| October 2005
 A Message From The Moms
With two weeks left before Halloween, we wanted to get our newsletter out before you purchased your Halloween candy. You see, this year, we want to challenge you to shake things up a bit by handing out non-food goodies. Yes, you heard us right. We don’t consider ourselves to be party poopers, however, rather than the usual gooey goodies and sticky pops, we think it would be fun (and a healthy change of pace) to offer Halloween novelties instead.
The kind of novelties we’re talking about here are those that promote fitness and learning. They’re easy to find. In fact, we just went to www.OrientalTradingCompany.com and for $15.00, ordered four dozen glow-in-the-dark bouncy balls, two dozen Halloween-themed pencils, a dozen flying disks, and four dozen spiral notebooks. Novelties can actually be cheaper than candy and, trust us, your trick-or-treaters will love them. Believe it or not, research shows that when given the choice between candy and toys, kids choose the toy fifty percent of the time.
If you do plan to stick with candy (don’t forget there’s also the option of sugarless gum or individual bags of popcorn), be sure to hand out small bite-size pieces versus king-size ones. And when Halloween is over and your child’s bucket is overflowing, find out if any of the dentists in your area offer a candy buy-back program. Last year, Liz’s boys each made over five dollars by “selling” some of their candy.
On an equally yummy note, Janice recently returned from a one-week cooking tour through Texas. There, she held cooking classes at Central Market and managed to squeeze in a few TV and radio shows as well. Janice sends a huge “thanks” to all of our Moms’ Club members who turned out.
Congratulations are in order to the winners of last month’s Lunch Stuffer Giveaway. They are Renee C. from Belleair Bluffs, FL, Pam J. from Portland, OR, Amy S. from Grand Rapids, MI, and Kati V. from Zionsville, IN.
This month, we’re giving away a silicone muffin pan from Kitchen Aid. Click here to enter and be sure to include your address and phone number.
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Having a Moms’ Club is great and so are all the emails we get from our members every single day. A few weeks back, we heard from Leslie, a mother of two from Gainesville, Georgia who wanted some healthy dessert recipes for her annual neighborhood Halloween party. Our answer to Leslie’s email is this crazy creation for Spooky Pumpkin Bundt Cake. Serve it with a dusting of powdered sugar on top and a miniature pumpkin in the middle and your costumed kiddies will smile with delight!
Spooky Pumpkin Bundt Cake
Makes 16 Servings
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ or ground flaxseed
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa, sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
One 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
3 large eggs (preferably omega-3 eggs), beaten
One 8-ounce carton lowfat vanilla yogurt, 1 cup
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup currants
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar, optional
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat a 12-cup bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a medium bowl, combine the pumpkin, eggs, yogurt, canola oil, and vanilla and stir until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Stir in the currants. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan for about 15 minutes on a wire rack. Remove from the pan and cool completely on the wire rack. Dust the top of the cake with confectioners sugar if desired. Garnish with a mini pumpkin in the middle and serve with vanilla lowfat frozen yogurt if desired.
Nutrition Information per Serving: 240 Calories, 9 grams Total Fat, 1 gram Saturated Fat, 180 milligrams Sodium, 37 grams Carbohydrates, 3 grams Fiber, 5 grams Protein, 80% Vitamin A
* If you would like us to give one of your favorite recipes a healthy makeover, Click Here.
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Our Web Site:
www.MealMakeoverMoms.com
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moms@mealmakeovermoms.com
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