E.S. Ivy

author of middle grade books for children

Goblin Fruit Kids Will Gobble Up

by

halloween fruitBefore you send you little ones to stuff their pumpkins (and then their faces) with candy, put something a little more healthy in their stomachs – goblin fruit faces!

If you’re a child of the 70’s, maybe you remember the “pear salad” your mom made you eat? In my family it was a canned pear half on top of a leaf of iceberg lettuce, garnished with a dollop of mayonnaise – filling the hollowed out core – and sprinkled with cheddar cheese. And we were required to eat the soggy, sweet lettuce leaf AND the heaping spoonful of mayonnaise. Can you imagine? I think in my husbands family the pears were filled with cottage cheese.

But you won’t get any fussing out of your kids for these fruit “salads.” They’ll gobble them up! The ghost and jack o’lantern faces are a bit more healthy as they are made entire out of fruit – canned fruit and dried fruit. The monster faces use chewy candies, but it is Halloween after all!

Jack o'lantern peach half

Jack O’Lantern Peaches

Ingredients

  • canned peach halves in light syrup or fruit juice
  • pitted prunes (dried plums)

Jack O’Lantern Peach Directions

1. Drain the peaches and blot them dry with paper towels. (This helps the face pieces stick better.)
2. Use a rolling pin to flatten two prunes for each jack-o-lantern. Using a small knife, cut out two eyes, a nose, and a mouth and position them on peach halves. Use a small piece as a stem.
3. Refrigerate until serving.

Pear ghosts

 

 

 

Pear-half Ghosts

Ingredients

  •  canned pear halves in light syrup or fruit juice
  • raisins

Pear-half Ghost Directions

1. Drain pear halves and blot dry with paper towels. (This helps the eyes to stick.) Position the halves, cut side down, on a plate so that the smaller end is at the top. Trim the pear half into a ghost shape and cut a scallop along the bottom.
2. Cut a raisin into fourths. Use the tip of a small knife to make small holes in the pear where you want the eyes to be. Push one of the raisin pieces into each hole for an eye.
3. Refrigerate until serving.

peach monster faces

 

 

 

 

 

Fruit Monster Faces

Ingredients

  • canned pear and peach halves in light syrup or fruit juice
  • raisins
  • pitted prunes (dried plums)
  • gummy candy (we used “gummy” Lifesavers and sour fruit strings)
  • candied cherries
  • tooth picks, broken into pieces

Monster Fruit Face Directions

1. Drain the fruit halves and blot dry with paper towels. (This helps the dried fruit and candy stick.) Position the fruit on a plate cut side down.
2. Decorate the faces using pieces of candy and dried fruit. To use the prunes, flatten them first with a rolling pin. Hold the pieces on with toothpicks pieces if needed. (If you use toothpicks, be sure and tell the kids before they eat them.)
3. Refrigerate until serving.