Best Fall Snack: Pumpkin seeds

It’s pumpkin season once again. In every grocery store you see dozens (if not hundreds) of pumpkins for sales; I love pumpkins. The best part is that as the days get closer to Halloween the price of the pumpkins goes down; I have even seen groceries give them out for free after Halloween.

Why do I like pumpkins so much? Because pumpkins seeds are one of my favorite snacks!!

It can be a little time-consuming cleaning out the seeds, but the result is so worth it—especially if you mix up the flavors. I am going to share my favorite ways I season my pumpkin seeds.

First, I want to give you some tips of how to be gather your pumpkin seeds:

Pumpkins seeds float. The most time-consuming part is separating the guts of the pumpkin from the seeds. However, I find that the easiest way to separate them is to put the guts in a deep pan or container and fill it with water. You will see that the seeds float, just fish them out. Also, make sure to move around the guts or break them a little so the seeds stuck in between will also float to the top.
Pumpkins seeds are sticky while they are drying. The first time I made pumpkins seeds, I made the mistake of letting them dry on a paper towel. It was mess, a lot of them stuck to the paper towel, and I had to peel the paper individually. Now, I just dry them with a towel and spread them out on my table on top of a large plastic bag. I usually let them sit out to dry for about two days, I flip them over occasionally and make sure the plastic bag is dry.

Traditional Pumpkin Seeds:

Ingredients:

Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Pepper
1 teaspoon of butter per cup of pumpkin seeds.

Melt the butter and add the salt and pepper. Salt and pepper are to taste, but remember you can always add more salt and pepper after the seeds are cooked.
Toss seeds in a bowl with the melted butter mixture.
Spread them out on a pan (make sure they are not overlapping) and bake at 300 F for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.

Garlic Parmesan

3 cups of pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 teaspoons of garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
3 teaspoons of butter

Melt the butter and add the salt.
Toss seeds in a bowl with the melted butter mixture.
Spread them out on a pan (make sure they are not overlapping) and bake at 300 F for 30 minutes.
Take them out and mix the garlic and Parmesan cheese. Make sure you do it evenly, but careful to not burn yourself.
Put them back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.

Cinnamon Vanilla Pumpkin seeds:

3 cups pumpkin seeds
3 tablespoons of butter
½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Melt the butter and add the salt, vanilla
Toss the seeds in bowl with the melted butter mixture.
After the pumpkin seeds are all evenly coated add the cinnamon and the sugar.
Spread them out on a pan (make sure they are not overlapping) and bake at 300 F for 35-40 minutes.

Last but not least, I want to share a recipe that tried recently and it was delicious: