Halloween is one of our favourite times of the year! Whether you are celebrating with the kids by trick or treating or just having a family night in, we’ve pulled together 3 of favourite ways to enjoy candy and lollies with none of the guilt of plastic.

1. Bulk Bin Candy – chocolately treats, yoghurt raisins, gummys and jelly beans – head to your local bulk bin store and see what you can stock up on without plastic wrappers. You could buy a few different bulk lollies, in your reusable LilyBee bags of course, and hand them out in tins or mini paper bags.

2. If you don’t want the bother of making homemade sweets, look for chocolate or lollies that come in compostable packaging, or foil that you can recycle, no plastic in sight.

3. The most simple Halloween food involves fruit - and no processed sugar in sight! Here’s our favourite ideas:

• Cut a banana in half, stand it on the flat end, then use raisins to make eyes and a mouth.
• Create mini pumpkins by pushing a stick of celery or cucumber into the centre of a peeled satsuma. Or hand your kids unpeeled ones to draw spooky faces on.

4. Make your own caramels! Homemade caramel is so easy to make, and the perfectly sweet Halloween delight. Check out our favourite recipe from Mama Bake, and serve loose in a jar or tray. Why not jazz them up for Halloween by adding black or red food colouring!

 

Ingredients:

Method:

1. Before you start, line an oven dish with baking paper so that it is ready when you need to pour the caramel in it. Also, place a soup bowl full of cold water right next to the stove – you will use this to check that the caramel is ready.
2. Mix all the ingredients in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Note that the caramel mixture will bubble vigorously, so choose one which is only half full after you’ve added in all the ingredients.
3. Bring up to boil and keep stirring regularly. When it really gets going, you want to be standing right next to it the whole time.
4. Keep it bubbling for 20-30 minutes. The time will vary depending on the size of your saucepan, and how hot you manage to keep it.
5. When the caramel gets a bit thicker, drop 1/3 teaspoon of the mixture in the cold water bowl. If it hardens up enough so that you can form a soft ball with your fingers, the caramel is ready.
6. Pour it into the oven dish, and leave to set. If it’s really hot, you might want to pop it into the fridge.
7. Cut the caramels into bite size pieces and wrap. If they are sticking to your knife, spray it with a bit of oil, and pop them back into the fridge for a little bit.

 

We hope these zero waste treat ideas inspire you this Halloween. Let us know any other ways you're keeping Halloween plastic-free this year over on IG and FB or in the comments section below.