It’s a couple of days after Halloween.  The costumes are stowed away, the glitter and face paint is finally coming off, and kids are slowly coming down from their weekend-long sugar high.  However, that mound of candy is everlasting, staring you in the face, and if you have one more chocolate bar you may be nauseous.  You don’t want to throw out that candy, but you really don’t want to eat it anymore.  What do you do????

I’ve been faced with the same situation.  We were left over with 200+ candies and now I have a bowl of untouched candy sitting in my living room.  Being the proactive person I am, I decided to put that candy to use and “recycle” it to create some tasty treats and fun crafts.  Below are some ideas to “re-use” your Halloween candy!

Make Healthy (ish) snacks

Candy is a wonderful ingredient for baking and even some savory dishes (such as sauces, dips, etc.).  I decided to transform some extra peanut butter cups into a protein and fiber rich peanut butter fudge bar.

Ingredients I used were: 1 cup of oats, 10 peanut butter cups, 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, 1/2 cup natural peanut butter.

Melt cups, peanut butter, and cocoa butter over a double boiler:

Add in cup of oats, mix, pat into baking pan.  Cool, cut and serve

Other healthy snacks options with candy include: granola, rice crispies, trail mix, salad topper, etc.

Use the candy as a medium (material) for crafts:

Since most candy is artificial flavoured and coloured, they make great bases or colourants for paints.

A popular idea is the “skittle paint”

Find some mason or old baby food jars (or plastic egg cartons).  Put in water or corn syrup as the paint base.  Add in candy (Skittles, lollipops, jolly rangers, candy corn, etc).  Allow them to dissolve then use the paint (paint is also edible, so very kid friendly).

With hard candies, you can crush them up and arrange them into “stained glass” or window decorators (just bake in oven on low heat until candies meld together).  You can use candies as the base for beautiful mosaics, cover with glue or modge podge, or nail polish to increase the mosaic shelf life.

Prepare for Christmas… yes… Christmas already.

November first usually marks the date the Christmas bombardment starts.  Candies and chocolates will keep to Christmas (and far beyond), so incoorporate them into your Christmas crafts and treats!

Chocolates/candies make perfect exterior decorations for Christmas cookies, gifts and of course gingerbread houses.

Candies also make a great Christmas craft medium.  A popular gift is the candy-filled ornament.  Super simple to do and gorgeous (and delicious) on the tree

Other ideas include “stained glass” candy ornaments, edible holiday cards with candy decorations (think rice paper!), and of course, Raindeer bark (chocolate+nuts).

Don’t forget the wrapper!

Candies/chocolates are delicious, but the wrapper they are dressed in are just as special!  These wrappers can be reused and turned into and type of paper craft.  A popular idea is to cook the wrapper and shrink it into a smaller more solid wrapper (then turned in to a key chain or ornament).  The wrappers can be used as fabric to create dresses, purses, necklaces, book covers, pretty much anything (and the fabric is water proof)!

So don’t throw away that candy (or wrapper!).  They can be recycled and reused into multitudes of snacks and crafts!