How To Handle the Halloween Stash

Many have a "love-hate" relationship with Halloween. They love that there is opportunity to enjoy bite-size chocolates and candies and they hate it for the same reason. I always embrace Halloween and all that comes with it. I buy a bag of the itty-bitty candy bars (the ones that are a perfect mini square) for Milky Way, Snickers, Twix, 3 Musketeers...and keep it in the refrigerator. Each family member might grab a few of these on certain days and that seems to help us all enjoy the season in a relaxed way (without feelings of obsession or deprivation).

Now that "bag" that you put in the refrigerator is different for everyone. What is it that you most desire during the Halloween season?

And what about the two bags or so that you need to have on hand to give out to trick-or-treaters?

Photo Credit: Elaine Magee

How to Handle the Halloween Stash Pre-Halloween

I always look for an alternative to giving out the candy bars like Snickers and Kit Kats because plenty of my neighbors usually have that covered. I try to find the coolest "healthful" alternatives, although that's always up for discussion. In years past it's been individual packages of nuts or trail mix, gum, mini granola bars, mini boxes of breakfast cereal, etc. If all else fails, quarters are always popular. Remember to have some age appropriate treats or prizes for the littler ones who might swallow quarters and who can't chew gum or eat nuts yet.

How to Handle the Halloween Stash Post-Halloween

Here are some tips to use up that excess Halloween candy:

• Make a batch of whole wheat buttermilk pancakes and decorate the top of the pancakes while in the pan with M&Ms or chocolate chunks from chocolate bars
• Make a batch of whole-wheat cookies or brownies and stir in bits and pieces of various candy bars.
• Send non-chocolate candy to soldiers with the US military in the middle east through www.soldiersangels.org.
• Use some of the candy bits in a homemade batch of trail mix (blend nuts and dried fruit with M & Ms and other types of candy.) Fill snack size bags with some of the "Halloween" trail mix for convenient snacks for school or after school.

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• Healthy Cooking with Elaine Magee, RD
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Taste Test Tuesday: Kellogg's Fiber Plus Antioxidants Bars

Chocolate Chip Chewy Bars

There's a new granola-type bar on the supermarket shelf! And this one gives you 35% of your daily fiber (or so the package says). It looks like a candy bar, it almost tastes like a candy bar... is it a candy bar with fiber?

Well, let's look at the first 5 ingredients:

• Chicory root fiber
• Rolled oats
• Crisp rice cereal (rice flour, sugar, malt extract, etc..)
• Sugar
• Semi sweet chocolate drops

While the first few ingredients are more like a cereal, the last two are more like a candy bar. Put it all together and you've got a chewy bar with 23% calories from sugar and 30% calories from fat. Each 120-calorie bar also contributes 9 grams of fiber, 10% Daily Value for calcium, 20% Daily Value for vitamin E and zinc.

Here's the nutritional information per bar:

120 calories
4 g fat
2 g saturated fat
0 g trans
55 mg sodium
26 g carbohydrate
7 g sugars
2 g protein
9 g fiber

If you are looking for a chew cereal-based bar that is really high in fiber but also high in flavor and you don't mind that it has around 20% calories from sugar and only 2 grams of protein...this is a snack bar for you!

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What's in Your Peeps - Sugar or Splenda?

If there are peeps in your supermarket, it must be spring! They come around once a year, but what are they really...what's in that sugar-crusted, marshmallow-like treat from your youth? Sugar? Corn syrup? Would you guess both?

A 5-chick serving of peeps totals 140 calories and 34 grams of sugar. But now you can partake in sugar-free Peeps (available at certain drugstore and supermarket chains across the country). But proceed with caution...Although the package boasts "sweetened with Splenda," take note that each 3-chick serving also contains 23 grams of sugar alcohol, which is enough sugar alcohol to cause some very uncomfortable intestinal side effects in some people. You might want to keep it to a 1-chick Peeps serving until you know how your body handles the 8-gram dose of sugar alcohol per Peep.

When some people enjoy a certain amount of sugar-free confections that contain maltitol (or another sugar alcohol), there could be some resulting intestinal discomfort and a mild laxative effect. This is thanks to the part of the sugar alcohol that isn't digested or absorbed. It goes through the intestinal tract and starts to ferment and attract water into the intestinal tract. A certain, individualized amount of discomfort, ranging from gas to diarrhea can result, depending on the amount consumed and each person's intestinal tract.

The American Dietetic Association advises that more than 50 grams of sorbitol or 20 grams of mannitol per day can cause diarrhea. You can see the amount of sugar alcohol in a serving of each sugar-free product by reading the nutrition information label.

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Best to Worst Easter Basket Treats

Pick your Easter basket poison. Are you partial to the marshmallow or peanut butter eggs or the milk chocolate bunnies...or, are you a Peeps person? What's the best way to approach your Easter basket, knowing you're going to indulge to some extent?

Of all the Easter basket options, these are the best to worst Easter treats. Where does the regular hard-boiled egg fit in to this table? With 70 calories, no sugar and 4.5 grams of fat, you'll find it somewhere between the Sugar-Free Peeps and the Elmer's Toasted Marshmallow Egg.

Easter Treat	Calories	Sugar (g)	Fat (g)	Saturated Fat (g)
Bubble King Bubble Gum Eggs	15	4	0	0
Peeps Sugar-Free Marshmallow Chicks, 3 chicks (28 g) NOTE: each serving contains 23 g sugar alcohol	60	0	0	0
Hard boiled Egg (Silver lining-6 g quality protein and all sorts of vitamins and minerals)	70	0	4.5	1.5
Elmer's Toasted Marshmallow Egg (21 g)	80	14	2.5	1.5
Sugar Free Russell Stover Jelly Beans (40 g) 35 pieces NOTE: each serving contains 30 g sugar alcohol	110	0	0	0
Starburst Sour Jelly Beans, 1/4 cup	160	30	0	0
Peeps, 5 chicks (42 g)	140	34	0	0
Cadbury Crème Egg (34 g) (Silver lining-4% Daily Value calcium)	150	22	5	3
Almond Joy Egg, (31 g) (Silver lining-1 gram of fiber)	140	14	8	6
Peanut M&M's Bunny Mix 1/4 cup (Silver lining-1 gram fiber and a small serving of peanuts)	220	29	6	5
Whoppers Robin Eggs (40 g) 8 pieces	180	29	6	5
Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bunnies (34 g) (Silver lining-1 g fiber, 8% Daily Value Calcium)	170	19	10	6
Nestle Crunch Nest Eggs (37 g) 5 pieces (Silver lining-4% Daily Value for Calcium)	180	20	9	6
Hershey's milk chocolate Eggs (40 g) 7 pieces (Silver lining-1 g fiber, 8% Daily Value Calcium)	200	22	12	7
Dove Dark Chocolate Eggs, 6 foil Wrapped eggs (43 g) (Silver lining-3 grams fiber)	220	20	14	8
Cadbury Mini Crème Egg (36 g)(Silver lining-4% Daily Value calcium)	170	23	6	4
Dove Truffle Egg (25.5 g)	150	13	10	7
Hershey's King Size Marshmallow Egg (67 g) (Silver lining-4% Daily Value vitamin A and Calcium)	260	38	8	4.5
Reese's Peanut Butter Egg (34 g) (Silver lining-1 gram fiber)	180	15	11	3.5
Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, little Foil wrapped ones, 5 pieces (38 g) (Silver lining-1 gram fiber)	190	18	12	6
Hershey's Bliss Milk Chocolate Eggs 5 pieces (39 g) (Silver lining-1 gram fiber, 6% Daily value for calcium)	200	20	13	8
Dove Solid Milk Chocolate Egg—6 oz, 1/3 egg (56.5 g)	307	31	19	10.5
1/2 bunny (2.25 oz) (Silver lining-1.5 grams fiber)	345	36	21	12
Reese's Reester Bunny—5 oz 1/2 bunny (2.5 oz) (Silver lining-2 grams fiber)	340	38	20	9

The bottom line to enjoying Easter candy is moderation. Keep certain Easter candy principles in mind before proceeding with your Easter basket massacre:

Never eat the whole chocolate Easter bunny in one sitting; the nutritional totals are likely to shock you. The entire 6- ounce Dove bunny or egg, for example, totals 920 calories, 56 grams of fat, 32 grams saturated fat, and 92 grams of sugar. You can break off the piece you want and keep the rest in there for when the next chocolate bunny craving hits.

A mini candy option doesn't mean its "mini" in calories, fat or sugar. The little foil-wrapped Reese's Peanut Butter eggs have more sugar, fat and saturated fat in a 5-piece serving than the traditional (34 gram) peanut butter egg.

Keep your eye on the portion size! You would be surprised what is considered a serving on some of the Easter candy labels. So check this out and know what you are really getting into in terms of calories, fat and sugar. If the label tells you that a serving is 1/4 of the 5-ounce bunny and it already has a fairly shocking amount of fat grams per serving...it's probably best not to enjoy more than 1/4 of the bunny!

It's better to eat jelly beans than to drink soda! Our bodies appear to be more likely to compensate naturally for the calories in a handful of jelly beans compared to the same calories in a sweetened drink. A Purdue University study found that significant weight gain might occur when carbohydrates are consumed as liquids rather than as solid food because the participants didn't decrease their intake to compensate for the added soda calories but were able to for the additional jellybean calories.

Sources:
NCA National Confectioners Association
International Journal of Obesity. June 2000, Vol. 24, Number 6, pages 794-800 "Liquid versus solid carbohydrate: effects on food intake and body weight" DiMeglio DP et al.

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5-Minute Dark Chocolate Rocky Road

Photo: Elaine Magee

There's something about Easter time that conjures up thoughts of one of my favorite chocolate treats-rocky road. Was it all of those Rocky Road Easter Eggs in my Easter basket over the years?

This year, you can save yourself time (driving to the chocolatier) and money by whipping up a batch of homemade rocky road. One bag of high cacao chocolate chips, a bag of walnut pieces, half a bag of miniature marshmallows and a microwave is all you need. Get all of the food products on sale and the batch will only run you about $6.00!

5-Minute Dark Chocolate Rocky Road

Photo: Elaine Magee

Ingredients:

11 ounces 60% cacao semi sweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoons canola oil
3 cups miniature marshmallows
1 1/2 cups walnut pieces

Photo: Elaine Magee

1. Add chocolate chips and canola oil to medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat on HIGH for a minute. Stir to help melt remaining chocolate chips or heat on HIGH for 15-second intervals until chocolate is completely melted.


2. Let cool about 5 minutes (meanwhile set up 12 muffin papers) on a flat surface or jellyroll pan.


3. Stir the marshmallows and walnut pieces into the melted chocolate mixture. Portion the mixture evenly into the 12 muffins cups. Refrigerate until set (about 30 minutes). Share them with your friends and family!

Yield: Makes 12 big rocky road servings
Per serving: 250 calories, 5 g protein, 26 g carbohydrate, 14 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 3 g fiber, 13 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 50%

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