By Wendy

Summer is officially here. It’s time take the grill out of the garage and start the barbeque! Call the family, make the salad, and get the hotdogs and hamburgers ready. They’re the perfect condiment. So perfect that a group of engineers at MIT have also created a new liquid called LiquiGlide used to coat the inside of condiment bottles for an easier pour and not waste a single drop.

My favorite ketchup is Krazy Ketchup. It was created by moms who wanted to give their kids a great tasting ketchup. It’s also 100% Certified Organic and rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Potassium.

For you DIY moms, here’s an easy homemade ketchup recipe you can make at home:

What You Need:

1 (28-oz) can whole tomatoes in puree

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

What to Do:

Blend the can of whole tomatoes in a blender until smooth

Cook onions in oil in a 4-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until softened, about 8 minutes

Add blended tomatoes, tomato paste, brown sugar, vinegar, and salt and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until very thick, about 1 hour, stirring more frequently toward the end of cooking to prevent scorching

Puree ketchup in 2 batches in blender until it’s smooth. Chill covered, at least 2 hours to help flavors develop.

Cooks’ note: Ketchup can be chilled up to 3 weeks

But what else can you do with ketchup? Here are 5 things you can do with your new found ketchup besides putting it on your burger:

1. Shine Your Copper Pot and Pans- the acidity in ketchup helps to remove the tarnish build up, making your pieces shine like new. Apply a thin layer of ketchup on your copper pan for 20 minutes. Rinse and dry.
2. Keeping Your Silver Pieces Bright and Sparkly- ketchup can also remove the grime that builds up on silver jewelry and other pieces. Pour ketchup into a bowl and dip silver pieces right in for 20 minutes. You may want to scrub hard to reach places. Rinse and dry thoroughly.
3. Fixing of Chlorine Damaged Hair- it helps to remove the icky green that you sometimes get after being in swimming pools. Just apply ketchup all over your hair and let it marinate for about 20 minutes. Wash hair thoroughly and you should see results.
4. Making Fake Blood During Halloween- ketchup makes great imitation blood for those vampire and zombie Halloween costumes for the kids
5. Finger Painting for Toddlers- let kids use ketchup to paint their food to make it eating more fun and nutritious.

What other things do you use your ketchup for?

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Wendy Yu is a digital marketing professional living in New York City. When she’s not using the power of social media to share ideas on how to be more environmentally friendly, she is exploring the city, trying local foods, and learning more about how she can reduce her carbon footprint.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Green Halloween® or our partners.

by Corey

Thank you so much to the families who entered our 2011 Spooky Faces Contest!

We received so many awesome photos and quotes (about what entrants find most spooky about an UN-green Halloween). It was nearly impossible to decide who should win!

But a contest is a contest, so we got down to it, and chose these entries as funniest, spookiest, cutest, most creative and best overall.

FUNNIEST

We loved 9-year-old Thomas Sokol’s silly spooky face! But, as Thomas’ mom, Stephanie, tells us the truth about what’s spooky about an un-green Halloween isn’t so funny.

“Thomas has autism and this is his attempt at a scary face. Having Autism means food allergies for lots of kids on the spectrum.  So the scariest thing about Halloween for him is all the chemicals in the candy. That’s how these chocolate lollipops ended up as play things rather than getting eaten. lol.”

We agree, Thomas! In this case, DO play with your food. Who wants to eat chemicals? Yuck.

Congratulations, Thomas, for winning great, green gifts from Revolution Foods and Good For You Girls.

SPOOKIEST

7-year old Luca Michallet may become a world famous special effects artist (and actor!) someday. He convinced his mom to help him use glue to make “decaying skin.” We think Luca hit the nail on the corpse, er- head with this one.

And we don’t know what’s scarier, his makeup or the spooky fact that, “”All the waste from cheap store costumes can be saved if we make our own!”

Luca, your entry rocked. You are the lucky winner of gifts from Natural Luxe and Eli’s Earth Bars.

Congrats!

CUTEST

10-month-old Skyler Lehnick wins our prize for the cutest entry. Even with some spookiness on her face, she’s still utterly adorable and, as Mom, Anne, tells us, Sklyer is revealing “her menacing front teeth. Careful – she bites! Well…she gnaws.”

But what’s truly spooky about Halloween to Anne is “all the sugary treats eaten with abandon. I have been overweight for the past few years and struggle to lose the weight and the last thing in the world I want for my daughter is to grow up with weight problems. I don’t have a problem with my kids having an occasional sweet snack, but Halloween (as well as Valentines, Christmas, and Easter) overwhelms us with candy and sugar. There are a staggering number of children with health issues because they suffer from obesity and I want to do whatever I can to stop this for future generations.”

So true, Anne. Halloween is just the beginning! Starting now to create traditions that treat kids to healthy fun will make an impact for generations to come.

Congratulations on your win of gifts from Green Party Goods and Preserve, Jr.!

MOST CREATIVE

Christy Garrard of Issaquah, Washington doesn’t just have mad creative skills with her costume/hair/makeup/lighting and photo editing. She’s also poignantly poetic in her opinions:

Sugar gluttony = sluggish kids

Creative treats = inspired kids!

We couldn’t have said it better, ourselves. Christy, congrats on your prizes from Today I Ate A Rainbow and LiveGreene!

BEST OVERALL

Jasper Mark (5) is one groovy, green kid. We think Jasper’s adorable Munch-esque scream, while dressed as a Earth-lovin’ hippy is the perfect symbol for the spooky facts about being un-green on Halloween. Furthermore, Jasper highlights a concern we are working hard to educate families about – Frankenfoods - which, according to mom, Lesli, “give him a belly ache and are bad for the earth.”

Jasper, thank you for your entry and congratulations on your prize package, which includes green goodies for your and your family from: Eat Cleaner, ecomom.com, Revolution Foods, Today I Ate A Rainbow, Natural Luxe, Eli’s Earth Bars, EcoPartyTime.com and ThredUp.

Thank you again to everyone who entered our 2011 contests! And congratulations to all for doing your part to make celebrating a healthy and green Halloween FUN!

What do YOU find most spooky about an UN-green Halloween?

(See contest rules for the details on specific prizes)

by Corey

When I was five, my family went to a “haunted house.” It was supposed to be kid-friendly.

But just steps into the experience, I was so freaked out that my parents convinced a group of witches and ghouls to drop their act and show me that they were real (live) people. Nonetheless, I refused to go any further through.

That was the last time I set foot in a haunted house.

The occasion was supposed to be fun, but for me, it was just awful. I was too young and the acting was too real.

For many kids, the typical “spooky” themes of Halloween can be frightening: the un-dead costumes, the haunted decor, the creaky music. But there’s no need to limit the fun when there’s so many great alternatives that kids of all ages can enjoy.

Here are 3 not-so-spooky themes for your Halloween celebration:

Credit: Oh The Lovely Things

Harvest

Forget ghosts and goblins and think “Harvest” – perhaps a pumpkin or apple theme. For either, decorate the room with harvest items you have grown, picked or purchased (look for organic and locally grown). Stamp names on mini-pumpkins for place-cards. Turn apples into candle holders (keep out of the reach of children). Play pass-the-pumpkin or dunk-for-apples (or hang apples from strings and see who can get a bite). Turn last year’s saved plastic Easter eggs into little jack-o-lanters. Stuff with healthy goodies. Have a Halloween egg hunt. Roast pumpkin seeds or make pumpkin cookies. Make mini-caramel apples (using all natural/organic caramel). Make (upcycled) pumpkin or apple crafts. Press apples for cider. Send kids home with a packet of pumpkin or apple seeds.

Credit: Fiksd

Owls

Owls are a great nod to the season, without being too spooky. Send a paperless Owl e-invitation. Line the front walk-way with paper-bag luminaries with owl cut-outs, or owl-carved jack-o-lanterns. Decorate the house like a forest. Cover walls with recycled craft paper and paint trees. Make smaller “limbs” from crumpled paper bags. Download Owl calls and forest sounds and play during the party. Make a paper mache owl pinata and fill with healthy goodies. Invite an owl expert to attend. Play pin the owl on the tree. Paint owl faces using natural face paints. Make owl pompoms and send home as the gift.

Credit: Green Baby Guide

Bugs

Creepy crawlies can be – well, creepy – but they don’t have to be. Make giant spider webs with strips of old sheets or cheesecloth. Flatten large cardboard boxes and paint with chalkboard paint (black). Use chalk to draw on spider webs. Let the kids add spiders with colored chalk. Cut spiders out of recycled paper (like snow flakes). Make spiders from old bike tire tubes and hang on a Halloween tree. Serve buggy fare made from fruits, veggies and whole grain crackers. Play Bug, Bug, Spider instead of Duck, Duck, Goose.

Or forgo the “theme” all together and simply use colors to create a festive Halloween ambiance without the fear-factor.

Try black, green and purple for a twist on the usual orange and black. Serve foods in these color schemes, too.

Green Halloween® is a nationwide non-profit initiative started by mother-daughter team Corey Colwell-Lipson and Lynn Colwell. In 2010, Green Halloween became a program of EcoMom® Alliance and has events in cities across the U.S.

Guest post

Face painting is an eco-friendly solution to all the synthetic, wasteful, and expensive Halloween costumes out there. With some painted-on whiskers and a blackened nose, your child can easily be transformed into a loveable feline. With some black circles around their eyes and a white sheet (with eye holes, of course) over their head, they’re instantly the scariest little ghost on the block.

Unfortunately, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics reported that 10 out of 10 face paints they tested contained lead (a powerful neurotoxin), while others even contained nickel, cobalt, and chromium. Masks aren’t a healthy alternative either, as they have been discovered by the Washington Toxics Coalition to contain high levels of cadmium, another toxic heavy metal in paints that can accumulate in the body. Masks may also contain hormone-disrupting, off-gassing phthalates. Even trace amounts of chemicals and toxins are worrisome to parents, as children absorb about 50 percent of all the lead that enters their systems; and it never goes away.

Thankfully, there are natural, healthful alternatives available to eco- and safety-conscious parents.

Luna Star: This mother-and-daughter-founded company based in New Hampshire offers natural, hypoallergenic costume makeup for Halloween as well as other dress-up occasions. The ingredients, which include natural oxides, micas, and essential oils, are gentle enough for delicate young skin, and still easy to remove. Luna Star a proud signer of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics and comply with their non-toxic, no animal testing standards. Luna Star products do not contain preservatives, artificial colors, fragrances, parabens, or gluten. Their jars are also BPA free, and they use recycled shipping boxes and labels.

Terra Firma Cosmetics: Terra Firma Natural Face Paints are non-toxic, kid-safe, and eco-friendly. The Washington-based company is committed to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and donates 10 percent of its proceeds from paint kit sales to Green Halloween! Each kit includes an applicator set with an instruction pamphlet. The paints include ingredients like vegetable glycerin, aloe leaf juice, rose water, jojoba oil, beeswax, and grapeseed oil.

Wee Can Too Edible Art Supply: Edible face paint? That’s exactly what Wee Can Too has done. This natural, eco-friendly, non-toxic face paint is made with organic fruit and vegetable dyes – real blueberries, beets, pumpkin, and spinach – mixed with rice cereal and rice flour! The ingredients are vegan, free of wheat, dairy, sugar, and preservatives. Purchase Edible Face Paint by Wee Can Too through the Susty Party website.

Celebrate Green! recipe: If you want to know the exact ingredients in your child’s face paint, make it yourself. Try this DIY recipe from the mother-daughter founders of Green Halloween and authors of the book, Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations & Traditions for the Whole Family.

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ChasingGreen is a website dedicated to sharing the message that ordinary people can positively impact our world in their everyday lives. ChasingGreen knows that your life is already complex and works to show you how you can reduce your environmental impact in simple practical ways.

by Corey

#Win a HUGE Green Halloween prize pack!

Just follow us on Twitter, then send us this tweet:

“@GreenHalloween: Please pick me to #win a #GreenHalloweenPrizePack!”

And you’ll be entered to win great, green goodies worth over $200!

Prizes include:

Angell Bar – Sample pack: 2 bars each Crisp, Dark, Snow, 1 Organic cotton T-shirt and assorted stickers

Natural Luxe – Shainsware recycled bracelet for kids

Eli’s Earth Bars – 6 bars

Revolution Foods™ – Organic Snack Packs! Reusable paper lunchbox for kids filled with samples of Grammy Sammys, Jammy Sammys, Mashups and Yo’ Drops, Tattoos and stickers for kids, and coupons for mom.

Terra Firma Cosmetics – Gift certificate for our Halloween Face Paint set

Select Preserve food storage products

thredUP – 1 box. Browse thousands of boxes of pre-loved kids Halloween costumes, clothes, toys or books listed by other moms across the country.  Giveaway includes a promo code that can be used for one box & shipping

Eco Party Time – Felt pumpkin Trick-or-Treat basket plus Kids Floral Perfume Trilogy

Good for You Girls – Complete Skin Care Starter Kit

LiveGreene.com – Orange Vapur anti-bottles

Limited edition, reusable 2011 Green Halloween ChicoBag®

Total prize value = $200+

WOW!

Giveaway rules:

• Enter by following @GreenHalloween on Twitter, then posting the phrase: “@GreenHalloween: Please pick me to #win a #GreenHalloweenPrizePack!” Phrase MUST be posted to Twitter (not Facebook, blog post, etc.). You must be a follower of @GreenHalloween to win.
• One post per twitter account. You will receive up to 10 extra entries for up to 10 re-tweets by your followers.
• Tweet must be posted by 11:59pm PST on 10/31/11
• We are not responsible for Tweets that do not post or do not post correctly
• You must be 18 to win and live in the continental US
• Winner will be contacted via Twitter no later than November 15th, 2011 and winner’s Twitter handle will be announced on Twitter and Facebook.
• Winner will have 7 days to reply to Green Halloween with their name/shipping address.
• Green Halloween and partners are not responsible for winning announcement that doesn’t make it through to the winner (via Twitter), lost or damaged prizes.
• Prize partners may send prizes of equivalent value and/or gift certificates for free product in lieu of actual gifts.
• If you have questions about products, please contact the product companies directly.

For more ways to win gifts & goodies from our green partners, click here.