Donate your candy -Operation Gratitude sends care packages to our troops overseas, and your gummy bears and mini Snickers are more than welcome, especially when your kids include a nice letter of support too. You just pay to ship to California, but an extra $11 donation covers overseas postage. But keep in mind the non-melty stuff is best, or if you send chocolate, you might want to put it in a Zip-Loc first. Check out their flyer for more info here.
Any Soldier will also let you donate candy, and you can even specify which armed service branch, if you have a preference. Another option is Operation Shoebox. Every year they go through tons of candy that they send to our troops and they would be happy to have your left overs too! Operation Shoebox's mailing address is:
Operation Shoebox
8360 E Highway 25
Belleview, FL 34420
Ronald McDonald House Charities accepts candy donation for kids. You can search for a local branch here.
Food pantries, pediatric wards and nursing homes are happy to be able to give out a treat along with the meals. Meals on Wheels is a great place to start. Or search on Feeding America's website to find a local food bank. Finally, churches, synagogues and other places of worship generally have candy drop-offs, if not to donate then at least to hand out to the kids
Bake it into treats -
Adding chocolates (since those are all that you have left over after donating the rest to the troops) into your baked goods not only uses up lots of candy but it also allows a way to re-purpose the candy. Now, don't eat all of the baked goods you make. Donate them to church bake sales, send them home with friends after a playdate, or drop them off with a family who just had a new baby. That last one is definitely on my list ;) (Congrats, Mel!).
Here are a few great recipes to consider from some of my favorite foodie blogs:
Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies over on Brown Eyed Baker's blog
Chocolate Ka-Blamo! Cake (with Twix) over on Ezra Pound Cake's blog
No Bake Milky Way Tarts over on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody's blog
Reese's Peanut Butter Cookie Cups over on Beantown Baker's blog
Re-use the candy -
If your kids are too young to tell the difference you can just refill your own bucket of goodies with whatever your kids bring home. That's right, you can recycle the candy and pass it out again to kids who show up at your doorstep.Now I don't mean that you have to give away all of your kids candy but by saving a few good pieces for later and doling out the rest you'll resist temptation and sugar craze from the toddler that finds the stash a few days later and is covered in wrappers, melted chocolate and sticky candy. No, I do not know about this from personal experience...
Do you have any great ways to use up extra candy from Halloween? I'd love to hear your suggestions!
2 comment(s) with love:
We let our daughter eat as much as she wants to the night of Halloween, and after she finally falls asleep after her sugar high, we hide the rest of the candy and eat it ourselves! Win, win.
Love that! I might have to let the kids do one night of binging when they get a bit older but I'll definitely have to get rid of the excess so I don't binge as well :)
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