A Diabetic-Friendly Halloween

Halloween used to be the easiest holiday of the year for me: buy a big bag of candy, eat about half of it before anyone knocks on the door. That doesn’t work anymore. Most Halloween candy is close to pure sugar, and a few “fun size” bars add up fast.

I didn’t want to sit the holiday out, though. So this year I put together a set of treats that still look the part but are built around the same things that keep my blood sugar steady the rest of the year: fiber, protein, fat, and sweeteners that don’t count as sugar.

The treats

Something chocolate. The graveyard chocolate chia pudding cups are cocoa chia pudding with a “dirt” of toasted pecans and a little dark chocolate tombstone pushed into the top. Chia has a huge amount of fiber, so a cup of this has about 16g of carbs and 11g of fiber. They also have to chill for a few hours, so you make them the night before and they’re ready when the party starts.

Something like candy. Witch’s bark is thin 85% dark chocolate covered in green pumpkin seeds and red freeze-dried raspberries. It’s the closest thing to a candy bar on this list. Breaking it into 12 thin shards is the trick: one or two pieces is plenty, at about 5g of carbs each.

Something baked. The green monster muffins are my favorite of the bunch because the spooky part happens on its own. They’re made with sunflower seed flour, and sunflower seeds react with baking soda and turn green as the muffins cool. It’s harmless and doesn’t change the taste, but when you break one open it’s bright green inside. They’re about 6g of carbs each and nut-free, which makes them easy to bring to a school party.

Something cold. Frozen ghost strawberries are strawberries dipped in a Greek yogurt and cream cheese coating, frozen, and given chocolate chip faces. Strawberries are one of the lower-sugar fruits, and the yogurt adds protein.

Something kids can make. Apple monster mouths are apple wedges filled with peanut butter, with sunflower seed teeth and a strawberry tongue. These have the most carbs of the six because they’re mostly apple, so a serving is half an apple. That’s the amount I found I can handle, and the peanut butter alongside it helps.

Something savory. Deviled eyeball eggs are regular deviled eggs with an olive slice for the pupil and sriracha veins. They have almost no carbs at all. If I’m going to be around a candy bowl, I eat a couple of these first.

Why the eggs come first

That last point matters more than it sounds. Earlier this year I wrote about what I got wrong in my first year, and one of the biggest things I learned was that eating some protein before carbs keeps my glucose much more level. A party is the perfect place to use that: start with the eggs, then have the sweet stuff.

A note on sweeteners

Several of these recipes use allulose or monk fruit. Neither one raises blood sugar the way sugar does, and I don’t count allulose in the nutrition numbers. If you buy sugar-free chocolate chips or candy, check the label: a lot of them use sugar alcohols like maltitol, which can still raise blood sugar and upset your stomach if you eat much of it.

Make a spread

If you’re hosting, all six together make a good-looking table, and most of them can be made ahead:

• The day before: the pudding cups, the bark and the muffins.
• The morning of: the eggs and the ghost strawberries.
• Right before serving: the apple mouths, so the apples don’t brown.

Happy Halloween. I hope you get to enjoy the holiday without the sugar crash afterward.