Don't Let Them Just Sit There and ROT!!!

~Just a little heads up~  LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF PICTURES!!!!

WE HAVE PUMPKINS!!!!

The girls acquired pumpkins from their schools  back before Halloween.

I had every intention of carving them with the girls but I just didn't make it happen.

Even though I was bummed that we didn't carve pumpkins this year, I was able

to do something else with my girls!

 

The girls were disappointed that we didn't pull out the carving patterns

and tools but they did enjoy using markers!



I know I can't keep them Happy all the time, but my girls are pretty good

at quickly getting over their disappointment and being Happy again!

T thought it was GREAT to pull the 'guts and seeds' out of the pumpkin!!

D, not so much! after this picture she asked if she had to keep doing it!

M is quite the trooper too! She pulled Every last one of those seeds out of there!

The after-math almost looked like it was straight out of a movie!



pumpkin seeds and 'gut strings' were EVERYWHERE!!

I cut the pumpkins into a BUNCH of chunks!!

(and yes, I did use both pie pumpkins and jack o' lantern pumpkins) 

I started baking the pumpkin chunks and then ended up boiling two batches

because I was becoming very impatient!

Personally, I preferred how the boiled pumpkin turned out better then the baked.

Fried pumpkin anyone? I didn't have anywhere else to set my skillet.

We had pumpkin EVERYWHERE!!

Here comes the Puree!!!

please excuse the spotted mess all over the counter! 

You'd think a pumpkin blew up or something!!

M helped me out by writing on the bags for me.

I put five - 2 cup bags and one - 1 cup bag in the freezer.

Tina over at Mommy's Kitchen has a Great Pumpkin Puree Tutorial.

Now it's time to use up those seeds!!

The girls each mixed up their own batch of Pumpkin Seeds!!

T's batch was mixed with oil, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg with a

brown sugar crusty glaze.

D's batch was oil and Garlic Salt.

M's batch was oil, garlic salt and crushed red pepper.

Ready for a taste?

Pumpkin seed recipes:

Sugar & Cinnamon

1 cup pumpkin seeds, rinsed and patted dry

2 Tblsp. oil

2 Tblsp. sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

2 Tblsp. Brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350*F. Mix first five ingredients together. Spread out on a foil covered

baking sheet sprayed with Cooking Spray. Bake for about one hour. Stir the seeds about every

10 minutes. After 30 minutes of baking, sprinkle the Brown Sugar over the seeds and continue

to bake until crispy!

Let cool and place in an air tight container!

For the other two flavors just mix your seeds and ingredients together and following the

baking directions above.

There are limitless possibilities of what flavors you can make your seeds!

*I'm sure some of you are wondering where #4 was after the first couple of pictures!

She did NOT want to have anything to do with the INSIDE of the pumpkins!