If you have treats for 200 and only 40 kids show up at your door this weekend, you can find a way to use that extra Halloween candy or snacks before you end up throwing them away.

With a few kitchen tricks, a bag of treats can be seen as a bag of ingredients to help put a variety of dishes on the table.

Short on bread crumbs? Use up those bags of chips or pretzels that are turning to crumbs in the kids’ bedrooms for coating meat or fish.

Too many candy bars? Use them to create a special dessert or bake them into cookies.

Boxes of raisins can find their way into a salad or trail mix.

It takes a little creativity to see the potential behind all of the candy and chips, but it’s better than seeing it wasted, especially when there’s such an excess supply.

At Halloween, candy seems to come from everywhere. Kids get it when they go from house to house, of course, but they can also come by a stash at church and school parties, activities like scouting, and from trick-or-treating sponsored by shopping malls and stores.

Even the best candy fanatics can get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of treats and more often than not, the kids won’t finish it all. You can easily siphon off a few ingredients for dinner.

Pretzels and chips are the ultimate coating material. Try a pretzel-crusted pork tenderloin or chicken breast. Add a honey mustard sauce and you’ve found the perfect complement for chicken, pork and pretzels.

Home cooks have been topping casseroles with crushed potato chips for years. But try using them to bread fish for an extra crunchy topping that packs more flavor than plain bread crumbs.

Those boxes of raisins that often are forgotten among the chocolate and sugary snacks can be added to hundreds of recipes, from bread and baked goods to salads, rice pilaf and chicken dishes.

Pretzels, candy-coated chocolates like M&Ms and raisins combine for a fine trail mix. Add them to a bowl of popcorn or dry cereal and toss in some peanuts for a snack mix the whole family will enjoy that isn’t pure sugar.

Finally, all of that candy is just calling for use in a dessert.

Candy bars of all sorts can be broken up and substituted for chocolate chips in your favorite cookie recipe. Candy bar pieces also make for a great ice cream stir-in.

When you’ve got bags of leftover candy from over-calculating the number of trick-or-treaters who would visit your door, turn them into something really special like this Snickers Bar Cheesecake. If you don’t have enough of one kind of candy, use a variety and turn it into Candy Bar Cheesecake.

SNICKERS BAR CHEESECAKE

1 (9 oz.) package chocolate wafer cookies

1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted 3 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 cup heavy cream

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 to 2 cups Snickers candy bars chopped into pieces, plus more for garnish (see note)

Crushed peanuts, for garnish

Prepared caramel sauce, for garnish

Prepared chocolate fudge sauce, for garnish

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Crush cookies to crumbs and mix with melted butter. Press into bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.

Beat cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add eggs and beat until combined. Add heavy cream and vanilla and continue beating on medium-high speed for 3 to 4 minutes until batter is light. Fold in candy bar pieces.

Pour batter over prepared crust.

Place in oven and bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until center is set. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. When cake is completely cooled, run a knife around edge of pan, then open ring to release cake.

Drizzle caramel and fudge sauce over top of cake. Top with additional chopped candy bars, and sprinkle with peanuts.

Makes 12 servings.

Note: A bag of snack-sized candy bars contained 19 bars, which equaled about 2 cups of chopped candy. We used one bag inside the cake and another for garnishing the top.

-- Lisa Abraham

SUNSHINE SNACK MIX

2 cups raisins

2 cups low-fat granola cereal

1 cup candy-coated chocolate pieces (like M&Ms)

1/2 cup sunflower kernels

In large bowl, combine all ingredients; mix well.

Makes 10 servings.

-- California Raisin Marketing Board

ROAST BREAST OF CHICKEN WITH GORGONZOLA, RAISINS AND PINE NUTS

1 1/2 cups (1/2 lb.) fresh spinach

6 oz. creamy Gorgonzola cheese, softened

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

1/4 cup raisins, soaked in Marsala wine and drained

1 tbsp. finely chopped rosemary or sage

6 boneless chicken breasts, with skin on

Salt and pepper

Olive or vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Blanch spinach in well-salted boiling water; drain and squeeze out excess water; coarsely chop and place in a bowl. Add cheese, pine nuts, raisins and rosemary. Mix well and adjust seasonings. With skin side down on a cutting board and using a boning knife, remove tenderloins from breasts and set aside for another use.

Gently pound thickest part of breasts to even thickness. Then, make a lengthwise incision along thick side of breast to form a pocket. Divide and stuff with cheese mixture; gently press incision closed. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Heat a small amount of oil in a large saute pan and arrange breasts, skin-side down.

Sear for about 1 minute or until nicely browned; turn and place pan in preheated oven and roast at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes until done (at least 170 degrees). Remove from oven; allow to stand about 2 minutes. Carefully slice and serve immediately.

Makes 6 servings.

-- Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, for the California Raisin Marketing Board

HEARTLAND HONEY MUSTARD PORK MEDALLIONS

1 lb. pork tenderloin

2 tbsp. honey

2 tbsp. Dijon mustard, country-style

2 tbsp. olive oil, divided

1 tsp. lemon juice

1 cup crushed pretzels

Salt and pepper

Slice tenderloin crosswise into 8 pieces. Flatten each piece slightly.

Combine the honey, mustard, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, lemon juice,1/4 teaspoon of salt and1/4 teaspoon coarsely cracked pepper in a resealable food storage bag. Add the pork medallions and turn to coat.

Let stand 30 minutes. Remove the pork from the marinade and dip both sides into the crushed pretzels to coat.

Heat the remaining oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook for about 3 minutes on each side, until internal temperature reaches 155 degrees on a meat thermometer.

Makes 3 to 4 servings.

-- Adapted from Ohio Pork Producers Council