Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin carving has always been one of my dad's favorite traditions.

Never mind if the kids are only actually engaged for the first hour or so, 

at least it gets the kids to clean out the pumpkins and pick out the seeds and 

then gives Grandpa Jim an excuse to carve a bunch of pumpkins and let his creative juices flow.

One of these years perhaps the kids will actually take hold of a knife and do some of their own carving, but for now all parties involved are happy to let grandpa do it.

While the carving is taking place, I take the seeds and escape to the kitchen to do my thing.

I love taking a by-product, or leftover, from a project and putting them to good use.

Especially something as easy and as tasty as roasted pumpkin seeds!

Just take about 2 cups of pumpkin seeds, drizzle them with olive oil.

Stir them up gently and spread them out on a baking pan

Then sprinkle with seasoning salt.

Bake at 375 F for about 20 minutes

After 10 minutes, take them out to stir them. 

You can see that they have started to turn a light golden brown.  

Take them out again after another 10 minutes and they were perfect!  

While they are still warm, they may have a bit of a chewy texture, 

but that transitions to a perfect crunch when they cool.  

Couldn't even keep my kids hands out of the bowl long enough to snaps some pictures. 

No complaints here!  

RECIPE:

Ingredients:

2 cups pumpkin seeds

olive oil 

seasoning salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F.  

Drizzle the pumpkin seeds with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. 

Stir and spread them on a baking sheet. 

Sprinkle with seasoning salt. 

Baking for about 20 minutes, turning after 10. 

If they are not quite done after 20 minutes, put them back in for 2-3 minutes at a time. 

Better to be safe than sorry...