Halloween Meal!

Since tomorrow will be a busy day for us, the boys had their fun food today! (Y'all know I have to go all crazy on holidays!) As always, everything was holiday related and semi healthy. I am passing this on now in case any one wants to copy it for tomorrow.

Breakfast: Pumpkin Patch Oatmeal

I made a pot of oatmeal (3 servings), and added three tablespoons of pureed pumpkin, about a tablespoon (or a little less) of smart balance margarine, some cinnamon, and a little brown sugar. In their bowls, I put sliced bananas around the edge and one "candy corn" pumpkin in the middle. (I mean, it IS Halloween - we can get away with just a touch of candy for breakfast, right?!)



Results: Jacob and Caleb ate all of theirs, and Caleb (my big breakfast eater) even had seconds. They all asked for seconds on the pumpkin too - nice try, boys, but not so much. ;-)

Lunch:

Pumpkin Pizzas

I halved 2 Oroweat Whole Grain and Flax Omega-3 English Muffins, spread a little pizza sauce over the top of each, added some cheese, covered the top with sliced up pepperonis and a little more cheese (to hold them in place), and placed a small triangle of green bell pepper to the top. I then baked at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. While they were baking, I cut a cheese slice into 12 little triangles, and 4 smiles. After 5 minutes, I turned off the oven, put the cheese "smiles" on the pizzas, and baked for about 2 more minutes. (See picture below)



We also had...

Pumpkin Mac N Cheese - Kraft has a "Halloween shapes" boxed mac and cheese. I made this as per the directions, but substituted 1/2 pureed pumpkin in place of the butter.

And...

Pumpkin Hummus!

Ingredients:

1 can (15.5 oz.) chickpeas or garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon water
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt or more to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Instructions:

PLACE chickpeas, pumpkin, lemon juice, water, garlic, salt and pepper into food processor; cover. Blend for 1 minute or until smooth. Additional water, a teaspoon at a time, can be added if a smoother consistency is desired

Results: Jacob went nuts! He ate every bite of everything, giggling the whole time, and requested more hummus. Gabe ate almost a whole pizza himself, had about a tablespoon of hummus, and had THIRDS on the pumpkin mac and cheese! Caleb... well, little Caleb saw everything and got too wound up to eat. He was belly laughing like crazy, and started acting out a little. He quickly calmed down, got sweet, and ate everything when he saw Jacob and Gabe getting dessert though...

Dessert was pumpkin muffins!



We love pumpkin muffins!! I make these all year, and always have them in our freezer.

Combine well 1 box of spice cake mix, 1 can of pumpkin, and 3/4 cup natural apple sauce and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes for regular sized muffins or about 20 minutes for mini muffins. Super easy. But, of course, today I added cream cheese frosting and a candy corn on top of each mini muffin! :-)

(These muffins freeze well. Just take out of the freezer and microwave for 1 minute. The boys love mornings when I am running behind, as we have a pumpkin muffins, bananas, and milk for breakfast!)

We ended up not eating the mummy cookies today, as their were already too wound up. I cannot take credit for them, as they were made by a mom of one of the twins' classmates. Aren't they cute though? (milano cookie, drizzled with white frosting, and mini M&M's for eyes)

I hope someone takes this idea for tomorrow! It was all really good, and the boys loved it!

My only concern...

Do you think it is possible to consume TOO MUCH Vitamin A in one day?! Sheesh! haha