We’ve rounded-up our best Halloween recipes, healthy tips and ideas to help you make this a fun-filled holiday that won’t leave your little treaters in a sugar-induced coma from now until the Christmas candy shows up.

Healthy Halloween Recipes for Kids

These treats are better than anything you’ll find at the grocery store because you and the kids can make them together and they have much better ingredients. Get the recipe for snacks like Trick or Treat Trail Mix, Caramel Apple Fruit Dip and Sugar-Free Dirt and Worms.

Healthy Chili Recipes for Your Halloween Cauldron

Warm-up your little trick-or-treaters before they take on the neighborhood with one of these delicious and hearty chili recipes. Toss it in the Crock pot early in the day and your hands will be free to make last-minute costume alterations!

Calories in Your Favorite Halloween Candy

Those mini packs of chocolate and other sweets look so tempting because they’re so small. Mind your serving sizes and feel free to indulge, a little. You’ll be surprised how quickly, with so little, you can wrack up 100 calories or more! For instance, each Hershey’s Kiss has about 26 calories. Two fun-size Three Musketeers have 128 calories. Three pieces of Strawberry Twizzlers have 120 calories.

Top 5 Exercises to Burn Off Those Halloween Sweets

Come Monday, when you realize just how much you enjoyed the Halloween treats, you’ll want to get right back on track with your weight loss (or management). Try this workout designed by our fitness expert Matt Johnson.

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Healthy Halloween Recipes and Tips

Learn how to play with some of your favorite Halloween recipes so that they won’t send you into a sugar coma. You will also learn how to turn a protein-packed egg into a ghoulish-looking eyeball. Sounds funky?

But with eggs, olives, green peas and a few shots of hot sauce, it’s way healthier than a few slices of deep-dish pizza, a Halloween night tradition.

Tune in this Friday to the Rachael Ray Show and check your local listings for exact show times.

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Tune In: Eat This, Not That for a Healthy Halloween on Rachael Ray

While we all make Halloween resolutions such as “I’ll only allow myself two pieces of candy,” or “I’m donating all leftover candy to the local soup kitchen,” you can safely indulge in your favorite Halloween treats without harboring guilt or using a padlock to protect yourself from raiding your child’s Halloween bag. Need proof? Here’s a look at the nutritional stats of some of your favorite spooky-time eats so that you can savor the fun of this holiday and still look great in your skinny jeans. Plan these nibbles into your daily calorie budget.

• Four plain Hershey’s Kisses: 104 calories
• One fun-sized pack of plain M&M’s: 88 calories
• One fun-sized pack of peanut M&M’s: 93 calories
• Two fun-sized 3 Musketeers bar (regular or mint): 128 calories
• One snack-sized (one cup) Reese’s peanut butter cup: 100 calories
• Three mini Reese’s peanut butter cups: 132 calories
• One Tootsie Roll Lollipop: 60 calories
• Four Tootsie Roll Midgies: 92 calories
• One fun-sized 100 Grand bar: 95 calories
• Two fun-sized Snickers bars: 160 calories
• Two mini boxes of Dots: 70 calories
• One fun-sized box of Junior Mints: 50 calories
• One Smarties roll: 25 calories
• Two mini Laffy Taffy’s (any flavor): 64 calories
• One fun-sized Kit-Kat bar (two sticks): 100 calories
• Two fun-sized Milky Way bars: 150 calories
• Three pieces of strawberry Twizzlers licorice: 120 calories
• One fun-sized Butterfinger bar: 100 calories
• One Charms Blow Pop: 60 calories

Happy Halloween!

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Calories in Your Favorite Halloween Candy

Plus, you can put their busy little hands to work to help you prepare these for their school parties or for a fun-filled Halloween night at home.

Trick or Treat Trail Mix

A simple snack to fill goody bags, or just keep handy during a scary movie, this trail mix takes minutes to prepare. Pretzles, reduced-fat cheese crackers, dried fruits, nuts and a few M&M candies will have them asking for more!

Sugar-Free Dirt and Worms

This is a funny little snack that sends imaginations running wild. Fill tiny flower pots or Halloween paper cups with pumpkin pudding, homemade granola and sugar-free gummy worms you make yourself for an unforgettable treat.

Caramel Apple Salad

Forget the sticky mess that caramel apples typically yield, and instead serve this twist on fruit salad. It’s made with fresh apples, butterscotch pudding, pineapple and Cool Whip, and even the big kids are going to enjoy it.

Caramel Apple Dip

Kids love finger foods and dipping – so let them scoop up this creamy, sweet fruit dip with apples, pears or even a carrot stick!

Pumpkin Walnut Muffins

Whether for breakfast or a snack, these bite-sized muffins are perfect for tiny hands and enjoying all the warm flavors of fall.

Frosty Pumpkin Smoothie

Halloween a little warmer where you live? Then whip up this sugar-free treat, that tastes like a pumpkin pie in a glass!

Crock Pot Chili Mac

Set the slow cooker and go! This tasty and hearty meal will make your Halloween evening more manageable. The kids will love that the goulash presentation looks a bit gory, too.

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Healthy Halloween Recipes for Kids

Top 5 Exercises To Burn Off Those Halloween Sweets

Chest Press, Lat Pulldown, Alternating Lunge, Step Ups, and Ball Crunches With Band.

Try and circuit-set each of these lifts by doing twenty repetitions of each for three sets. Good Luck!!

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Top 5 Exercises To Burn Off Those Halloween Sweets

• Two fun-sized Snickers bars have 160 calories and take about four bites to scarf down. Yes, they contain peanuts, but not enough to give you a solid protein slug. You can eat 160 calories in one medium-sized apple and one leveled tablespoon of peanut butter.
• One snack-sized bag of pretzels contains approximately 180 calories. Other than a trace of iron, pretzels are fairly nutritionally void. Instead, you could opt for 5 reduced-fat Triscuits and two wedges of the Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese for only 155 calories.
• One serving of candy corn (about 22 pieces) packs 140 calories. For the same amount of calories you could sip a tall Caramel Macchiato made with non-fat milk from Starbucks.
• Six Reese’s miniature Peanut Butter Cups contain 216 calories. There is nothing like the divine combination of peanut butter and chocolate, but you could also scramble one-half cup of egg beaters with one slice of reduced-fat cheddar cheese and eat it with a piece of whole-grain bread and save 26 calories.

These equivalents are not meant to dissuade you from indulging in Halloween treats, but rather meant to inform you of how your calories stack up to more nutritious options versus their empty calorie competitors.

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Calorie Tricks in Halloween Treat Favorites

- You can always buy individual fruit to hand out (apples, oranges, nectarines)

- Dark chocolate provides some antioxidants (just buy any kind of individually wrapped dark chocolate candy… it doesn’t have to come in Halloween packaging!)

- Individually wrapped crackers, mini microwave popcorn packets, nuts, seeds, raisins, string cheese, sugar-free hot cocoa packets

- If you’re feeling really ambitious, you could make your own Halloween trail-mix to hand out. Try this recipe:
Trick or Treat Trail Mix
1 cup of pretzel sticks or mini pretzel twists
1 cup of reduced-fat cheese crackers (Reduced Fat Cheese Nips)
1 cup lightly salted roasted or party peanuts (or similar nut)
1 cup orange or black dried fruit (raisins or dried apricots or peaches)
1/2 cup Halloween M&Ms (optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a big bowl and toss to mix well.

Use a 1/2 cup measure to scoop out 1/2 cup of the mixture into a zip-top or plastic bag. Tie the ends closed with orange and black curling ribbon or decorative wire.

Makes 9 (1/2 cup) bags

Per serving: 213 calories, 6 g protein, 30 g carbohydrate, 8 g fat, 2.5 g fiber, 227 mg sodium.
*Recipe provided from webmd.com

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Trick or Treat Trail Mix Recipe

1. Plot Before You Shop

Before you step foot into the store, figure out how many bags of candy you will need, (not how many you want). And most importantly, don’t buy candy that you love. If you know that you have the capacity to lose all self-control around peanut M&Ms, do yourself a HUGE favor and opt for another choice instead. Select only the candy that you are not tempted by. If you’d prefer to eat steamed salmon and broccoli over Mounds or SweeTarts, then stock your grocery cart with just those items that won’t trigger the sugar addict in you. And remember, that kids don’t care: All they want is the treat whether it’s chocolate or SweeTarts.

2. Don’t Buy Candy

Yes, this may appear sacrilegious, but more and more parents are opting to distribute healthy snacks or non-edibles for Halloween. You can buy a box of colored pencils online for about the same price as a few pounds of candy. Small boxes of raisins, organic lollipops and granola bars are all great alternatives to traditional candy. And don’t worry about looking like the odd-ball in the neighborhood. In fact, you’ll probably have parents running up to your door thanking you for your thoughtfulness.

3. Pack it Up, Send it Out

So Halloween is over and you’ve once again over-bought. So what do you do with this gigantic bowl of leftover candy that is just sitting on your kitchen counter screaming for someone to eat it? Rather than take it into your workplace where you’ll still be tempted by it, send it off with your spouse or drop it off at a local food bank, foster care facility, senior center or homeless shelter. With the holidays approaching, you can also consider putting together a care package for US military men and women who are stationed overseas and include these leftover treats.

The idea with Halloween is to relish in this sugar-coated holiday, but not go totally whacko with sugar. One Reese’s peanut butter cup tastes just the same as the ten additional ones you are pondering about eating.

Happy Halloween!

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Three Ways to Survive Halloween

Chicken Chili – The chicken is a lean alternative to beef and you’ll get plenty of fiber and other nutrients from the kidney beans and vegetables. This recipe is just 2.5 Weight Watchers Points.

Barack Obama Chili - This recipe comes from the Democratic nominee’s personal recipe collection. He says he’s been making it since college and it’s always a hit with his family. Using lean turkey, this recipe has 291 Calories per serving.

Country Style Chili – A more traditional approach to chili, it’s seasoned well with chili powder and cayenne, and stocked with veggies and beans. Trade the beef for ground turkey to cut calories. This recipe has 246 Calories.

Low Carb Chili – Ground turkey, bacon and plenty of seasoning bubbles this hearty chili recipe to less than 6g Carbs per serving.

Crock Pot Chili Mac – It’s goulash meets chili in a satisfying combination the entire family will love. This recipe from Weight Watchers has about 6 Weight Watchers Points.

Just plan ahead, put the ingredients together the night before, then set the Crock Pot to slow cook all day on low. The aroma will meet you at the door and dinner will be ready.

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5 Healthy Chili Recipes for Your Halloween Cauldron

1. For individual servings, use small paper or plastic party cups, or cupcake liners. For one single batch, place in a flower pot or kids sand bucket.

2. Fill about half full with Diabetic Pumpkin Pudding. This is a homemade pudding recipe that you’ll find to be irresistible during the fall season. It’s thick and creamy, and only has 123 Calories.

3. Crumble on top of the pudding Homemade Granola. It’s crunchy and sweet, and you can send the extra in your kids’ lunches, or make your own healthy breakfast.

4. Finally, top with Sugar Free Gummy Worms. Your kids will have too much fun helping to make these creepy crawlers.

You should get about 8 servings, and likely have some extra granola for snacks (unless you half the recipe). These three amazing, sugarless recipes can be part of your regular snack rotation; but when they come together at Halloween, they make one heck of a fun dessert.

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Sugar-Free Dirt and Worms Dessert