It is time for Junk!

If your house looks anything like mine right now, you are probably as ready as I am to rid yourself of the sorted piles bags of candy treats. But, oh how the kiddos love their sweet heaps. Trading, sorting, saving, sorting, trading, sneaking, eating, saving — and on and on.

After a decade of trick-or-treating with my herd, I can anticipate the same candy rituals play out year after year, with kid after kid. I have finally figured out how to deal with the candy overload. It may seem extreme and even counter-effective, but it works – GREAT.

If you are an extremely health conscious person, this idea may make you develop an extreme case of full body hives. I am sorry – don’t judge me based on this post alone & have you checked out my healthy whole grain chia packed pumpkin breakfast cookies?? I do know how to make healthy food ((wink, wink)).

It involves making more candy, and eating it. Wait, don’t delete me from your reading list – this.will.work.

Have the kiddos sort through their candy again – just because they love doing it so much.

Give them each a sheet of parchment paper, a small cutting board and a butter knife. The parchment paper is their work station, all candy unwrapping and chopping should occur on this paper ((read – this mission is to keep the kitchen clean)).

Let them start unwrapping their candy. ((I don’t usually have them chop all of their candy, I let them save a pile for school lunches etc)). I don’t let them eat any candy during this process & I insist their hands must be clean ((I am tough)).

The stranger the combinations, the better – so be sure they have a good variety of hard candies, gummies, chews, chocolate & tarts.

As they are unwrapping, they can begin chopping the bigger candies into smaller chunks. This is the fun part for them – and if you aren’t watching closely two things will certainly happen:

they will pulverize everything into microscopic dust particles ((I like to call this trash because i throw this mesh into the trash))
they will spread these sugary microscopic dust particles all over your kitchen ((table, chairs, cabinets, floor etc)), getting it into every formerly unknown crevasse and nook in your kitchen

These two nightmares are TOTALLY avoidable, just keep a close eye and make sure your reflexes are quick ((and kind – this is a no screeching recipe)).

Once the candy chopping is winding down, unwrap a block of white candiquik or almond bark ((whatever you call it)), place it in a medium-sized microwaveable bowl and melt it according to package instructions.

Here is where operation “Purge the House of Halloween Candy” really cracks into high gear. One block of candiquik can only handle about 3 cups ((max)) of chopped Halloween candy. The rest of the chopped candy gets pushed aside and after a few hours the chopped candy is a gooey clump and it gets thrown away. Whala!

Just be sure once you add the chopped candy to the melted candy coating, you stir quickly and spread out on a parchment lined baking sheet. The candy coating will try to seize up quickly at this point and the junk will not turn out right — and surprisingly it is possible to mess this up ((because I did it once)).

Once the junk hardens, we break it up into 2″ chunks and the kids get a piece for dessert or packed in their school lunch. They LOVE it! The wackier the combinations of candies they discover the better! Smarties and Tootsie Rolls, peanut butter cups and sucker bits, Twizzlers and Baby Ruth … it’s the BEST of Halloween!