How to reuse leftover halloween candies

Many of us, may have good supply of Halloween candies and pumpkin leftover after the holiday. We sure do!! Zenguy offered to sacrifice and eat up whole 2 bags of candies by himself, as he said it was not healthy for kids and me, you can tell he has a major case of sweet tooth!! Here are a few better ways to reuse of leftover candies/chocolate and pumpkin.

Some uses of leftover Candies/Chocolate:

1. Share leftover goodies with your friends/neighbours/office co-workers. You may do candies exchange and try various different type of candies that your friends may have. (Note: before you share with small kids ask parent/care giver to make sure there are no nut/sugar allergies/issues)

2. You can re-use some chocolate and candies to make good sweet edible things to eat; Some suggestions include brownies, Rice Krispy or peanut brittle with chocolate, chocolate dessert pizza, chocolate calzone, cookies, cake, caramel popcorn, candied apple, chocolate milk/shake, Chocolate moose and many more. One of my friend, freezes chocolate candies and reuses during holidays in her dessert recipe.

3. You can impress other friends, family members or kids (your own, nieces, nephews) with candy science experiments. Here are some suggestions from Candy Experiments.com.

Floating M's
M&Ms sink in water--mostly. To see what floats, try this:

What you need:

* Cup of water
* M&Ms

What to do:

1. Drop the M&Ms in the water.
2. After a few minutes, look for floating letters. (Do not stir the water--you might break the m's.)

What's happening:
The white m's on M&Ms are printed with edible ink that doesn't dissolve. When the rest of the candy shell dissolves, the m's peel off and float. Some of the letters break into pieces, but a few should survive intact.

This also works with Skittles.

Chocolate Bloom

Chocolate is made of cocoa butter, cocoa solids, and other ingredients that have been mixed together. Can you take them apart?

(Chocolate after several weeks in a warm car)

What you need:

* Chocolate candy
* Heat

What to do:

1. Heat your chocolate in a sunny windowsill, with a hair dryer, or in a low oven, until it starts to melt.
2. Let it cool overnight or in the refrigerator.
3. Repeat these steps until you see light brown spots or streaks. (This may take several heating attempts.)

What's happening:
When the chocolate heats and cools, the cocoa butter starts to separate from the rest of the chocolate. This forms the light brown layer.

Density Rainbow

Sugar water is denser than water--the more sugar, the denser. This experiment shows you how to layer different densities into a rainbow of color.

Density rainbow created with Skittles

What you need:

* Five small cups for mixing
* A clear glass
* A wide spoon
* Skittles
o 5 red
o 10 orange
o 15 yellow
o 20 green
o 25 purple

To do:

1. Fill five cups with 3 Tbsp of water each.
2. Dissolve the Skittles, each color in a separate cup. If the candy is not dissolving, stir frequently or heat the water. (The waxy film floating on the surface can be removed or ignored; it won't affect the experiment.)
3. Pour the purple water into the clear glass.
4. Holding the spoon over the purple water, slowly pour the green water down the back of the spoon. If you do it slowly enough, the green water will float on top.
5. Repeat with the other colors, and admire your rainbow.

What’s happening:

Since the water with less candy is less dense, it floats on top of the denser layer like oil on water. Unlike oil and water, your sugar water layers will eventually mix together, muddying the color. So admire it while it lasts!

Use of Pumpkin

1. If you have carved pumpkin, you can cut it up and use it on your garden soil as a compost. We also use it with my 4 year old R, as science project to see how food decomposes and becomes part of land. It is good for environment and learning life cycle science project as well.

2. If pumpkin/Gourd are fresh, it can be used as a pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pasta dressed up pumpkin sauce, Pumpkin and cheese filled ravioli, Savory pumpkin samosa, pumpkin baby food, pumpkin bread to name a few recipe choices. I will post a recipe soon for Pumpkin Samosa after making it first and (if it turns out good).

How do you reuse your leftover candies/chocolate and pumpkin/gourd?

(Pictures: From candyexperiment.com)

Zengirl