Planning a menu for a Halloween gathering can be overwhelming, especially if you’re trying to keep your dishes light in sugar and calories. So what’s the trick to keeping your bites healthy, but without the scary taste?

You’ll be relieved to know that there are no tricks involved to planning a healthy spread for your Halloween guests with the help of just a few creative ideas. In one of our “Get The Skinny” articles, we give five scary-good Halloween recipes that will actually also pack a healthy punch for you and your guests.

Vampire Blood

Fill test tubes with cocktails or soup (e.g. beet juice or roasted beet soup, Bloody Mary or tomato soup, or cranberry juice and vodka). All are low in calories and are packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

Mummy Fruit Pizzas

Tart made with Swerve Sugar Replacer and bean flour (including garbanzo and fava flour), with vegan cream cheese and fresh strawberries and blueberries

Per Serving: 290 calories, 18 grams fat, 7 grams saturated fat (all plant-based), 425 mg sodium, 24 grams impact carbs, 3.5 grams fiber, 2 grams sugar and 4 grams protein.

Carrot Fingers

• Greek yogurt dip (e.g. ranch, spinach, southwest, etc)
• 4 long carrots
• 1 medium carrot
• Softened cream cheese
• Sliced-almond
• Baby carrots, sliced red peppers, broccoli florets, etc. for dipping

Fill bowl with your favorite Greek yogurt dip. Wash and peel 4 long carrots for fingers and 1 medium carrot for thumb. With a paring knife, cut a flat, shallow notch in the tip of each carrot. Then use a dab of softened cream cheese to glue a sliced almond fingernail atop each notch. Stick fingers into dip to form a ‘hand’ and serve with veggies for dipping.

Finger Food

• Mozzarella string cheese
• Green bell pepper
• Cream cheese

Wearing plastic gloves, use a paring knife to cut each string in half and then carve a shallow area for a fingernail just below the rounded end of each half. Mark the joint right below the nail as well as the knuckle joint by carving out tiny horizontal wedges of cheese.

For the fingernails, slice a green bell pepper into 3/8-inch-wide strips. Set the strips skin side down on your work surface and trim the pulp so that it’s about half as thick. Then cut the strips into ragged-topped nail shapes and stick them in place at the ends of the fingers with dabs of cream cheese.

No-Bake Pumpkin Spice Protein Truffles

Makes 20 servings

• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons honey peanut butter
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1 ½ tablespoons sugar-free Torani Pumpkin Pie syrup (more if desired)
• 1 tablespoon no-calorie sweetener of choice
• 3 scoops protein powder, vanilla-flavored (e.g. Designer Whey Natural Vanilla or BQuick FUEL)
• Red and yellow food coloring (preferably natural brand like India Tree)
• Choice of coating, optional (e.g. coconut flakes, cocoa powder, minced toasted pumpkin seeds, etc.)

In a large mixing bowl, combine peanut butter, ricotta cheese, pumpkin pie syrup and sweetener, mixing until well blended. Gradually add protein powder, stirring until evenly mixed. Add food coloring until reach desired shade of orange.

Using a tablespoon, mold into balls and place onto cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Place desired coating in a small bowl and coat truffles one at a time. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Per serving: 80 calories, 5 grams fat, 1.4 grams saturated fat, 60 mg sodium, 3 grams carbohydrate, 0 fiber, 3.5 grams sugar and 6 grams protein.

For more details on this topic, read Molly’s full “Get The Skinny” article on WGNO New Orleans.