ottawa foodies

Any suggestions on Halloween treats to hand out to the critters? Is there anything that falls outside the usual mini- chips / chocolate fare that won't break the bank and won't invoke horror amongst the kids?

Our neighbour hands out (small) cartons of chocolate milk, which seems a pretty good treat -- tasty, healthy & popular w/ the kids. Being a good neighbour means i can't just copy that idea. :)

Ideas anyone?

You can also hand out cans of pop.
Or those little Italian pear and peach drinks - the bottles are really cute.

There's also bags of nuts, like peanuts, and sunflower seeds. I remember that some houses used to just give a big handful of shell-on peanuts - a little boring maybe, but us kids never seemed to mind. I always get my Halloween candy at the Asian markets. I remember when I was a kid it was always super exciting to get "foreign" candy, because it was always something I hadn't tried before. Last year I got a nice selection, including these little jelly-fruit-cups that were made with real fruit juice - there's so many choices of interesting candy. I must admit that "healthy" is never in my mind when buying things for Halloween - as kids we always dreaded those little packs of raisins, so I feel the need to indulge the kiddies for just one night!

thanks both: good ideas, esp. the jelly-fruit-cups.

Healthy isn't the prime motivator here: we always end up w/ leftovers, and i'd rather have surplus i enjoy (not crappy chocolate).

Last year we bought a big package of little tubs of playdough and gave them out.

i probably don't need to say this, but, please, please don't give out peanuts! if you can give out things that are made in a peanut free environment, even better. there are very serious life threatening allergies to peanuts out there.

I will be giving out packets of hot chocolate (hardly any kids come to my house since the neighbours are sucky and don't give out candy). I bought a couple of cases of hot chocolate packets so if there is lots left over I'm not stuck with a truckload of candy.

Does anyone really think that a kid who is allergic to peanuts is going to eat a bag of peanuts?

If they're old enough to be trick or treating, they should be old enough to be able to avoid the things they are allergic to.

X-13D: Allergies to peanuts can be mild to severe. I know someone who just needs to SMELL them to get a reaction. And it can just be a little whiff. So not giving out peanuts is probably a good idea.

There are all sorts of different allergies out there and I cannot be expected to keep track of them all nor to cater to the people who have them. Those people have to learn for themselves and it is the responsibility of their parents - not me - to keep them alive until they are old enough to take care of themselves. And I will add that my niece's son has a severe peanut allergy and almost died about 2 years ago when a neighbour gave him a peanut butter cookie. The only thing that saved him was that they live right across from an emergency clinic. And peanut allergies are in my wife's family so there is a very strong chance that one of my own kids or grandkids will develop one as well. And if that happens I won't expect anyone else to coddle to me or mine.

I could go on a longer rant about a general problem in our society about people not wanting to take responsibility for themselves, but I'll spare you that one.

I will also add how freaking ticked off I am that my son cannot bring a peanut butter sandwich to school with him. Right now it's pretty much the only food he is guaranteed to eat, but we cannot send him with it because someone else expects the whole world to raise their kids for them.

Yes, you've hit a sore spot ...

My reply was only intended to point out that with some peanut allergies, it isn't just eating them that can set the allergy off, its smelling them or touching them too.

It is unfortunate. I feel bad for both sides of the argument because peanut butter is so popular with most kids.

As for whether or not this is an issue of parents expecting others to raise their children, well, I won't get into that one. I'm not a parent and don't wish to join in such a discussion. ;)

Um.. not to spark this debate even further, but I'm not sure (really.. I'm not sure) that either breathing peanut aroma, or touching them is something that would cause life threatning anaphylaxis (rather than the host of other unpleasant reactions that are non-life threatening) and thus is not really in the same category (to me at least) as 'eat this and you will die'.

Oh.. and maybe some MDs out there can point out the difference, but my understanding is that an 'allergic reaction' and anaphylaxis (as in.. SEVERE allergic reaction to ingested or internally introduced antigens ) although having similar root causes are not in the same ballpark... Anyone going to voice in?

Maybe we do have some MDs or RNs who read this board and can provide more info. That would be interesting.

However, I can tell you that I witnessed a severe allergic reaction due to smelling latex. One of my former classmates was severely allergic. One day in the student clinic she was just doing her work, then suddenly didn't feel so good, then one of the other classmates was grabbing her epi pen and we were calling 911. This was all due to latex gloves in the clinic, if I recall correctly. Someone had grabbed out the box and was putting gloves on. I do know the one who had the reaction didn't touch or see the latex. She didn't even know what had happened until hours later at the hospital, so it's not like she saw the gloves and had a panic attack or something. It really was a reaction to the latex 'fumes' if you will.

Allergies are very strange things. I've been in discussions with other medical professionals who aren't sure why they're more commonly so severe these days but were not when we were kids. Lots of hypotheses about that!

Some only have allergic reactions when they consume ground or tree nuts, while others also have reactions when they come in contact with or inhale the scent of ground or tree nuts. Depends on the severity of the allergy. I hate this debate, I hear about it all the time at work with frustrated parents on both sides of the issue.

Getting back to the topic of Halloween treats.

Once my neighbour gave out Fortune Cookies. The kids loved them because of the fortunes inside. I think that they are reasonable in price and you can buy them individually packaged. You can also dress up as a Fortune Teller when you hand the out at the door.

don't know if they are nut-free...

Don't distribute fortune cookies, the kids might choke on their fortunes! Ho ho!

Aside from the whole allergy thing... In my opinion, don't give out peanuts because they suck! As a very young-ish adult, I like to think I'm pretty close to the age of the kids out and about on Halloween...

In any case, I remember getting bags of peanuts or mixed nuts on halloween and thinking... are they dumb? I WANT CANDY. I'm not passing judgement here, but that's what I thought at the time. Also, we were told anything that was sorted by hand should be thrown out immediately, which I did. Peanuts, or nuts of any kind... are boring! plain and simple.

oh, and I love the fortune cookie idea.

Fortune cookies are a great idea! Like kiwiw, trick or treating was not too long ago and I remember what the good stuff was aka CANDY. Anything that was homemade/touched/opened was thrown out and I hated getting cans of pop because they just weighed your bag down. Now that I hand out candy, I usually have two bowls, one for candy with peanuts and one without, just to make it easier.

The peanut issue: Well, I probably wouldn't stop buying individually wrapped candy that was peanut-y - such as Reese cups, or bags of peanuts. We LIKED getting peanuts when we were kids - it was the raisins we dreaded (though my Mom was always THRILLED when we gave them to her, shrug). HOWEVER I would probably avoid giving out handfuls of shell-on peanuts as I can see that might "contaminate" ALL of someone's candy and I wouldn't want to do that.

The homemade issue: I HATE that it is no longer OK to make your own treats due to a few sickos that have ruined it for everyone! I so badly want to make beautiful caramel or candy apples for the kids but I know they would just end up in the trash :(

Couldn't you make your own and include a little card with your name and address, and point out to them that the card is there?

Once we made candy popcorn balls and gave them to the kids we knew. They were really tasty and had smarties and other yummy candy inside (no raisins).

Homemade is the BEST. But I understand the concern.

However, if my kids ever got homemade Halloween treats I would personally test out each one!! Yum. But it has to be exceptional homemade treats - like fudge, or peanut brittle, or chocolate chunk cookies.