Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

STOP!!! Don't throw out those pumpkin seeds. Roast them and eat them.

Once you have all the seeds out of your pumpkin, rinse seeds off with water to get off all the stringy stuff. Pat dry with paper towel.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Take 1 Tbsp. oil or butter and grease small cookie sheet. I used a 10 x 5 pan. Mix seeds and spices together until evenly coated. Pour onto cookie sheet. Make sure the seeds are evenly spread out. We want every little seed to get even baking time. Bake for 20- 30 minutes.

Garlic Pumpkin Seeds:
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup pumpkin seeds


Pumpkin Pie Pumpkin Seeds:
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup pumpkin seeds

Veterans Day: Thank You!!

Thank you to all the men and women who have served or are serving our country. Freedom is not Free and I pray for our soldiers who are away from home that they will return safely. Thank you for all you do. May God bless you and keep you safe.

End of the "10 day Pledge to Eat Real Food"

The 10 day pledge to eat real food was pretty easy for me. The hardest part was when we went out to eat for my mom's birthday. We went to our local Mexican restaurant and I ordered veggie fajitas and only ate the veggies and re-fried beans. I really wanted to eat the fajitas but no "white" breads. It was only the 3rd day and my niece quiet on me. Thanks for trying Kia :)

Salads were on the menu a lot. I really missed my thousand island dressing but I adapted to my homemade oil & vinegar dressing. Much better for me and very inexpensive. This food pledge opened my eyes to eating more at home and less eating out.

Example: I ate out two meals last week, one was $4.19 and the other time was $9.93 = $14.12 spent on TWO meals for only ME.

Solution: Eat at home = money saved. Went to Whole Foods and bought a 4lb whole chicken = $7.72. Cooked it in the crock-pot and had garlic mashed potatoes with parmesan bread sticks. Total cost of meal= less than $10. Plus I had enough chicken left over to make two chicken salad sandwiches for lunch and more chicken for my home made chicken noodle soup. The chicken noodle soup made about 3 quarts. It freezes well too.

All and all I had a great time coming up with different recipes to eat. Not to mention the 5 lbs I lost in 10 days. Now back to the kitchen for some home made honey blueberry muffins.