditional candy that fills our trick-or-treat buckets! These treats are fun to make one at a time, but it would also be so much fun to make a spooky table or snack board full of healthy Halloween critters! I hope you’ll tag me on Instagram if you make these. I would love to see your creations and your kid’s reactions to these treats!
More Vegan and Gluten-Free Halloween Recipes:
All are refined sugar-free too!
Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Muffins
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