With only 362 days until next Halloween, you may be wondering if that mountain of candy and chocolate will last till then. With the chances of that highly unlikely, and your Sweet tooth ready to pack up and go on vacation, you may experience that stage of thinking “What’s the best way to use up all that leftover candy?”

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. With nothing quite as Sinster as what the witches in Macbeth were brewing up, I have concocted the Top 10 ways to use up all that Halloween Loot.

Be a Star not a Monster and DONATE your leftover candy!

There are loads of worthy places where you can donate any leftover candy.

For those less fortunate than yourself, create some candy gift-bags and drop them off at the retirement home, local homeless shelter, or donate them to organisations like Operation Gratitude that will ship your candy as care packages to overseas troops.

Photo by Sifu Renka

Christmas and Thanksgiving Gift Bags

Repackaged Halloween Candy tastes even better the second time around.

Add all the candy to Christmas and Thanksgivings gift-bags for an adult indulgence.

Photo by stevendepolo

An excuse to SMASH a Pinata!

Fill it, hang it, swing it and SMASH it. What a great excuse to throw a pinata party.

Any party can turn into a thrashing, and any excuse will do!

photo by StayRAW

Did someone say VODKA?

Now before you take off down the road to buy a huge bottle of vodka, just remember that the cheaper quality vodka will taste just so.

Go for a medium priced range vodka and simply soak all those left over candies in the vodka for a delicious grownup candy drinks! The hardest thing about creating your own candy alcohol is allowing it to sit for 24 hours before drinking it. Recipe here!

photo by BeInspiredDesigns

Create a Candy Wreath to Welcome in the Holidays!

With Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays just a hop, skip and a jump away,take some time to create a beautiful sentiment

to grace your front door. Check out Martha Stewart’s Candy wreath project for some sweet inspiration.

Photo by Simply recipes

T’is the Season to Bake Stained Glass Cookies!

Here’s a wonderful Holiday project that will make beautiful Christmas decorations and gifts.

Try this delightful recipe from Simply recipes, and mix and match your own special cookie cutter designs.

Photo by candywrapper crafts

Eaten all the candy? What about all those left over wrappers?

There’s a craft project for everyone! No need to dispose of all those leftover candy wrappers,

you can learn how to make your own candy wrapper bags for the ultimate in recycled chic.

photo by stevendepolo

Just FREEZE it!

Bag and freeze your candy so it will last till Halloween 2011!

Thats right, Candy can be kept for up to a 12 months in the freezer and is great to use up when  ever you need a sugar hit or want to cook a few candy inspired recipes.

photo by lintmachine

Wrestling with your demons. For those that must EAT it all!

If you really must eat all your candy, you could try a few ways to mix up the delivery.

Blend a chocolate bar with milk for a milkshake. Add ice cream for a chocolate bar smoothie or place it on bread and pop it in the toaster oven for a couple of minutes before spreading for chocolate toast.

photo by Delish.com

Get some Fruit into them!

I’m not sure how healthy these treats are, but it could be one way of getting a bit of fruit into the young ones and using up a bit of that leftover candy. The fact that they look super cute is bonus. Try this fantastic recipe from Delish.com.

What great ways do you have to use up that leftover Halloween Candy?

It’s the business end of the year for some of my favorite sporting codes. Rugby union and rugby league are wrapping up their seasons with some high powered, high energy games that demand your attention! With so  much sport around at the moment, it’s wonderful to know that great food and sports games can AND do mix!

The  2010 US Tennis Open has been in the news lately, not just for the great games of tennis that were being thrashed out on centre court, but for some amazing culinary delights that were available in the players cafeteria. Iron Chef Master Masaharu Morimoto has been infamously offering the ultimate sushi combo platter for USD$125….anyone for Californian Lobster roll at USD$39?

It seems that the days of the semi-warm meat pies, greasy chips and tomato sauce are going head to head with gourmet treats and master chef offerings.  And why not? We should be able to eat tasty, healthy food with a touch of finesse whether we are at the footy, the racetrack or in the comforting surrounds of our own home.

Recently, 88 and I were invited to attend a NRL game proudly hosted by the St. George Dragons Rugby League Football club. With hunger gnawing away at me after a long hard day’s work, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the stadium’s offerings. As we sat up in the bleachers cheering the mighty Dragons onto another great win, we chomped through a beef and sun-dried tomato wrap, arugula salad and a chocolate brownie.

I wasn’t some much surprised by the quality of the food, as the flavors and combinations could do with a bit of guidance, but more so, the idea that the club can step away from the usual stadium fare and offer the punters something different. St. George’s commitment to families and the game being a fun event for all was evident in the amount of happy kids and smiling parents in the stands.

As a genuine supporter of  the game, I love nothing more than the smell of liniment combined with freshly cut grass and the swirl of steam as it cascades off the back of a front rower. But I don’t always have the time to go to the games and have to make do with footy in front of the telly.

To make up for my lack of real time action, I like to tackle our taste-buds and score some points with the family when I serve up some fantastic footy feasts.

Sweetcorn and Whitebait Fritters

These fritters are like sunshine in a bite. The corn is bursting at the seams with sweet juicy flavor and the whitebait gives just enough of a hint of the ocean so as not to over power the juicy corn. The batter is light and lacy and held together with some smoky paprika. Top with fresh avocado, natural yogurt and dried chilli for the perfect hand-held sport watching snack.

Ingredients:

1kg freshly shucked and cut from the cob corn kernels ~ 10- 12 whole corn cobs

250g whitebait or silverfish ~ washed under cold running water

5 spring onions/shallots ~ sliced, including green tops

2 1/2 cups of plain flour

4 Tbsp caster sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp sweet smoked paprika

2 whole eggs

300mls milk

1 tsp natural sea salt flakes

1 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper

1/3 grape-seed oil for frying ~ or any other neutral flavored oil

Method:

• Preheat the oven on fan cooking at 180 C/ 350 F with a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper
• Into a large bowl, add the dry ingredients of flour, baking powder, caster sugar, smoked paprika, sea salt and black pepper.
• Whisk together the eggs and milk and pour over top of the dry ingredients. Whisk well to form a smooth batter.
• Mix in the sweetcorn, spring onions and whitebait and combine well till all mixed through.
• Heat a large frying pan or skillet on medium to high heat with the grape-seed oil until a light haze is coming from the pan.
• Carefully drop in heaped tablespoons full of the batter and shallow fry for 1 1/2  minutes before flipping to continue cooking on the other side for a further 1 1/2  minutes.
• Transfer the fritters to  the baking tray in the oven to cook through in the middle and to keep warm whilst you cook the rest of the batter.
• Once all the fritters are cooked, serve finger food style on platters topped with fresh avocado  cut into cubes and marinated in a splash of fresh lemon juice, natural yogurt and dried chili ( optional)

Cooking hint: No need to throw out the left over grape-seed oil, once its cooled, strain through a fine sieve and store in a glass jar for use when shallow frying again.

Photo by powerbooktrance

The Wonder Breakfast When Your on the GO!

Sweet nothings  can deny me  my favourite way to start the day… OK my SECOND favourite way to start the day ~ wink wink nudge nudge, nuff said.

I’m consciously aware of the importance of a hearty breakfast in our daily diet, but up until this point it has  eluded me in the physical sense. I’m either to busy, to lethargic  or too busy being lethargic .

I craved something tangible … I quick fix.

Something that was swift to prepare and easy to digest, would fill me up and was light and SUPER tasty.

The day that my Banana and Manuka Honey Smoothie slid into my life is a day I will never forget. It sums up breakfast on the go for me like toast and marmalade  could never do.

And did I mention the health benefits???

So here comes the wavier first.  Though I’m no doctor, the ingredients that make up this smoothie are good for your heart, kidney’s and bones that will help to enhance your mood if your feeling a little flat.

Along with the wonders of the Banana as mentioned above, you also have the added benefits of calcium rich yogurt with its benefical bacteria and your favourite super food and mine ~ Manuka honey.

Manuka honey is fabulously exclusive, thanks to it  being produced by bees that collect pollen from the Manuka trees that grow on the East coast of New Zealand.

This particular honey has all the benefits of normal honey plus the added bonus of being antibacterial and antiviral. In fact, Manuka honey is medical grade honey ~ great for wound healing, burns, wrinkles, acne and a myrid of other ailments.

For those of you similar to myself who like the idea of drinking your yogurt and bananas rather than chewing them ~ this is the Breakfast treat for you!

Banana and Manuka Honey Smoothie

~makes enough for 1 large glass

1 Banana ~ ripe and smooth, best to avoid unripe bananas  in a smoothie as it wont be as creamy

2 Tbs Greek yogurt

2 tsp Manuka honey

350mls of chilled apple juice

Place all ingredients into a blender and whizz until nicely combined and oh so smooth ~ie.

Captains log… Stargate 4.

The latest installment of this great Chocolate circumnavigation of the globe finds us sweeping through uncharted skies.

Chocolate. Funky?

‘You must be kidding me’, you say. Oh, I couldn’t possibly me more excited to share these recipes with you!

After much salivation and smacking of lips, I have successfully compiled a list of 9 wonders of the chocolate universe, slightly left field, unusual and rather unique.

So to boldly go where no foodie has gone before, try one or try them all! Send the link to your friends and tempt them too with a little chocolate appreciation.

Looking for more chocolate recipes?

To have your cake and eat it too, try 21 of the best  Chocolate cake recipes.

Chocolate Cookies anyone? I have gathered for you a list of 15 fantastic chocolate cookie and biscuit recipes.

For lovers of chocolate and ice cream, you wont want to miss 12 “hot” chocolate ice cream recipes for bookmarking!

Bananas. Chocolate. BBQ. from On Food and Wine

Churro with hot chocolate from Eating Club Vancover

3 minute chocolate cake miracle from The Internet Chef

2 ingredients chocolate mousse from Just Cook It

Special Chocolate covered blueberries from 5 Star Foodie

Chunky double chocolate cheerios from Greedy Gourmet

Chocolate pasta with raspberries from Taste Buddies

Ever so yummy-Seroms inside out smores from Clumbsy Cookie

The Healthy Snack

From the depths of one small metal box covered with slender calved pink fairies and wistful looking princesses, I endeavour to supply my culinarily adventurous 7  year old daughter Coco with an  appetizing array of healthy snack lunch offerings for her to take to school each day.

I have discovered that the more ambitious  we become with the daily delights, the more disappointed we end up  by whats available on our supermarket shelves.

A trip to my local supermarket, recycled canvas bag in hand, had me tripping and fumbling my way through a product list on the back of a granola bar that contained no less than 39 separate ingredients.  I thought I was buying a cereal bar not a tub of polyunsaturated  cholesterol free omega enriched low salt margarine.  Healthy snack? I think not.

As I’m not one that normally sports a scientist in my handbag when I go to the grocery store whom is able to tell me what raising agents 170  and food acid 296 are doing shacked up together in my cereal bar alongside a mountain of sugar and a truck load of fat (breathe breathe), I decided that what’s best for me and little Miss Coco is a matter of refining and simplifying the snack  process.

So in times of great inspirational need, I find myself chatting with fellow foodie friends on twitter like @dragonskitchen and @figandcherry and visiting my favourite Internet food blogs to help me collect a beautiful selection of healthy snack recipes that I can now share with you in all there wholegrain glory.

I have avoided recipes that are high in fat, sugar and anything artificial or plastic sounding, as well as trying to keep it interesting and palate exciting for who is now a mighty pleased wee scholar.

Microwave potato chips by Nooschi

Baked masala vadai- Chef In You

Baked chicken buns- Cafe Nilson

Fruited muffins- Dishing Up Delights

Bento box ideas- Soy and Pepper

Watermelon pops by The Hungry Housewife

Apples and nutella by Taste Duds

4 ingredients Granola bars- Kiss My Spatula

Peanut butter honey bars- Active Life Cooking

Nut free granola bars by Vegan Visitor

Potato chips- The Good Mood Food Blog

Healthy chocolate cake by Healthy Indulgences

Corn and black pepper crackers- NYtimes

Monkey bars by Healthy Tasty Chow

Popcorn snack mix- Latest Addictions

Oatmeal Almond Cookies- ZOMTbakes

Roasted Pepitas-The Brassica Diaries

Smoothie roll up by Veggie Wedgie

Banana choc granola bars- Bitchincamero

Roasted Chickpeas by The Sweetest Kitchen

Golden beet chips by Foodista

Multigrain energy bars- Wholegrain Gourmet

Superfood your popcorn by Veggie Wedgie

Garlic Edamame by The Cooking of Joy

Cinnamon spiced dates by Veggie Wedgie

Smoky cashew nuts by Dana Treat

Oat Fig Bars from Artsy Foodie

Granola Bars by The Sugarshop

Apple chips by Food Lovers Journal

Homemade snack bars by Food 4 Tots

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