Don't worry! The kids will eat up these healthful
Halloween treats—and so will you.

I am the first person to admit—I don't do healthy at Halloween. As a kid when I’d sort my loot, the boxes of animal crackers and bags of pretzels got dumped into an "only when the good stuff is gone" pile, shoved aside for the king-sized candy bars that the really cool neighbors gave out. A rockin' Halloween meant a heavy bag of processed bars of fat-laden sugar wrapped in shiny plastic at the end of the night, guaranteed to put me into sugar shock for weeks after as I sneaked those gooey goodies at every opportunity.

As an adult, I have been known to sample the treats as I'm waiting for the next costumed munchkin to come to my door (you have to make sure they're fresh, right?). And it can be a real battle not to "share" from my children's bags after. I've consoled myself, as I hid the smeared wrappers, that it's only one night—why not indulge? But it's not really one night—it's the first night in a two-month extravaganza of indulgence each year that doesn't end until I step on the scale in January and vow that I will never eat again.

So I’m going to try something different this year. I’m going to try to find a way to minimize the damage for both me and my children. But I refuse—refuse I say!—to be the house known throughout the neighborhood as the place to avoid because they only hand out the healthy stuff no one wants.