By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate

Kettle corn should not only be a Halloween partier's friend, but a dieter's pal as well. The fiber-filled whole-grain popcorn specialty that's both salty and slightly sweet trumps both regular popcorn (in flavor) and candied popcorn (in nutritional prowess).

Its addictive candy-like flavor weighs in for store-bought brands approximately the same calories, fat and carbohydrates (for 2 cups: 120 calories, 4 grams of unsaturated fat, 20 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber) as boring plain popcorn while tipping the scales much lower than popular brands of caramel candied popcorn (for 2 cups: 360 calories, 12 grams of partially saturated fat, 66 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fiber).

All year long, not just during Halloween season, kettle corn should be a must for accompanying any weight watcher to the movies, since it can satisfyingly replace the oil- and butter-flavored-filled versions often popped on the premises.

The wonderful product makes a great addition to Halloween party recipes. It's even got a back story worthy of inspiring a clever costume to go along with it. Kettle corn's history goes way back to Colonial America. It was a favorite of American colonists in the 1700s cooked in iron kettles. Just like today, it was prepared with a little salt, sugar and oil.

During Halloween parties kettle corn can be enjoyed by hand or used in party recipes, like mixed with marshmallows for popcorn balls or to brighten up a mix of licorice bites and candy corn.

Candied nuts can be another beneficial guest at your Halloween gathering: imitating candy, while providing lots of nutrients and fiber. In fact, why not consider using them in innovative ways throughout a Halloween dinner party.

Start with a nut-filled orange sachet that is marked with each guest's name in black at each place setting.

An iceberg baby salad, inspired by one of the signature dishes of Chef Blythe Beck when she helmed Dallas' Central 214 restaurant in the Hotel Palomar, is a great start to the festivities. Sprinkle candied pecans, tomatoes and onions over halves of baby icebergs and top with a spicy bleu cheese dressing.

Giving your side dishes some spark is as easy as steaming or roasting your favorite fall vegetables and sprinkling your favorite candied nuts on top.

For the entree, add a surprise sweet crust to meat, poultry or fish by grinding one or a mixture of candied or butter toffee nuts into the coating.

Dessert can be as simple as selecting a high-quality convenience product and using it to the hilt. The praline almonds burst forth in Dreyer's Slow Churned Rich & Creamy Yogurt Blends Caramel Praline Crunch (known as Edy's brand east of the Rockies). It can be stuffed in between slices of store-bought pound cake or scooped atop shortcakes.

The Carrows chain of family restaurants sometimes serves an item called Dream Crepe Combos. To easily emulate, scoop praline frozen yogurt, like the aforementioned, into the center of a room-temperature buttermilk pancake and roll closed (these can even be thawed store-bought frozen hotcakes). For any of these types of treats, drizzle with hot fudge sauce, top with a dollop of whipped cream and a handful of chopped candied nuts.

QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK:  Check out the nutrition pamphlets or websites of your favorite coffeehouses. You may be surprised that the whipped cream you might splurge on with an otherwise sugar-free iced blended beverage may add 100 calories or more. Consider skipping that when out or at home. And, on the home front, possibly have canned whipped cream on hand: often it only contains only about 15 calories per serving and still satisfies the craving for creaminess.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.