Homemade Pumpkin Puree and Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

When I learned Erin from 5DollarDinners the reason that my grocer had no canned pumpkin I decided to buy a pie pumpkin and make my own. I have made my own once before and found it

to be pretty easy. (I need to have pumpkin this time of year for my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and some pumpkin bread.)

My pumpkin that I purchase for $1.79 at a local market.

I sliced the pumpkin in half to clean it out. Look at all those seeds!

Use a large spoon to scrape out the pumpkin and put the seeds aside to clean and roast later.

Then cut the pumpkin into fourths and put on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. Next, put the pumpkin in the oven preheated to 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

While the pumpkin is in the oven. I start to work on the pumpkin seeds. Run water over these slimy seeds until they are clean.

Then mix in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and salt to taste.

Next, spread the pumpkin seeds out on a cookie sheet. Wait for the pumpkin to finish roasting before putting the seeds in the oven. (350 degrees for 30 minutes stirring the seeds every 10 minutes.)

After the pumpkin is pulled from the oven and the pumpkin seeds are placed in you can start spooning out the pumpkin into a blender or food processor. (You may wish to wait until the pumpkin cools some. I can never wait.)

Once the pumpkin is in the food processor puree the pumpkin until it is smooth.

When done put the pumpkin puree in jars or bags. You can freeze this puree and keep it up to 3 months.

When the pumpkin seeds are cooled enjoy them. Ours never last more than 24 hours.