Friday, October 14, 2011

All from one little pumpkin!

I wrote this post three years ago and it was a guest post over at Money Saving Mom. But, I just received a comment that the links had been changed or something and I decided just to post it here for good measure (and my blog book) and such!

So, here you go - from the archives:

One of my favorite Fall decorations is a simple pumpkin! I recently purchased a 3.4 lb. pie pumpkin at Wal-Mart for $0.78/lb. I thought it would be fun to see how much we could do with just one pumpkin several days in a row to really stretch the value of purchasing it! Join me as we follow the life of the this small pumpkin…

When I first brought the pumpkin home, it made a lovely decoration perched on my porch.

A few days later, it made a fun greeting for a few ladies I had over for an Autumn in Avonlea gathering.

The next morning, it made a fun vase for our First Day of Autumn breakfast.

And, at lunch, a great hiding place for lunch during our scavenger hunt.
Next, I cooked the pumpkin. (Just half the pumpkin and place cut side down

on a baking sheet for one hour at 350 degrees; I got about four cups of cooked
pumpkin from the two pumpkins I cooked.)

I used the cooked pumpkin and made some delicious Pumpkin Struesel Muffins.

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

1/4 c. margarine or butter, softened

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. brown sugar

2/3 c. pumpkin

1/2 c. buttermilk

2 eggs

2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Streusel Topping:

1/3 c. flour

3 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. cold butter or margarine

For muffins: cream together margarine and sugars. Add all remaining ingredients and mix together. In a separate bowl, cut together streusel ingredients and sprinkle over muffin batter. Bake in prepared muffin tin at 375 for 20-25 minutes. Makes one dozen muffins. Original recipe from Quick Cooking May/June 2000.

We were able to tie the muffins into our homeschooling this week by
having an ‘unbirthday’ party (we’ve been reading Ask Mr. Bear!)

Then we toasted the seeds for a snack. Here’s the recipe we used:

Sugared Pumpkin Seeds

2 c. pumpkin seeds (from two pie pumpkins; rinsed and dried on a baking sheet for 48 hours)
1 egg white mixed with 1 Tbsp. water (save the egg yolk for your next batch of pancakes or scrambled eggs!)

1 c. sugar

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

Mix seeds and egg white mixture. Add remaining spices and mix well. Spread on greased baking sheet and bake at 275 degrees for one hour stirring every 15 minutes.

I think I’ll send some in my husband’s lunch tomorrow. After
this yummy baking, we took a short walk outside and enjoyed coming into a
cozy smelling home!

All that from a $2.68 pumpkin!

3 comments:

*carrie* said...

Very fun, Monica. We just bought a butternut squash yesterday, and I plan to bake it tomorrow.

I've never made sweetened pumpkin seeds, so may have to give those a try when we cut into Nathan's pumpkin from school.

Anonymous said...

I love this. Makes me remember that when we go pumpkin buying this year we need to buy pumpkins that can actually be baked. And loving the pumpkin seed recipe - going to try that, and what a sweet touch for your hubby's lunch.

Elaine said...

How fun! Your recipe sounds wonderful. We have new neighbors...these would be great for them and of course we will have to have some for our family too Thanks for sharing this.