Healthy Halloween spider snacks are a quick + easy string cheese snack for kids - pair with marinara for dipping and enjoy!
Happy Monday! Hope you all had a fun weekend! We did make it to the zoo and had a great time! We fed the giraffes, watched the elephants, rode the carousel and the trolley, visited the farm they have and spent a long time watching the penguins swimming. I loved it as much as the kids, I think. 😉
Here is me and J:
And here we are to October and while time continues to fly by entirely too fast, I’m not sorry right now because it’s my favorite month!
Because 1. It’s my birthday month. 2. Halloween.
Now, as a healthy food blogger, Halloween and it’s candy focus might not seem like a good fit. All that processed food! All that added sugar! All those wildly unhealthy treats descending upon us!
But I still adore the holiday.
It started when I was a kid and I was candy obsessed! I literally had an entire drawer in my desk in my room that was devoted to candy. I would buy it with my allowance and always keep a stockpile on hand.
Me, who will not use food coloring and who avoided processed sugar for my kids until they were at least 2 years old. Me, who hasn’t bought a single piece of candy in years. Me, whose kids never, never, never ask for candy because they know Mama just doesn’t buy it. Ever.
They can get it at school. They can get it from friends. They can get it from my parents and my in-laws. Totally fine. I'm all about balance and not demonizing foods. But they won’t get processed store-bought candy from me.
And yet I still say, “Bring it on,” to Halloween.
I love scary stories and scary movies. I love costumes and dressing up. (We had dress-up Halloween parties as adults before we had kids. We even had a New Years costume party one year when we were living in D.C. Cause it’s just fun!)
I love pumpkins and gourds of all varieties and I love trick-or-treating (even if the kids do come home with loads of junk).
So I had to honor my beloved Halloween holiday.
And now confession time: This is kind-of a half-assed post.
I had meant to make three cute little healthy Halloween treats. I had ideas written out for at least five to cover my bases.
Then life happened. And I squeezed in making and snapping a couple of quick pictures of these little healthy Halloween spider snacks one day. Another day I got half-way through making a second idea, but didn’t finish it and didn’t get any photos. Wasn’t even sure it would work as intended.
The other ideas? Never made it off the page. Womp, womp...
I debated not posting these cheese spiders at all, since they’d be all by their lonesome. I thought, maybe I’ll do this post next year and do it right. Do it like I imagined. Tuck this away and not share it at all.
Then I decided, nope, these little healthy Halloween spider snacks are gonna have to be good enough on their own. As a self-admitted perfectionist, that was not an easy call.
But I’ve been reading the book “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert — the one who wrote "Eat, Pray, Love" -- and I’m loving her take on living a creative life and learning when to just finish, without it needing to be flawless.
It’s freeing, to just give in and get on with life.
So here we go. Just these little healthy Halloween spider snacks as a festive idea for you. Maybe I’ll get around to the others next year. 😉
Here’s to a great week, friends, and for not putting too much pressure on yourself!
Enjoy!
~ Kathryn
Healthy Halloween spider snacks
Ingredients
- 1 string cheese
- 1 (1-inch) slice of bread
- 2 black beans
- Yogurt, for tiny dots
- Marinara sauce, for serving (optional, homemade or store-bought)
Instructions
- Using a knife, cut each end of the string cheese into fourths (to make 8 total legs for your spider), leaving about a 1-inch section that’s not cut in the middle of the string cheese to hold it together.
- Wrap the bread slice around the middle section.
- Make small indents in the bread where you want the eyes to go and push black beans in gently. (You can use some yogurt as glue to help them stick.)
- Use a toothpick to add a small dot of yogurt to each black bean to make the whites of the spider’s eyes.
- Serve spiders alone or with warmed marinara sauce for dipping as a pizza-like snack.
Nutrition
rachel @ atheltic avocado
These are too cute! Pinned 🙂
Kathryn
Thanks so much Rachel!
Dawn @ Girl Heart Food
Glad you had a lovely weekend and that pic of you and J is super cute! I don't think your post is 'half assed' at all....though, I did laugh a little when I read that 😀 I don't get super excited about Halloween. I do like it, don't get me wrong, but I get much more excited about Christmas! I love that idea from the book you are reading about learning to finish something without it being flawless....I think we could all learn a little from that. Something refreshing to just let stuff go sometimes, isn't it? Love these little spider snacks and I know that my niece and nephew would love 'em even more! Too cute. Have a wonderful week! xoxo
Kathryn
Thanks Dawn! I think that's going to be an especially helpful attitude during the holiday season 😉 Have a great week! XO
Kristen Chidsey
Sounds like a fun day at the Zoo for sure. Love these snacks. In fact I think they will be made today 🙂
Kathryn
It was - we were all worn out after 😉 Hope you do try them!
Cheyanne @ No Spoon Necessary
Oh I LOVE the zoo!! There is something about going there that makes me reminisce about the good ole days when I was younger.. and I'm seriously animal OBSESSED. So the zoo is my happy place! Glad you guys had a blast! And I'm glad you didn't hoard these spider snacks!! These are SO cute, Kathryn! I think they deserve to be in the spot light ALONE, so there is no need to post other Halloween treats along side them! 😉 String cheese is a weakness of mine, so these cute lil spiders are totally calling my name! So festive and fun, my dear! Cheers!
Kathryn
I highly recommend the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia - it's a really good one! And thanks for the support 😉 XO
Tara | Treble in the Kitchen
These are so stinking cute!
Kathryn
Haha, thanks Tara!! 😉
Mona
Soooo completely adorable!!! Pinned on my Fun Food board.
Kathryn
Thanks so much Mona!
Laura
LOVE these!! And I love that they're not made with candy! LOL! So cute my kids would flip!
Kathryn
Thanks so much Laura!
anne
I love these! I know that life happens thing! I was struggling with that this morning while writing a post for tomorrow. Time with family is much more important!
Kathryn
Yes! It's easy to lose that perspective with our perpetually "busy" lives, but family should always come first! So sometimes I have to remember to just let it go and move on. 😉