The Halloween excitement has slowly crept its way into our house over the past week. We carved the one lonely pumpkin on our front porch Tuesday night. Cole, our resident artist, drew several sketches before he decided on a face for his pumpkin. We still like carving pumpkins the old-fashioned way – no stencils, no fancy tools, just Cole’s imagination, a knife and a spoon….and a drill.
Cole is now at his dad’s house for the weekend and for Halloween. He and his dad will be dressing up in matching costumes this year – werewolves!
Christian and I have kept the Halloween spirit going by roasting the pumpkin seeds that were donated to us by Cole’s cyclops pumpkin. I’ve also loved roasted pumpkin seeds. They are yummy, so I planned on making them. Besides being yummy, I also just realized how good they are for you. The doula’s who teach our class wrote a blog post about the benefits of pumpkin seeds. As soon as we read the article, we cleaned off our pumpkin seeds and stuck them in the oven.
Pumpkin seeds are full of zinc. Zinc helps build our immune system. Who doesn’t want a strong immune system going into flu and cold season.
Pumpkin seeds are especially beneficial for expecting mothers. They contain high amounts of protein, zinc and other vitamins. They also are thought reduce cholesterol to safe levels. One gram of pumpkin seed protein contains an amount of Tryptophan equivalent to a glass of milk. These seeds supply lots of magnesium, manganese, phosphorous and phytosterols that improve the function of the liver and your body’s immunity. Pumpkin seed oil contains fatty acids that make the blood vessels, tissues and the nerves healthy. Pumpkin is also rich in fiber that is much needed by expectant women to relieve conditions of constipation common during pregnancy.
I will be roasting more pumpkin seeds this weekend!
Tomorrow morning is the wicked 10k….fingers crossed it won’t be too wet or too windy. My skeleton t-shirt is going to have to hide beneath a water proof jacket.
Hope you all have a great Halloween weekend!
Kristy Maute 
Pumpkin seed recipe?? What your method? Last seeds we made were carmelized but think that decreases the healthy factor 😉
We cooked them in the oven at 325 degrees. Spread them out on a cookie sheet. We lightly sprayed them with Pam. Cook them for 25ish minutes. Shake them after about 10 minutes. Once they were done we lightly covered them in salt and old bay.