Zoey went on a fieldtrip with her classmates to the Pumpkin Patch last week, and got to bring home her very own pumpkin.
My husband decided it would be the perfect year to carve pumpkins with them for the first time, and I decided I wanted to make some Roasted Pumpkin Seeds.
Win/Win.
Bryan got hands on with the girls while they gutted the pumpkins. It was really fun to watch.
I learned about thirty seconds in that my husband really doesn’t like dealing with the insides of pumpkin.
I’m not sure any of them would have survived without the gloves.
Even if they were way too big for the kids.
In the end I had to get in there and really remove the guts. They were afraid to get their hands dirty, I think.
I didn’t even use gloves.
We ended up letting Zoey have free creative reigns on the larger Pumpkin, allowing her to draw her very own design.
I highly recommend this, it was such a fun process to witness. She drew the design with a marker, and Dad helped her cut it out.
Then Bryan helped the girls with the Hello Kitty template.
We found out afterwards that our pumpkin was a smidge too small for this kind of design.
Oh Well.
It was a great family activity, and when it was all said and done we were left with this glorious mess.
I was really excited to dig into it.
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Recipe
This is one of my all-time favorite snacks for the time of year, and it is so easy to make.
I have tons of memories of my mom making these seeds and having them be devoured in one night.
Ingredients:
- Raw pumpkin seeds
- Olive Oil
- Salt
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 325º F.
- Thoroughly wash your seeds, removing as much pulp as possible.
- Layer seeds on a baking sheet, place in oven for 15-20 minutes for seeds to dry out. Remove from the oven and drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle salt liberally, return to the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Tip: It doesn’t hurt to check your seeds every few minutes. You want them to be golden brown, but not burnt. Cooking times may vary depending on your seeds.
- Remove from oven, let cool, and enjoy!
You can also add your own flavor variants, but this is my favorite way of preparing them.
Happy Halloween!
Nina Say is a slightly geeky, obsessive book collector and huge music fan. She is married to her high school sweetheart, pretends she is a professional photographer and is moderately clumsy.
This is absolutely one of my favorite things about pumpkins. I could eat those all day long!
I love decorating a pumpkin and we will be doing ours on Halloween as I wanted the older kids to be able to be part of it. So looks like I’ll have lots of pictures to share come Monday morning. I can’t wait to see my youngest dip his hands into the gunk as we call it. I plan on making pumpkin seeds (your recipe looks really easy) and I love roasted pumpkin seeds. I’m going to see what I can do with the meat of the pumpkin though too. I bet they had a lot of fun doing the pumpkins with you. If it helps I looked at the pictures before reading the post and knew immediately it was Hello Kitty. 🙂