Healthy Halloween Treats - Monster Mouths (paleo, vegan)

Create spooky monster mouths with apples, peanut butter, and lychee eyeballs—no baking needed!

150 min Serves 18 Hard American

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These healthy Halloween treats are paleo and vegan-friendly. Apple slices become monster mouths filled with peanut butter, jam, and dried cranberries, topped with lychee-blueberry eyeballs. They stay fresh for hours, making them perfect for parties.

Ingredients

36 toothpicks

lemon juice

4 large apples

natural peanut butter (I used this homemade peanut butter but you can use any kind of nut butter or Sun Butter)

strawberry jam

dried cranberries (or other dried berries)

slivered almonds

36 lychees (I used canned - you might need 2 cans + 36 blueberries (you need 2 of each for each mouth))

Directions

Core the apples and slice each into 4 to 5 pieces, depending on apple size. Cut them at an angle so they can stand upright on their own.

Carve a wedge out of each slice to form the mouth. Make sure the bottom of the wedge is not angled downward, or the peanut butter may drip out. The wedge should be large enough to easily add teeth later.

Use a pastry brush to coat the backs and bottoms of the apple pieces with lemon juice to prevent browning. You don't need to coat the inside of the mouth since it will be covered with peanut butter.

Spread a thin layer of peanut butter inside the mouth wedge.

If you want to add strawberry jam, do it now. You can also add it after the teeth, but it's trickier.

Place one dried cranberry inside the mouth as the tongue.

Using a sharp knife, make small stab marks where you want the teeth to go. You don't need to dig holes—just scoring the surface will make it easier to insert the teeth.

Insert slivered almonds as bottom teeth. Then flip the mouth over, stab marks for the top teeth, insert almonds, and flip back upright.

Arrange the completed monster mouths on a serving plate.

Rinse the lychees and pat them dry with paper towels. Place a blueberry in the center of each lychee to make an eyeball. Set the eyeballs on a paper towel-lined plate until you're ready to serve.

Serve the monster mouths with the lychee eyeballs. If you used lemon juice, the apples will stay fresh at room temperature for at least 8 hours without browning.