Trail Mix with Leftover Halloween Candy for #Choctoberfest

Got leftover Halloween candy? Mix it up and stretch it out with fruit and nuts for a {Leftover} Halloween Candy Trail Mix.

 Follow me | Pinterest | Instagram | Facebook

Do you buy the Halloween candy that you like, or do you buy the Halloween candy that will not tempt you? [Does anyone actually like Bit-o-Honey?]

When I moved to Ohio I realized that, unlike the 4th of July, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas or New Year's, the day that Halloween is celebrated is not set in stone. Around here, some towns have their kids trick or treat on the weekend before October 31st for reasons that have escaped me. [Let's celebrate Thanksgiving on a Sunday, hmm? That actually makes sense, so you're not working all day long and then pulling the best American meal of the year out of your ear 24 hrs later.]

Our town always celebrates on the 31st, which means that many years our flat, well-lit, sidewalked town with houses close together is overrun with 'people from off' coming to double dip on their trick or treating. I am quite curious this year, as Halloween falls on a Saturday, to see what reasons folks will invent to come trick or treat in our town. It's possible folks will keep to their own towns, and in that case I'll need to change up my game. See, I usually buy candy I DON'T want to have leftovers of, so I am not tempted into additional snackage.

Using an overgrown volunteer zucchini and other squash for our jack-o-lanterns.

As a side note, I've got kids with peanut and dairy allergies on my block, so I always have 2 bowls of candy: one that only contains nut- and dairy-free packages (i.e., pure packets of sugary goodness) and one that may have nuts and/or dairy. I've got signs on each bowl, and often kids thank me. Consider doing that yourself.

With all the hoopla surrounding the kickoff to #Choctoberfest, I decided my first recipe would be a really simple one. In keeping with the theme of my blog--Practical Support for Local Eating--I'm going to share a recipe for when you have piles of turnips lettuce [focus on #Choctoberfest] Halloween candy lying around. What? Never happens to you? I guess we have always lived in generous neighborhoods since even the disabled kid manages a good haul and he doesn't hit half the houses his sister does.

When you've got a bunch of excess candy, consider mixing it up with dried fruits and nuts to make trail mix. We ate trail mix as snacks on our Local Eating on the Road trip, and the kids happily serve themselves, and friends, trail mix as snacks instead of asking me 'when's dinner'.

I like to use the colorful candy coated type chocolates in my trail mix. I store it in wide mouth canning jars. It's easy to reach in and grab out a handful or pour some into a single serving dish--helps with portion size too. I use these reusable storage lids (Amazon affiliate link) to keep it fresh. [They are also useful for transporting smoothies, corralling Green Tomato Bacon Jam, and are an excellent way to cover Apple Fig Chutney or Cranberry Salsa once you've opened a jar from the pantry.

{Leftover} Halloween Candy Trail Mix

Ingredients

• 1 cup roasted salted cashews
• 1 cup raw pecan pieces
• ½ cup shelled salted roasted pistachios
• 1 cup dried blueberries
• 1 cup dried cherries
• ½ cup dried pineapple chunks
• 1 cup leftover Halloween candy pieces

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Mix well!
2. Transfer to wide mouth canning jars to store in a cool dark place. Keeps for several weeks.
3. Enjoy!

Welcome to day 1 of #Choctoberfest 2015! #Choctoberfest is a virtual event put together by The PinterTest Kitchen. Bloggers from around the world will be posting their favorite chocolate recipes, and you'll get a chance to win some awesome prizes. What's not to love about chocolate and goodies?Tomorrow I'll be returning to my roots with some beets, this time in the form of Chocolate Beet Crinkle Cookies. I've also got Killer S'mores Blondies and Pumpkin Eggnog Chocolate Chip Waffles to round out the week. 

A huge thank you to all of the other blogs participating in #Choctoberfest 2015. Check out their blogs throughout the week for chocolate recipes you won't be able to resist: The PinterTest Kitchen • 2 Cookin' Mamas • A Day in the Life on the Farm • Aloha Flavor • Amy's Cooking Adventures • Angels Homestead • Balancing Motherhood • Bless this Mess • Busy-at-Home • Chocolate Slopes • Coconut & Lime • Colie's Kitchen • Cookaholic Wife • Cooking In Stilettos • Cooking With Libby • Cookistry • CopyKat Recipes • Cravings of a Lunatic • Crumbs in my Mustachio • Culinary Couture • Cupcakes Take The Cake • Deliciously Savvy • Eat It & Say Yum • Fairyburger • Famished Fish, Finicky Shark • Farm Fresh Feasts • Food Hunter's Guide to Cuisine • Full Belly Sisters • Get Off The Couch and Cook • Grumpy's Honeybunch • Hey What's for Dinner Mom? • Honey and Birch • I Can Cook That • Jane's Adventures in Dinner • Jessie Weaver • Life on Food • Life, Love, and Good Food • Majorly Delicious • Moore or Less Cooking Food Blog • Mother Would Know • Or Whatever You Do • Poet in the Pantry • Recipes Food and Cooking • Rhubarb and Honey • Sassy Southern Yankee • Savory Tart • Seduction in The Kitchen • Serena Lissy • Sumptuous Spoonfuls • Take Two Tapas • That Skinny Chick Can Bake • ThatsSoYummy • The Chonchudo Files • The Crumby Cupcake • The Dinner-Mom • The Saucy Southerner • The Spiced Life • The Spiffy Cookie • The Two Bite Club • The Weekday Gourmet • Vintage Kitty • Wendy Polisi • What A Girl Eats • WhitBit's Indian Kitchen • Wit Wisdom & Food • Zesty South Indian Kitchen

Are you a blogger who is interested in joining us during our next community event? 

Sign up here now! 

We'll make sure you get an email about our next blogger event.

Disclosure:  I have received nothing in return for my participation in this event. I just love an excuse to make a bunch of sweet treats!

An InLinkz Link-up