Well, we did it! We survived our second sugar-free Halloween on SCD and while there were some tough moments, it was so much better than last year. We knew what to expect this time around and we were prepared. I made plenty of SCD-legal sweets, hashed out an exciting candy trade-in plan and even found a honey-sweetened candy that my daughter could have.
Waaaay down on the bottom of the candy wall at PCC, I found these honey sweetened peppermint patty-like candies from Heavenly Organics. There are only three ingredients...unsweetened dark chocolate, honey and ginger extract. It's not technically SCD-legal because of the chocolate, but we tested cocoa powder a while back and have been able to bring it back into my daughter's diet. This was a huge score! I thought the ginger was a bit overpowering and would love to try their other flavors, but it was a great surprise to stick in her goody bag.
We hosted our annual Halloween party on Halloween night, which was one of our best yet. Since it was a Friday, people stayed late and we had a blast dancing into the wee hours. I made two pots of chili, one with turkey and one vegetarian, and set out all the fixins' so people could make their own perfect bowl. I also provided several crazy veggie trays and then asked everyone to bring some fingers finger foods to share. That way, I was sure that there would be at least one dish that everyone could eat and there would be plenty of food without me having to kill myself to get it all done. As it turned out, most people brought SCD-legal foods anyway.
Here's my crazy eyeball veggie platter...
...and my bizarre cauliflower head veggie platter...this is what you call using your head to make veggies more fun. ;)
A girlfriend made these wonderful little Paleo nut cups...
...and these almond butter brownie cupcakes complete with mashed banana "frosting" and cinnamon RIP details.
These are the frozen pumpkin "fudge" bars that I forgot to put out...recipe to come soon.
For drinks we had plenty of booze along with apple cider served in jelly jars and paper Halloween straws...
Here is a great shot of the potluck table and another great veggie platter... and how cute are the tangerine pumpkins?? Please note, there are edamame beans, chicken wings and some pita chips in this photo that are not SCD-legal, but everything else was. :)
By the end of the night even my skeleton got into the spirit.
You may be wondering if we had any tears this year. The answer to that is yes, but they actually came a few days before Halloween, but they weren't as intense as last year. My daughter's GI also consented to her having a small amount of "real" chocolate on Halloween night as a one-time treat. Coupled with the Heavenly Organics candy I found and the sweets we had at the party, it didn't seem nearly as hard this year. She chose a dark mint chocoloate bar from Theo Chocolates and was allowed to have two squares. Theo's is organic, fair trade, locally made in Seattle and very clean with only a few pure ingredients...cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla extract and mint extracts.
This is the last in my series of Halloween posts that seems like it's gone on FOR-EVAH. I really think this is the hardest holiday to deal with on SCD, so I put a lot of effort into making it as much fun as possible for my little one...sharing all of that takes a lot of posts to cover. Hopefully, these posts have been helpful and will make your next SCD Halloween a little easier. XOXO, Cindi
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