Do something cheap, easy and delicious with those leftover pumpkin seeds...

My wife found this recipe and strongly encouraged me to make it. So last night I did! It was so surprisingly sensational and delicious I wanted to share the recipe with everyone on gather.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

source: (Southern Living magazine, October 2009 issue)

"Makes about 1 cup

Hands-on-time about 5 minutes

Total time (including baking) 40 minutes

Also known as "pepitas", pumpkin seeds are a great source of vitamins. You can also roast acorn squash seeds using this method.

Ingredients:

1 cup shelled, raw or fresh pumpkin seeds

2 tsp. olive oil

1/4 tsp. ground thyme

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Rinse seeds and pat dry.

Toss together seeds and remaining ingredients in a bowl.

Spread in a single layer on an aluminum foil or parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until roasted.

Cool completely in pan (about 15 minutes)."

The rest of my story...

It was wonderful to smell the aroma and hear the faint popping sound of the seeds baking. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the wonderful texture and flavor! I am definitely making more.

Every Halloween we have multiple parties to attend. And since Halloween is on a Saturday night this year, the parties are especially plentiful. We have no children, so we always look forward to the large numbers of Treat or Treaters who make their annual visit. In addition to giving treats to the kids on Halloween night, we always like to give the accompanying adults something too. So we are planning to bake a few batches of roasted pumpkin seeds, package them up in spooky pouches and give them as treats too.

I hope you enjoy them like we did.

Lastly, everyone here seems to always have such fabulous food photos. So in an effort to 'look good' I also tried my hand at food styling. The seeds are the real deal. The ceramic pumpkins came from a local craft store and were less then $1 a piece.

Tim