This healthy Halloween snack is actually a lot of fun to create!  Use up the veggies in your kitchen to create as silly or scary of a skeleton that you wish.  Using your favorite dip as the face will be an extra incentive for people to eat this veggie tray up (and a good idea, since Vitamins A,D,K and E, found in veggies, are absorbed best with the addition of a healthy fat), but brace yourself, you may have a hard time seeing your skeleton vanish before your very own eyes…

VEGGIE SKELETON WITH ROASTED RED PEPPER DIP:

Ingredients

For the Skeleton Body & Face

2 purple curly kale leaves, veins removed and saved
Handful of spiralized zucchini
1 small cucumber, thinly sliced
1 radish, thinly slices
1 carrot, thinly sliced like coins
4 baby carrots
1/2 red bell pepper, seeds removed and julienned
1/2 orange bell pepper, seeds removed and julienned
Handful of sunflower sprouts
2 cherry tomatoes
1 celery stalk, sliced in 4 pieces
1 sprig of fresh rosemary, cut in 4 pieces
2 cilantro leaves
2 thin slices of scallion

Roasted Pepper Cilantro Sauce

1/2 red bell pepper, seeds removed and thinly sliced
1/2 orange bell pepper, seeds removed and thinly sliced
1 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup avocado oil
1/2 tsp. of sea salt

Instructions

PREHEAT your oven’s broiler.

PLACE bell pepper slices on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and roast under the broiler for 10 minutes, or until charred.

TRANSFER bell pepper slices to a high speed blender with cilantro, garlic, avocado oil and sea salt and blend on high until pureed. Store sauce in a small ramekin.

ARRANGE your veggie skeleton on a serving tray by placing your ramekin with sauce near the top of the tray to use as a face.

START to build your skeleton’s body and design its face.

Skeleton body ideas:

• Curly kale leaves and spiralized zucchini as hair
• Cucumber and radish slices as ears
• Bell pepper slices as ribs (create a nesting spot for ribs with sunflower sprouts)
• Carrot and radish slices as a spine
• Celery and kale veins as arms
• Cucumber slices as a pelvic region
• Celery and baby carrots as legs
• Radishes as joint connectors
• Cherry tomatoes as feet
• Rosemary sprigs as toes and fingers

Skeleton face ideas:

• Eyes: Cilantro leaves and minced scallion
• Nose: Carrot
• Mouth: Radish

BE creative with your skeleton and use any veggies you have on hand.  This is a great snack to set out for loved ones and any parts that are not eaten right away can be chopped and added to a salad (using leftover sauce as a vinaigrette).