Halloween has become synonymous with candy and sugary sweets, but it’s also a great time to teach your family the "trick" to balancing the gooey candy they love with healthy Halloween eating.

Serving a balanced meal before heading out to Halloween festivities will help keep your trick-or-treater from gobbling up all their candy before they get home.

Feed your family a hauntingly healthy Halloween meal of Inside-Out-Cheeseburgers, Baked Cauliflower Brains and Pumpkin Pie.

Halloween Party Recipes for Kids

Start a new tradition of inviting family and friends to your house for a pumpkin carving pot luck and make festive and fun Halloween party recipes. The kids will love the scary names and the parents will love that the colorful ingredients are rich in nutrients and make great use of seasonal fall flavors.

For more ideas on making Halloween fun without overdoing the candy treats, read our Healthy Halloween Eating Tips.

Other recipes this week like Cauldron of Chili with Spider Bread and Cheesy Spaghetti Squash, or Spiders Nest Dip and Pumpkin Milk Punch help set a Halloween mood without giving up healthy eating. Enjoy…if you dare!

Eating a diet that is rich in low-fat milk, cheese and yogurt, as well as fruit and vegetables, can lower blood pressure. Studies have shown that a diet with three servings of low-fat milk or milk products and high amounts of fruits and vegetables (eight to nine servings per day) can lower blood pressure as much as some blood-pressure-lowering drugs.

It is important to note that in a large clinical trial, a low-fat diet with added fruits and vegetables alone (without the low-fat dairy foods) lowered blood pressure by half as much as the diet including dairy foods.

In addition to lowering blood pressure, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet is a balanced healthy eating plan that lowers the risk for diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, cancer, and obesity.

See more DASH diet recipes and healthy eating resources on the DASH diet eating plan.

Hectic schedules can make healthy eating a challenge for everyone. And, when something has to give, it’s easy to understand why family meals may fall by the wayside. Yet, family meals can actually lead to better physical and mental health for your children!

Benefits of Family Meals for Children

Frequent family meals are related to better nutritional intake for the entire family -- and improved academic achievement for children. The habits children form early in life will impact their health over a lifetime.

Children who eat family meals consume more fruits, vegetables and fewer snack foods than children who eat separately from their families.

Studies have shown that families eating meals together almost every day generally consumed higher amounts of important nutrients such as calcium, fiber, iron, vitamins B6 and B12, C and E, and consumed less overall fat, compared to families who rarely eat meals together.

A survey of high-achieving teens showed that those who regularly eat meals with their families tend to be happier with their present life and their prospects for the future.

Parent Role Models

Children won’t perceive healthy eating as important if it is not something that they see you doing. Eat and serve sensible portion sizes. Be open to trying new foods and new ways of cooking foods.

Read more tips for parents: Healthy Eating Starts With Parent Role Models.

Keep Your Life Simple With Easy Meals

When time is of the essence, keep meals simple. Take advantage of prepared, nutritious foods. Purchase a freshly roasted chicken from the supermarket or a ready-made sauce or marinade and add it to sautéed chicken, beef or shrimp for a tasty main course.

Reheat a soup or casserole that you made on the weekend. Order a pizza and serve it with a salad!

No matter how simple the meal, take the time to sit down and enjoy it with people you care about. It’s a wonderful opportunity to connect with your children and family to talk about their day.

Time spent at the table with friends and family will help your children form positive attitudes about food and eating and creates fond family memories that will last a lifetime.

As flu season arrives we’ve heard a lot about hand washing and cough covering, but healthy eating is also a potent flu prevention method. Eating a variety of healthy foods from all food groups is particularly important during flu season.

Foods like yogurt, garlic, citrus and chicken contain nutrients that may keep your body’s immune system strong and help you to avoid getting sick.

Garlic may increase resistance to infection and stress. Yogurt and other cultured milk products contain probiotics, beneficial bacterial with immune-boosting benefits. Vitamin C, found in citrus fruits and juices, may also help the body's immune system. Zinc, found in meat, chicken, peanuts and peanut butter, also plays an important role in the proper functioning of the body’s immune system.

Try one of these healthy recipes:

Greek Yogurt Chicken
Healthy Yogurt Veggie Dip
Layered Yogurt
Garlicky Greens Sicilian Style
Garlicky White Bean Pasta

For more recipes containing immune-boosting nutrients visit our Fight the Flu with Healthy Food cookbook.

In addition to washing your hands frequently, eating a variety of health-promoting nutrient-rich foods and getting daily exercise, along with a good night’s sleep, are the best ways to stay healthy and avoid getting the flu this year.

Read more about Healthy Eating During Cold and Flu Season.