Well, I have made it through another scary Halloween. As I once described in The Nightmare Before Halloween, that is a holiday that certainly sends shivers down this nutritionist’s spine. All in all, things went well despite not having a pumpkin. Well, yes, I did wait to nearly the last minute, but still, it was surprising that there did not seem to be a pumpkin to be had. The nice lady at one pumpkin place told me it was a bad year for pumpkins. That might explain it. So, I got a hubbard squash instead for my homey display. They are actually more frightening looking than pumpkins anyway–so I may be on to a new trend. It may fill in as my Thanksgiving vegetarian turkey as well–and with good reason besides just kind of looking a little like a turkey. Check out the wonderful benefits of this curious curcubita as nicely compiled by “The World’s Healthiest Foods”.

One must remember that thrilling the kiddies is big in my Halloween obsessed village. So, with my hubbard squash and my new decoration this year which was a strand of felted witches hats that I looped above my front door, I was prepared to keep up with my next-door neighbors, “the Joneses”. (Go to caption link.)

Oh yeah, and then there was that perpetual pesky candy problem. I teased my always healthy, still naive young mother friend that this year we were doing Trick or Kale. She approved. But, while she baked up some nice little low-sugar treat squares and packaged them individually, warning kids that her offerings were not going to induce a diabetic coma, I was reduced again to the dissemination of some chocolate. Trying to minimize the collective damage, my designated door answerers were strongly instructed in “No Picksies!” This meant no one gets to just put their hand in the cauldron and take what they want. I reminded my daughter who came home for the evening, “They just get one kiss.”

But, along with that little morsel, all the goblins, ninjas, princesses, jellyfish (yeah, that was a really creative costume) also got a cool Eat Your Fruits and Vegetable themed sticker. Yes, really. And, really, they were a big hit–all except for one four-year-old who while walking away turned around and offered back his sticker. Not a bad rate of return given the scads of revelers of various ages ringing the bell. Two kids came to the door dressed in big cardboard boxes portraying Fruit Drink cartons. The nutritional information was all nicely handwritten along their sides. “OOOH! Scary!”, I commented, noticing the High Fructose Corn Syrup listed and gave them extra stickers.

But, as all things must eventually do, the hyperchaotic night came to an end. In the morning, the sun rose again, candy became scarce and all the children and adults were once more deprived. No, that’s not true.  In the morning, the sun rose again, and it was Pete’s birthday, and then when it rose two more times it was my blog’s birthday!

Yes, my blog is now three years old. When it turned one, I celebrated in Dear You, The Readers that my little baby blog had become a bloggler–that is a toddler in blog terminology. And, now, it is a three-year-old bloggler. It is now old enough to take on its social media contemporary, Honest Toddler with whom there are some bones to pick. Honest Toddler, that precocious child who has hijacked its mother’s computer, still has a lot to learn about nutrition. (Update: Honest Toddler’s Twitter Account has been taken away by their mother.)

While it boasted about its advanced candy procuring skills on Halloween and advocated saying Twick or Tweet instead of pronouncing the Rs as a strategy to increase one’s loot, it did quietly admit that it got scared and did a small pee-pee. While it asserts in its Twitter profile “Not Potty Trained. Not Trying.” my little bloggler is fully responsible for what it puts out and is light years ahead of it in regard to culinary sophistication.

For example, Honest Toddler publicly whined that “Arugula tastes like soap and fire had a baby”. Clearly, it does not know that this lovely oak leaf-shaped green is related to the Cruciferous family. It is chock full of sulforaphane, glucosinolates, and chlorophyll with many benefits to live for. That candy-seeking, trans-fat cracker munching child might want to start thinking about things like the prevention of macular degeneration and cancer. My smart for its age bloggler kindly suggests it start with baby arugula and recommends the kitchn’s versatile uses.

But, while there may be some definite differences between these two, they do have one toddler bearing trait in common–they LOVE attention. So, if you can, send some blog love in a blog-like way. It takes a village to raise a blog. My bloggler says, “Tank wu.”

Now just awaiting the next dietary kerfuffle–Thanksgivukkuh.

In health, Elyn

Related Posts: Nightmare Before Halloween, The Eye of the Newt, So How’d It Go

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Plate Koan

When someone goes

from cutting your grapes into fourths to cutting them in halves

Do they trust you more or love you less? by Honest Toddler