Pumpkin Seeds & Spiced Lattes

After such a crazy gardening season, I was surprised to find 19 sugar pie pumpkins down in the garden. Surprised, because I had only planted 2 plants from seed. Surprised, because I had also planted Sweet Dumpling Squash and ended up harvesting pumpkin from where the squash used to be. Surprised, because now I had to figure where to put all that pumpkin!

Isn't that a terrible problem to have?

If you've never roasted a pumpkin before, go here. It's a painless process that results in a far superior product than the canned stuff.

And the best part? You get to keep the seeds!

Pumpkin seeds provide many health benefits. They help protect the prostate, are high in magnesium (which most people are lacking in), help to lower cholesterol, and contain L-tryptophan, a compound that is a natural anti-depressant.

I don't know about you, but that's good enough for me. Now I know why pumpkin seeds make me so happy!☺

Here's how to roast the seeds...

After scooping out the seeds, rinse them off. Soak the clean seeds in a jar of filtered water with some sea salt added. They only need to soak for a couple of hours, but it's okay to soak them overnight. Drain in a colander, but do not rinse. (The amount of salt is to be determined by the amount of seeds you are roasting. I used about 1 t. per pumpkin.)

Preheat the oven to 325F. Drizzle a little olive oil on a cookie sheet.

Dump the drain seeds onto the cookie sheet; stir to coat with oil.



Sprinkle with sea salt.



Bake for 20-30 minutes, stirring a couple of times, until seeds are lightly browned and crispy.

Then try not to eat them all in one sitting.

Notice, I said try.

Most of our pumpkin gets placed in plastic freezer bags in quantities of 1-3 cups. This makes it convenient when it comes time to use the pumpkin in a recipe. Of course, if you like to make homemade Spiced Pumpkin Lattes, you'll only need 3 Tb. of pumpkin at a time. My solution?

Perfect.

Enjoy!