Eat Pumpkin Seeds for Protein

I love this time of year! Halloween decor in the windows, trips to cider mills, and my all-time favorite… pumpkins. I love pumpkins not so much for the pie that can be made from them, but for their seeds. If I had a choice between sweet or salt, nothing tops the salted crunchiness of pumpkin seeds fresh out the oven.

When I was a kid, I wolfed them down like candy all day long because I knew I wouldn’t be able to enjoy them until next year. But now that we’re all grown, we can’t afford to stuff our faces with them all day long because they do contain kind of a lot of — gasp — fat and calories! Pumpkin seeds are no different than sunflower seeds, peanuts, and almonds. BUT– that’s not necessarily a bad thing, either.

Pumpkin seeds are packed with essential cholesterol-lowering fatty acids, vitamins, and protein. It’s just a bonus that we look at them as a delicacy! But, if you’re thinking of popping some in the oven this week, don’t load them up with butter and salt or you’ll be doing more harm than good. Instead, try this recipe below. It contains olive oil instead of butter, and coarse sea salt for lower sodium amounts.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Serving size = 1/4 cup
215 calories, 19.5g fat, 6g carbohydrates,
10g protein, 1.5g fiber

Ingredients:
2 cups whole pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt (to taste)

1.) Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees F
2.) After gutting a pumpkin, separate the seeds from the pulp
3.) Rinse the seeds in a colander and blot them dry with paper towel
4.) Put the seeds in a bowl and mix them with the olive oil and salt to taste
5.) Place a sheet of non-stick foil over a cookie sheet and spray the foil with cooking spray
6.) Spread the pumpkin seeds on the covered cookie sheet and place it on the top rack of the oven
7.) Let the seeds bake for 30 - 45 minutes, depending on how toasted you like them