Booty Prude

Happy Halloween! This can be quite a frightening time of year for food prudes, parents and those with food allergies and/or intolerances.

How do you do Halloween healthy? Here's my two cents:

1. Most obvious, don't eat or allow your children to eat anything before examining it at home under good lighting.

2. Set up a buy back program for your kids. I give $.10/piece and my kids love it. They usually sell more than half their candy to me, which I then donate or trash.

3. Donate, donate, donate. There are several places that offer to buy your candy for $1/lb, like doctors' and dentists' offices. You can also look for places to donate it, like nursing homes, homeless shelters etc.

4. Check these references to find out which candies are gluten free:  Gluten Free Candy List from Celiac Central, Gluten Free Candy list from Alison of Sure Foods Living.

5. Establish a rule for the kids (and you!) defining how much candy consumption per day is acceptable and pick a date that the candy will 'expire', and stick to it. For example, I allow my kids to have 2 pieces of their unsold candy per day for two weeks. Exactly two weeks after Halloween, all the candy goes in the trash.

6. Grab your pillow cases and go get some booty!