Whether your kids have a plastic pumpkin full of castoffs, or you bought a 10-pound bag for 1-pound’s worth of Trick-or-Treaters, chances are the morning after Halloween there is a pile of candy in your house.
Candy corn can make the easy transition to Thanksgiving, but those tiny candy bars, sample-size Whoppers, Smarties rolls and peanut butter cups are the gateway agents to holiday weight gain if you let them hang around in a plastic pumpkin, ripe for the snacking.
And while your kids may be stoked about Gummi eyeballs and Snickers bars, there are always the leftover peppermint patties and Sugar Babies boxes that don’t appeal to the youthful palate.
Semi-neutral recipes like plain cheesecake, fudge, or chocolate chip cookie or oatmeal cookie dough can be great with chopped or crushed candy blended in. Save leftovers in an air-tight container (then freeze them if it will help you fight temptation) and use them in holiday baking.
Or, pack up a jar or box of leftovers and take them to work, donate them to a teacher or daycare for treats, or to a hospital, shelter, or nursing home.
Buying too much candy is easy to do. Figuring out how much you’ll need is a complex equation of location, the distance between houses, kids in the neighborhood, kids from other neighborhoods, and your neighborhood’s reputation for either handing out the good stuff, or for shelling out last year’s candy canes.
You may think that letting kids enjoy a piece or two a day until the candy is gone is a good strategy, but the American Dental Association actually says that if you are going to let your kids have Halloween treats, tooth-wise it’s better to let them have a day or two of bingeing, then put the candy away. Ongoing exposure to sugary snacks is more harmful to the teeth than gobbling down a bucketful, then brushing.
Creative candy ideas:
Freeze and crush candy or melt it, then add to milkshakes or use as an ice cream topping Crush and use to top plain cheese cake Hide them in the back of the freezer for holiday recipes Finely crush hard candy and suckers to add sweet sparkle to homemade chocolate-covered pretzels Freeze and chop bite-size candy bars and use them to replace chocolate chips in a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Save any and all candy to use in the construction and decoration of a holiday gingerbread house. Consider donating your leftovers to local hospitals or nursing homes, where caregivers can track the treats.