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The Great Pumpkin

 

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This is the season of great orange orbs. Otherwise known as winter squash, pumpkins are a fruit in the gourd family. Pumpkin makes its way into all kinds of sweet seasonal treats from pies to cookies to breads - but creative use of pumpkin can be a boon to your healthy lifestyle, not a diet buster.

 

Coming in at a mere 50 calories per one-cup serving, and packed with betacarotene, pumpkin makes a nutritious addition to just about anything you can dream of. Pumpkin can be boiled, baked, stuffed and stewed, and it’s easy to prepare while multitasking. Just slice in half, remove seeds, and roast on a cookie sheet in a hot 400 degree oven. It smells so delicious you’ll want to eat it right out of the shell!

Try roasted pumpkin in these healthy dishes:

 

  1. Mash up with a little cinnamon as a side dish
  2. Layer in homemade vegetable lasagna
  3. Make a puree with sauteed onions, carrots and one quart of vegetable broth
  4. Add to HMR Shakes, Pudding, Entrees or Multigrain Hot Cereal


Or stuff a pumpkin and bake with apples, cranberries, cinnamon, and nutmeg, for a delicious and nutritious fiber-filled dessert.

Raw and roasted pumpkin seeds make a nutritious snack for the kids and offer about 7 grams of protein. But they are also high in calories and fat, so save them for the treat category if you are trying to lose weight.

Involving the family in pumpkin traditions can be a wonderful and inexpensive way to celebrate the season without the all the high-calorie hype. Take a trip to a pumpkin patch and let the kids each pick out their own pumpkin. Have a carving night, where creativity and learning take the focus off candy. Check out this wonderful resource for other pumpkin-related activities: http://themes.atozteacherstuff.com/230/pumpkins-lesson-plans-activities-printables-and-teaching-ideas/

As we enter the holiday season, we can choose to create new traditions that, though they set us apart from the crowd, reflect our dedication to living a healthy lifestyle. Remember Linus van Pelt, waiting patiently in the pumpkin patch while Charlie Brown and the others went out to trick or treat? His commitment to the Great Pumpkin never wavered. So this season, as the night sky lights up with the eerie smile of Jack o’ Lanterns, remember it’s ok to go your own way, too.
 

 

by SandiBraithwaite on 10/29/2012 | Share Story With a Friend

tags: Recipes, holidays

About the Author

Sandi Braithwaite

Sandi Braithwaite, from our Consumer Relations Department, has been a member of the HMR team since 2002. She has her hands in several areas of the company, from marketing to being a weight loss coach. When Sandi’s not working, she’s teaching dance & exercise classes & cooking up new recipes.

Comments (3) Post a comment
Thanks for sharing Sandi - The flexibility of pumpkin is amazing and you have captured it well. Fortunately the pumpkin sold in the produce section of the grocery store are sugar pumpkins. The kind you see at farm stands for carving are not easy to cook or eat so make sure you select sugar pumpkins for the cooking fun so you can enjoy all their goodness. The name sugar pumpkin does not make them higher in sugar, it just identifies them as the "eating pumpkin".
by ChristineWeithman on 11/13/2012
Yes! And it makes your kitchen smell so good too!
by SandiBraithwaite on 11/01/2012
Love it! Puts me in the mood for pumpkin. I never thought about roasting it with cranberries and apples but I love dessert so this sounds like a great idea.
by Chrissy78 on 10/30/2012