Baked Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin seeds. So many times we throw them out! How sad. 

These little guys make a delicious snack, add texture to your salad, and are quite healthy. 

Also, the most difficult part of baking pumpkin seeds is separating them from the rest of the pulp. 

Here's my step-by-step directions for an awesome snack:

Ok, so this is most likely what you start with. Grossness. But bite the bullet and get to separating. (Or, better yet, hand two bowls to your husband who has been sitting on the couch all night and tell him to get to work. :))

These are some seeds I had left over from my spaghetti squash. You can use these too!

So then they look like this. 

Use a colander and wash your seeds off the best you can. Get rid of some of that stickiness. 

Lay your seeds out on a baking pan. Leave them out overnight if you'd like, this will help them to dry out some more. 

Now to get baking! Set your oven to 275 degrees. I wanted a more tangy, spicy seed, so I am doing mine with worcesterhire sauce, garlic salt, and a bit of cayenne pepper. You could do just salt and pepper, or sweeten them up with cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, or even sweetened cocoa powder. I also used butter, but you could use olive oil to be a bit healthier.

I melted 2 tbls of butter in the microwave, then added 2 tbls of worch, 1 tsp of garlic salt, a pinch of reg salt, and a couple pinches of cayenne. Stir together. 

Place two cups of pumpkin seeds in a medium large bowl. Pour mixture over them, and stir until well coated. 

Spread seeds out over baking pan. I used parchment because I didn't want a sticky mess. 

After 1 hour, they should be all baked! Try one and see if it suits your crunch level. If not, bake for a bit more. These were perfect!

We were planning on taking these as a snack to our friend's house tomorrow night, but I'm not sure if they are going to make it there. Chips have nothing on these guys! Their crunch and tanginess are insane! 

Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Soo, my fantastic mother-in-law sent me up some fresh spaghetti squash, zucchini, and one LARGE baking pumpkin. I mean, look at this thing! You could almost carve it.

It doesn't take me long to find uses for these yummy Fall starches. For lunch yesterday I made spaghetti squash with tomato sauce (yes, there will be a blog).  But then I was left with this ginormous pumpkin. What do to?

Well, you know I'm obsessed with everything pumpkin (who isn't, really?),  so I figured I'd puree it to use in...well...EVERYTHING! So, if you're feeling adventurous, here's an options for some of those left over Halloween  baking pumpkins!

My pumpkin was super large! I washed him off....

Look! He's got a knife in his head! Great Halloween costume, Mr. Pumpkin!

I sliced him like a cake. Except he's a little tougher than a cake..

My 13 slices of pumpkin. Yes, A LOT!

I spooned out his innards 

And placed them on a paper towel for later!

C, for Carlie!

S, for Shawn!

Ok, enough playing with my food. Time to bake! I placed on aluminum foil to keep my pans cleaner. 350 degrees for 45min-1 hour.

In the meantime I collected my pumpkin guts...

...took a creative picture of my pumpkin with canned puree....

And washed my seeds! Like I said, these will be featured in a blog very soon!

All done! When you can stick fork in them gently...

...and easily pull away the meat, they are done

I used a knife to cut away the skin, similar to how you would a cantaloupe 

Now time to puree. I cut into chunks and placed in my food processor. If you don't have one, you could use a blender or a potato masher.

Pulse

All pureed! 

Almost looks like a mango applesauce...yum.

Ok, this pic requires an explanation. It's important when your puree is watery, to try and drain it the best you can. Watery puree will not help your baking. Nope. You could use a cheesecloth or sieve and drain, but I don't have either of those. So, I took my salad spinner, and placed a coffee filter in it and let it sit that way. I allowed each batch to sit until I went to the next (about 5 min)

Look how much juice I got after 5 min!

Then I got REAL creative (or weird). I used my colander, with a large bowl under it, and covered the areas with holes with my coffee filters. You could also just layer strong paper towels. 

I then let it sit for 1 hour. (Depending on the wateriness of your pumpkin, you may want to decrease/increase this time.

Puree and pumpkin juice. I am going to try and use the juice for something too. It's pretty yummy! 

Now, you need quart size freezer bags

Fold the bag kind of inside out and prop it up like pictured. This will make it MUCH easier and less messy to fill!

I measured 1 cup into each bag, that way it'd be super easy for baking. 

I then sealed up the bag with just an inch or so opened and pressed all the air out. Then I sealed it.

See? Doesn't take up much room and it's easy to store. 

I labeled my bags with the ingredient, amount, and date

I ended up with 12.5 cups!! That's a lot of puree! 

Even so, look how nicely it fit into my freezer. This will be awesome through the holidays. I can't wait to make pumpkin cookies, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin.....ahhh!

 I can't take credit for all of the tips and baking instructions for this recipe. I used The Pioneer Women's recipe. She's awesome.


So, any suggestions or ideas of what I can do with my pumpkin puree?

Pumpkin Oatmeal

So yes, I'll admit it.

I give into the hype of the seasonal flavors.

Who doesn't though? I love the idea that I can only get pumpkin at a particular time of the year (even if that's not entirely true).

In my last blog, I shared a recipe for pumpkin cream puffs. In the recipe, it doesn't call for an entire can of pumpkin puree. So what do we do with the rest?

Well don't throw it away! Even if it's just a few spoonfuls, it can surely make your morning more enjoyable.

Try adding that pumpkin to some oatmeal. TRUST ME, it will transform your breakfast. I'm not a huge fan of oatmeal, but at 10:30 at night as I'm typing this, I am craving this stuff.



Here's the simple recipe I used. I didn't have any honey (sad, I know) so I'll admit I did add a bit of sugar. I also added my current favorite seasonal spice, pumpkin pie spice. This breakfast will make you look forward to your morning, and will also keep you super full until lunch. Do try, it's way too easy and way to delish to not try.

Happy Fall breakfast!! :)

Pumpkin Cream Puffs

Cream Puffs. What does that mean to you? Sounds a bit girly to me. 

But, for some reason I wanted to make them. And since its the season, of course I needed to incorporate my love for pumpkin. 

These are super easy too. Not too many ingredients. There's just a few things that you want to make sure to do if you choose to make these, and I'll walk you through that. 

Here's the recipe for the cream puffs (or profiteroles) that I used. 

Gather your ingredients to make your choux pastry dough: 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 stick of butter, pinch of salt, 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, 2 eggs. Can also add some sugar if you'd like. 

Preheat oven to 425F. In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter and salt.

I also added a stick of cinnamon to infuse some flavor, but that's just because I had it. 

Allow ingredients to come to a ROLLING BOIL. This is key. Not just a few bubbles. Remove cinnamon stick. Then immediately reduce heat to simmer and add all the flour at once.

Immediately start stirring ingredients rapidly with a wooden spoon. Not sure why, but they insist on wooden. 

Mixture should become a ball and look slightly sweaty. Kinda like you see here!

Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl and let it cool for 3-4 minutes. Doesn't have to be cold, you just don't want it to cook the eggs. Using electric mixer (or if you have a strong arm and want to use that wooden spoon again) beat the eggs 1 at a time. DO NOT add second egg until the first one is fully incorporated. Can add cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice at this time. Make sure eggs are fully incorporated, but don't over beat. Should look like my picture. :)

Using a pastry bag (or zip lock bag like me) fill with dough. Pipe 1 inch balls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. When you're done, dip finger in water and smooth the top of of each ball lightly. This will give them a pretty shape! Make sure oven is FULLY HEATED and bake for 20-25 minutes. Try and rotate baking sheet half way through baking (10-12 min in). 

Your puffs should puff!

Beautiful!! These look a little brown because of the pumpkin spices.

While puffs are cooling, gather your ingredients for your pumpkin cream filling: 1 cup of whipping cream, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, 1 cup (or so depending on your taste) of canned pumpkin. (I'll show you later what to do with any leftover pumpkin puree) :)

In a large mixing bowl beat whipping cream, sugar, and pumpkin pie spice with electric mixer on medium until soft peaks form. 

I don't know about you, but I never get soft peaks. Mine will start to get a bit firm then I'll throw it in the fridge for 30 min or so and that seems to help it harden some more. 

Fold in canned pumpkin. Cover and chill (allow it to firm up a bit like I mentioned above). Chill until ready to serve.

When ready to serve, make a quick caramel sauce (1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tbls cornstarch, 1/3 cup of light cream (whatever you have on hand), 1/4 cup water, 1/2 tsp vanilla, combine in small saucepan over medium heat until it thickens)

Pipe cream into cream puffs, or you can just cut them in half and spoon cream mixture in. Either way it tastes yummy!  Then pour warm caramel over top.

Dust some powdered sugar and some additional pumpkin pie spice on top. Serves approx. 4 people

YUM!!