Salted Caramel Pumpkin Seeds

As established in my previous entry, I will gladly consume anything that contains pumpkin, but I've never eaten a pumpkin seed in my life. Until today, that is.

People have always raved about pumpkin seeds. I've even had people request the seeds from the pumpkins I've carved in the past. The thought of eating a pumpkin seed has just always seemed so unnatural to me. Until I found a recipe for Salted Caramel Pumpkin Seeds. At that point I was sold.

This past Wednesday, Zach and I visited a pumpkin patch at a local church and bless him for being so patient and so willing to put up with my indecisiveness because I think he picked up and moved at least ten (large) pumpkins in order for me to do side by side comparisons. In all fairness, it was his idea, but we eventually found our perfect pumpkins and then we carved them this weekend.

Zach is one of the people that has always raved to me about (his) pumpkin seeds. So it was already determined that we'd be making them. After carving the pumpkins, we washed the seeds and set them out to dry overnight.

And here is all you need to make them yourself!

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups raw pumpkin seeds, rinsed and pat dry

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Nonstick cooking spray

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon each, brown sugar and granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mix sugar, and cinnamon. Add seeds and toss to coat evenly. Spread on the baking sheet and spray with cooking spray. Bake seeds until lightly golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Stir in sugars and salt; cook until deep golden brown, 1-2 minutes. Reduce heat to low and stir in seeds; coat with buttery caramel mixture and cook an additional minute. Remove from heat and let cool before serving.

(The original recipe called for nutmeg and ginger, but we opted to leave that out and I can honestly say I don't miss those flavors.) 

These turned out so great and I can honestly say that, even though it still feels a little unnatural to eat them, I understand the hype around pumpkin seeds....or maybe it's the salted caramel aspect of these seeds because who doesn't love anything salted caramel? 

Oh, and here are our finished pumpkins :) 

Pumpkin Spice Protein Pancakes

Every year I look forward to fall more and more. Cooler temps, boots, football, changing leaves, soups, and pumpkin, especially pumpkin. Pumpkin coffee, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin cupcakes....you name it, anything with pumpkin is sure to please. But let's be honest, one can't make a stop at Dunkin Donuts every morning for one of their pumpkin donuts. Ok, one could, one might even want to, but it would not be conducive to preserving one's waistline. So what is one to do?

Last fall I discovered this recipe for pumpkin spice protein pancakes. They're super easy to make, super healthy and loaded with protein, and even better, they really quite tasty. Turns out, you CAN have your pumpkin spice goodness and eat it, too.

When I make this recipe, I triple it for two reasons. 1. It uses up the whole can of pumpkin so none goes to waste. 2. These actually freeze really well so I divide them up into freezer bags and I'm set for breakfast for a few weeks.


Ingredients: 

1 scoop	Protein powder
1/2 cup	Pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 tsp	Cinnamon
1/2 tsp	Baking powder
2	Egg whites
1/2 cup	Oats
1/2 cup	+ 2 tbs water
3-5 pkts	Stevia (or 1/2-1 tbs sweetener of choice)

Directions: 
1. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Heat a skillet or griddle on medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Measure out 1/4 cup of the pancake batter on griddle and flip when bubbles appear on top and edges look cooked.
3. Eat up and enjoy!

You can use a low sugar syrup with these or just eat them plain, which is what I do, because they're that good! If you decide to try out this recipe, let me know what you think!

Do you have any pumpkin recipes that you enjoy?