Dylan's Lunchbox: Pumpkin-Palooza

Dylan here, and I’m definitely feeling fall right now. The leaves are changing, and there are tons of recipes and ingredients that fit the fall season perfectly! Good thing that Dylan’s Lunchbox is big enough to fit all of these tasty treats!

So, it’s October and Halloween seems to be just around the corner. When I think of Halloween I think about carving pumpkins! Pumpkins serve more than just as jack-o-lanterns in the fall, they are actually a very healthy food to incorporate in meals all year round.

Why are pumpkins so healthy? Pumpkins are rich with nutrients proven to help fight certain diseases. Pumpkins also are a good source of Vitamin A. What’s Vitamin A you ask? Well Vitamin A is responsible for promoting healthy vision as well as a strong immune system. Along with Vitamin A, pumpkins have other vitamins that are natural stress-relievers, help maintain healthy skin, and decreases chance of high blood pressure.

That’s a pretty impressive list of things pumpkins can do for your body! So why not try to make a snack that uses some of the pumpkin? When you are carving pumpkins you have all of the seeds leftover that you scraped out of the pumpkins. Instead of throwing these out, try and make roasted pumpkin seeds that you can snack on for the rest of the day.

This snack is so quick and easy to make and is a delicious and easy way to get your filling of pumpkin!

• First of all you will need to preheat your oven 300 degrees Fahrenheit
• Then, take your left over raw pumpkin seeds (you will need approximately 1 and ½ cups for this recipe), and rinse off all pumpkin residue left on the seeds.
• Next, dry the seeds off on a paper towel and dump them into a mixing bowl.
• To add some flavor, add 2 teaspoons of melted butter and a pinch of salt to the mixing bowl
• Mix all of these ingredients together
• Lastly, spread the seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet and place in the oven for approximately 45 minutes

Once they are done you can eat them by the handful or use them as toppers for salads. Either way it’s a fall treat that you will enjoy and feel good about eating.

So this year don’t waste the pumpkin seeds but bake them instead to make a delicious snack! And don’t forget, food can keep you healthy in more ways than one as shown in last week’s Lunchbox, ‘Food and Your Face.’