West Michigan Moves: Simple Swaps for Halloween

Try these easy recipes

I'd like to share the recipes involved in these simple swaps to make your Halloween a healthier one.

Candy Corn Fruit Cocktail

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup diced pineapple

4 clementine, peeled and segments separated

½ cup low-fat vanilla Greek yogurt

1 Tbsp. candy corn

Directions:

1. In a clear parfait glass, layer pineapple, then clementine, followed by Greek yogurt and candy corn.

Apple Monsters

Ingredients:

Apples, cut into slices

Almond butter (or other nut butter)

Slivered almonds

Semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Place one apple slice flat on a plate and then spread the back edge with some nut butter. Stick another apple slice into the nut butter so that the two apple slices look like an open mouth.
2. Stick some slivered almonds vertically into the nut butter to add teeth and then stick two chocolate chips into the upper apple slice to add eyes.

Ghostly Bananas

Ingredients:

Bananas

Semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Slice a banana in half and then stick two chocolate chips into the top of the banana to make eyes and add one more chocolate chip underneath those two to make a ghoulish mouth.

Pumpkin, Peanut Butter, Yogurt Dip

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Pumpkin

1/4 cup Plain low fat Greek yogurt

1/4 cup Peanut butter or flour (or PB2)

1/4 cup Baking stevia (or 1/2 cup sweetener that measures like sugar)

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1. Place everything in a small bowl and stir until smooth and creamy. Serve with apples slices.

Apple Phyllo Cups

Yield: 12

Ingredients:

Non-stick cooking spray

2 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ½-inch chunks

1/3 cup dried cranberries

Juice and finely grated zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons agave nectar

2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon allspice

3 tablespoons butter, melted

2 tablespoons water

4 (9x16) sheets phyllo pastry, thawed

1 cup fat-free vanilla frozen yogurt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat a standard muffin pan with nonstick spray. Set aside.
2. In a large pot, combine the apples, cranberries, lemon juice, zest, agave, ginger, cinnamon and allspice. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the juices in the pot thicken and very little syrup remains, about 10 minutes, set aside to cool.
3. In a small bowl, mix the melted butter and water. Unfold the phyllo, lay one sheet on a cutting board, and brush the dough with the melted-butter-water mixture — be sure to keep the pastry you are not working with covered with a damp towel to prevent it from drying out. Repeat three times, stacking the layers of dough on top of each other so that you have four layers.
4. Cut the stack of phyllo sheets three times crosswise and then cut again lengthwise twice so you have 12 even squares. Lay the phyllo squares in the wells of the muffin pan and gently press them into the cups, letting the edges fold and overlap naturally.

Spoon ¼ cup of cooled apple mixture into the phyllo cups. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until nicely browned. Let the apple cups cool in the pan before trying to remove them. Serve warm with a small spoonful of frozen yogurt.