Featured recipes from Marilu's table * Creepy spiders and Brain dip

Here are a couple of recipes for Halloween snacks. Of course, they're good any time. If you're watching football on Sunday, serve these as halftime snacks.

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Creepy Spiders

Green * Makes 1

For each spider:

2 round organic crackers

2 teaspoons creamy organic peanut butter (no sugar added)

8 small organic pretzel sticks

2 organic raisins

Spread the peanut butter on one cracker, and put the second cracker on top for a sandwich. Insert the pretzel "legs" into the filling, putting four on each side. Put a small dab of peanut butter on one quarter of the top cracker and set the raisin "eyes" into the peanut butter.

Repeat to make as many as you need!

Brain Dip

Blue * Makes about 1 cup

1/2 cup organic natural peanut butter or other nut butter

1/3 cup reduced-fat organic silken tofu

3 Tablespoons maple sugar

2 Tablespoons fresh organic lime juice

2 Tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Assorted vegetables for dipping. See below.

Place all ingredients into a blender and process until smooth, scraping the sides as necessary. (It's easier to blend everything but the peanut butter first, and when the tofu is smooth, add the peanut butter, and blend more.)

For extra fun * Place the dip inside a hollowed out cabbage head, and use other vegetables to make a "skeleton." Sliced zucchini and yellow squash rounds can be lined up for a spine, cherry tomatoes are joints, baby carrots are ribs, celery sticks are arms and legs, broccoli and cauliflower are hands and feet. You can make one big skeleton, or make a smaller one for each person (put the dip in a tomato half, scooped out, or in a leaf of Bibb or butter lettuce.