If you faced a shortage of trick-or-treaters Saturday night, or are overwhelmed by the stash your own offspring brought home, you may be asking yourself, what the heck am I going to do with all this crap? You could always teach the kids a valuable life lesson by letting them chow down on candy until they get sick, but there are some better — and easier to clean up — solutions.
Among the many ideas offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services in an annual guide to ditching the candy without tossing your cookies, are a few we think are pretty good:
1. Send it to Halloween Candy Buy Back, a group run by dentists. They’ll pay you a buck a pound, and ship the sweet stuff to troops overseas, who will gladly dump their MREs if they can have your Reese’s instead.
2. Repurpose it for other holidays. Seriously, do you really have to pay extra for green-and-red wrapped miniatures, when you’ve got 10 pounds of orange-wrapped ones?
3. Freeze it. Frozen Reese’s and Snickers rock. And if you break a tooth, see tip #1 for some help.
2. Repurpose it for other holidays. Seriously, do you really have to pay extra for green-and-red wrapped miniatures, when you’ve got 10 pounds of orange-wrapped ones?
3. Freeze it. Frozen Reese’s and Snickers rock. And if you break a tooth, see tip #1 for some help.
How are you dealing with your HFCS overload? Post your tips in the comments. And don’t forget to floss.
What do you do with all that leftover Halloween candy? [MCT News]
(Photo: Morton Fox)
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OM NOM NOM NOM.
@Dafrety: I gonna hide it deep inside my sadness… mmmmm
Bring it to work and watch it vaporize before your very eyes.
@temporaryscars: That’s what I did and it’s almost entirely gone already.
@temporaryscars: What is it about the workplace and “free” stuff? You’d think the people at my office never had stale donuts or left-over pizzas before. They’ll eat it, even if they just had lunch.
@rinse: I cry when I watch the cleaning staff throw away 2 or 3 large bowls of salad (the other day it was pizza). I try to rescue stuff, but there’s only so much I can eat, even at home.
@RandomHookup: I can’t eat stuff that’s just been left out. If I don’t know where it came from and who brought it, I’m not touching it. Even then, I still might not eat it.
@pecan 3.14159265: Ah yes, what I refer to as “food of unknown origin”. Not exactly catchy, but most applicable on trips to Costco, where you can easily be trampled if you get too close to the food handouts.
@pecan 3.14159265: Most of our leftovers come from delivery or corporate catering. There’s always some mystery, but it’s not like everyone’s putting out home cooking (not that home cooking wouldn’t get eaten, too).
@RandomHookup: Leftovers from exec, department or client catered lunch meetings ended up in the break room on the hopes someone would eat it so it didn’t go to waste.
I grabbed food off of this a few times but only because I saw them bringing it out and I was yet again stuck working through lunch so it was leftovers or nothing.
@temporaryscars: I’ve vaporizing some right now.
@temporaryscars:
Damn right.
it’s going directly to the table in the coffee area. i don’t believe my co-workers eat outside of the office as they are obviously indiscriminately ravenous when they are here.
other peoples food haz flavor.
@evilrobot: I don’t want my leftover reese’s cups to be devoured by the whole department, so I’ve been doling them out to coworkers as compensation for favors and assistance.
@evilrobot: Same here. And it’s the skinny co-workers who eat the most candy and never gain weight. Life is not fair.
Candy, nothing! What am I going to do with all these leftover razor blades and hypodermic needles?
@diasdiem: Planning a trip to the jersey shore are we?
@diasdiem: Fruit cakes?
@The Porkchop Express:
Yup, no danger of anyone eating it if you put it in a fruit cake.
But then there would be more than one.
@acvicari: I think there are actually 2 floating around right now. I think I have even seen both of them, not at the same time though so….
@acvicari: And we all know there is only one fruitcake in the world that just gets passed around.
@Sarge1985: Just like there was only a certain amount of Candy Corn ever made, and it’s the same candy every year. At least, according to Lewis Black.
@acvicari: I happen to love fruit cake, sans razor blades of course.
Just eat it and brush your teeth right away once you’re done. There’s nothing inherently dangerous about sugar unless you’re diabetic or you eat an excessive amount (you’ll puke first, most likely) and it won’t rot your teeth unless you let it sit on them.
@shepd:
*more worried about calories and fat than cavities*
@shepd: sh@shepd:
A bit off topic, but something about people who brush their teeth at work, creeps me the funk out. It’s like your a bit too compulsive about how clean your mouth is. Maybe these people will be reborn as dogs(dawgs) in the next life so they can rest assure all is well with this particular orifice. My 2 cents..sorry to ramble.
Wow. What a great program.
Umm Halloween was 2 days ago. What do you mean DO with it? it’s already done been DID.
@chrialg6 is a happy effing cupcake: Seriously. Leftovers? What leftovers!
Wait, people buy Halloween Candy for trick-or-treaters? I thought it was pretty standard to buy candy you like, so that you can eat all the leftovers.
Or you could eat it. Depending on how much you have and your snacking habits, they can last for a while.
You use it as you would any other leftover: omelet or fried rice.
@rpm773: Reese’s and skittles omelet? Delicious!
@Jfielder23:
I vaguely remember an episode of The Man Show where they had the custom omelet guy at a casino buffet make them a pie and donut omelet.
@rpm773: except that I’ve never seen or used the words ‘leftover’ and ‘candy’ together in the same sentence before..
Wow talk about bah-humbug! We were allowed to keep the candy we worked hard trick-or-treating for when I was a kid!
Nothing beats filling a paper bag with it and cruising the neighborhood in a van offering it to children.
Nothing beat that, except for, you know, not being on the sex offender registry list.
I’m gonna make and stuff pinatas for my kids’ birthdays (December and February) and let it become the other moms’ problems.
@pollyannacowgirl: There ya go, an add on to the “side jobs to do for money” article that was on here a while back. Pinata making for fun, profit, and candy divestment.
I have a better idea, send it to me. I’ll repurpose it as my dinner for the next month.
Freeze your candy bars, shatter them, and then bake them into cookies.
@jbrecken: That’s why we grabbed a few bags of Heath bars when they went on sale– very good as a topping on brownies
The mini-reeses peanut butter cup works wonderful as a substitute for brown-eyed susans.
First of all, not letting your kids keep all their hard earned candy is unforgivable. I shudder at the thought.
And second, where’s choice #4? You know. . .
4. Shove candy by the handful into your eager, salivating maw.
What leftovers? About 75 little (and some not so little) moochers took all of my 10 bags that I bought. I was planning on having a couple bags left for myself (wife and kid too…of course).
We just take it into the office and my coworkers descend upon the bowel locusts
@Shaftoe:
That sounds like one of those foreign bugs people are always scaring you with. “I went to Africa on safari and came home with bowel locusts.”
Eating the Reese’s dark chocolate mini-cups right now.
I took the “bring your candy to the workplace” suggestion and brought my extra goodies to the newsroom. Boom, gone within a couple hours. Journalists are hungry people.
Save it until next year and then hand it out! (At least that’s what one of my brothers does.)
I’m going to put razor blades in it and give it out for Easter.
NOBODY suspects Easter canday. Bwah-hahahahahaha!!!!!
Christmas baking!
Bake minis into the middles of cookies, cupcakes, etc. Enjoy the look of “I am having a foodgasm right now” from loved ones when they discover a 3 Musketeers baked into the center of a yellow cupcake.
I only had one trick or treater that night, and I live in the middle of everything, two miles from Disneyland.
The buyback program looks like a fail. I live in the city and found zero search results within 5 miles. The stuff sells for a buck a pound at the dollar stores, and why make kids give up their nights work?
The *point* of having leftover candy is to have an excuse to EAT CANDY.
We gave out candy and have about 1/3 of it left. My son decided to stay home but my daughter went out. She brought about ten pounds of candy home. She sorted/inventoried the pile and put it back into her sack.
It will be re-sorted with the candy from China tossed out and the rest taken to work for the vultures to eat.
@Starfury: the vultures will survive chinese candy
Leftovers what? Four double-size bags of candy were gone at our house in less than two hours. We were out before 8 PM.
In the Lansing Michigan area they are collecting Halloween candy and shipping it to soldiers.
We had trick or treat from 1-4pm, it was cold and windy and I still ran out, luckily I saved all the mcdonalds toys I get from buying happy meals and gave those out which was great because I didn’t want to toss them in the garbage.
Shoot video of myself eating it all in one sitting and getting sick, post in on YouTube; voila, instant celebrity. Enjoy my 10 minutes. For a bonus, I could write a book or documentary in the vein of Supersize Me. Something like “The Halloween Diet”, something real catchy and sellable. Then spam Harpo Studios’ inbox with an autobio and try to get recognition for being foolish.
The extra candy gets brought to work. It makes the co-workers think that I like them.
Use it to lure children into my van.
What? How else are they going to see the new bike?
Donate it to a local non-profit. I came across alot of Halloween goodies and took it to a non-profit. They were soo greatful.
Leftovers?
What are these “leftovers” that you speak of?
I use it to bribe my teenagers to get their chores done quickly. It’s amazing how a tiny little crunch bar can get motivation up!
Leftover standard chocolate bars get repurposed into chocolate sugar-bomb cupcakes (standard choco cake mix, chop up 1 lb of the bars and mix into it, bake per package. Frost with 1 tub of choco frosting mixed together with another lb of the bars. Sweet enough to make your teeth hurt and excellent for bake sales and school treat days).
There are no leftover peanut butter cups.
There are no leftover caramels.
Everything else gets tossed into a bucket on the table for everyone to have and I’ll throw out leftovers (weird flavor stuff, usually) around Valentine’s.
How will I get rid of mine? 50 % off this week, 75% off next week, then whatevers left, IN THE TRASH!
I recently heard on the radio a “Green Halloween” alternative in which they actually TRASH the leftover candy into the mulching bin and then recycle the wrappers for crafting. Although the idea of candy not being consumed has left me a bit aghast, it is an alternative for the diabetic. Yet whether we eat the candy or not, those wrappers are prime crafting fodder for projects, like scrapbooking and jewelry. Gum wrapper bracelet anyone?
Get rid of it?
Last two kid’s walking up the driveway (close to closing time) received 2 pounds of treats.
Let their parents worry about it
@Naame: MMmmm
@Naame: Brilliant!
@Kimaroo – Fortified with Kittydus Purrularis: Buy bulk individual bags of chips from Costco or Sam’s Club and hand them out. I used to love those houses. They were on the same level as full sized chocolate bars.
@Kimaroo – Fortified with Kittydus Purrularis:
Yep! It’s not unusual to hand out small bags of potato chips. Heck, I saw a box of little bags of Doritos at Wal-Mart with the bags dressed up for Halloween. According to this one article I read in the paper, the crap kids can’t stand are apples, pennies, toothpaste, and pencils.
@Skankingmike:
No better way to get rid of surplus food than to throw it to the cow-orkers.
@Skankingmike: @pecan 3.14159265: The hordes hoard food.
@Skankingmike: I’ve had a few coworkers like that. They won’t take the whole thing but they’ll take 5 cookies or a quarter of a pie. Obviously more than they’re going to eat. They’re probably taking it home for their kids but when I make something to share with my coworkers, it’s for the folks here. It’s not like I’d mind giving their kids a cookie but wait for everybody else here at the office to have a chance. I’ve never been bold enough to call someone on it, though.
@h3llc4t, breaker of office dress codes:
Two per kid. They’re just the “fun size”. 1 candy just seems cheap to me. But what do I know?
@pecan 3.14159265: I used to hoard free work food when I was working for a non-profit in NYC and so broke I couldn’t make my student loan payments. Jackpot at work meant I didn’t have to spend $20 I didn’t have on groceries…
(On the other hand, EVERYONE at that job could bake, and I mean EVERYONE. I brought ginger-molasses cookies and my peppermint brownie bites a few times, other folks brought cakes and cookies and we had a December bake-off… plus, it was a global organization so there were treats from all cultures. Caribbean rum dessert + Russian vodka dessert = happy office.)
@KristinaBeana: Ditto the grad students at my university.
@widmer: Maybe I’m just thinking of bigger bags of candy. 10 x the usual supersized Halloween bags = a TON of sugar. The fun-size bags usually have around 20 pieces in my experience so I guess I could see that.
I agree on 1 being kind of cheap though. I work a side gig in the mall and ran our store’s Trick or Treat station. We only had enough candy for 2,000 kids (they told us the day of that they expected 5,000) so I was only allowed to give out one per kid. I totally slipped the cute/creative kids extra Tootsie Rolls though.
@pecan 3.14159265: We used to have a neighbor that gave out cans of soda. (I think he worked for Pepsi.) Those crushed everything.
@Kuchen: Ugh, they would crush my precious Reeses cups and weigh down the bag, so I would have to go home more frequently to unload. Plus Mom is willing to buy soda! Halloween was my time to stock up on candy for the year!
@GitEmSteveDave_ H1N1 Symptoms List:
uh, what? Wednesday isn’t a weekend…
@sn1per: He’s going to try and fit into it on Wednesday. For the meet-up.
@FigNinja: wow! a quarter of a pie?
we keep ziplocs and saran wrap in the breakroom here for people to take home the leftovers from company lunches and the various holiday potlucks we do, but people at least have the common sense to wait until everyone else has had a chance or two at it before packing up the leftovers.
@catastrophegirl: Yep. I actually saw someone take a quarter of a pie once right when I’d put them down in the break room. No one else had even had a crack at them. She must’ve thought it was a normal thing to do because I was standing right there and she didn’t seem at all embarrassed. Plus there were only two pies so it’s not like there was going to be enough for all 50 or so people in the office to have a slice even if she hadn’t been that selfish.
@thesadtomato: FOR THE HORDE!
@the_deliverator: This is neat! Maybe we’ll pass out experiment cards along with candy next Halloween.