What to do with Leftover Halloween Candy
If your kids got a huge haul or you bought too much and didn’t give enough out, come November 1st, you might be sitting on way too many snickers minis. If you don’t want the temptation of snacking on them every day for the next year, or you want some fun treats to make for parties or yourself this list might have a few good tips for you.
- Donate/Sell your Halloween Candy
This is a popular one with a lot of local dentists, and that’s what sort of inspired this article to begin with. There are a couple of websites that offer this sort of stuff, such as Halloween Candy Buyback, Operation Gratitude and Operation Shoebox. We recommend you do your own research on companies like this, but from what we can tell these are great options that have pickup locations in San Diego.
We always prefer something local, in the past The Helen Woodward Animal center offered candy collections. The Super Dentists will donate $1 per pound of candy you give them to your child’s school. Speaking of schools, you can definitely ask your child’s teacher if they would accept donations of Halloween candy to give out in class or anything of the sort.
You can also contact local businesses to see if they’re interested! Soup kitchens, hospitals, and shelters are all great places to look, just call or email ahead so you’re not walking out with 10 pounds of assorted chocolates with all the Reese’s removed.
- Spruce up a Dessert
This doesn’t have to get complicated. Buy a gallon of vanilla (or any other flavor) ice cream. Chop up some candy bars. Stir them in. If you want to take it a step further you can go the Dairy Queen route, you can use a blender to mix the candy in with some softened ice cream (microwave it for about 10-15 seconds). Just avoid gummy candy when you’re doing this, unless you really want a chewing challenge.
- Make Granola/Trail Mix
Since we’re looking at a possibly warm fall (maybe… I mean, who knows what the weather will bring) this could be an ideal hiking time! Make some homemade granola by mixing oats, nuts, seeds, coconut oil, salt, dried fruit, and some salt in a big bowl. Bake it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until it’s lightly golden brown. Leave it out and covered to cool, and then stir in your candy. If you’re using bars, make sure you chop them up, especially if they have caramel in them.
With trail mix, you just have to put stuff in a bag and shake it, I don’t think you need a whole recipe for that. Just be sure you’re offsetting the candy with some healthier options like dried fruit, nuts/seeds, plain popcorn, I mean you know the drill. It’s trail mix. Don’t make it complicated. Be sure you salt it, but not too much if you’re using salted nuts/seeds!