Monday, November 2, 2009

Post-Halloween Money Saving Opportunity

Before Halloween I saw these cute little sugar pumpkins with faces painted on them for about $5.
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Yesterday I went to Walmart and they were a dollar apiece. So, I bought two. These little pumpkins yield the equivalent of two to three cans of pumpkin, and canned pumpkin costs nearly $1 a can. I figure I made the equivalent of four to six cans for $2. They're relatively easy to roast, puree and freeze.

First, cut each pumpkin in half and remove the seeds and stringy goo. Of course, save the seeds so you can roast those too!

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Place them cut side down on a cookie sheet and roast them for 45 minutes or so at 350. Take them out of the oven and allow them to cool long enough so that you can pull the skin off easily. If it doesn't come off easily, it's probably not cooked all the way yet.

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To toast the pumpkin seeds, rinse them a little and add a teaspoon or so of salt, mixing well. Dump them on another cookie sheet and put them in the oven with the roasting pumpkins for 20 minutes or so or until they are as done as you like.

Put the pumpkin in a blender or food processor. You should end up with a bowlful of puree and some toasty pumpkin seeds.

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You can put the pumpkin in a freezer bag, or seal it up with a food sealer and freeze it.

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Here is two pumpkins worth of puree:
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Make sure to label the bags well with the contents and date.

3 comments:

  1. Mmm!! Homemade pumpkin is 1000x better than canned too! Awesome idea!

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  2. My pumpkins were a bit larger than yours, so I ended up with 17 1-pound bags of puree. I've made 4 batches of pumpkin muffins so far with this recipe:
    http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Pumpkin-Muffins/Detail.aspx

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  3. Wow, that's great! I hear there is a pumpkin shortage this year, so it's extra good. I will definitely try that recipe.

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