I’m not a fairy godmother.

My pumpkins weren’t magical.

But those 3 big, orange beauties did change into more than I imagined 🙂

Who knew that fun trip to the local farm would reap so much of a harvest.

My effort was minimal, once I got the hang of it.

I’d love to share so you could get the hang of it too.

Just in case you’re looking for a little magic in your life.

And a whole lot of pumpkin puree. 😉

Which can magically turn into delicious pumpkin muffins, pumpkin loaves, pumpkin cookies, etc.!

That’s what happened in my kitchen on Friday morning 🙂

Pumpkin muffins, there for the taking, and oh, did my guys take – and EAT!

$18 for fall outdoor decoration that covered 2 holidays (Canadian Thanksgiving and Halloween) and then turned into $85 worth of organic pumpkin puree.

About 3 hours total for me in the kitchen = about $64 of money saved = about $21 per hour.

And the pumpkin looks and tastes amazing.

Nice!

Just one of the 3 orange beauties that graced our front steps for a few weeks before Halloween. I decided not to carve them out this year, but just leave them as outdoor decor since Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. I’m pretty sure you could roast the pumpkin pieces you carve if it’s done close to Halloween (maybe keep them in the fridge or cool garage in a plastic bag? And if your carved pumpkins are in good shape I’m pretty sure you could roast them too!

The full extent of my Halloween horror side is simply stabbing into pumpkins so I can roast them. That’s about all you’ll get from me 🙂

Roast the pumpkins in a slightly-oiled glass baking dish (you might want to put aluminum foil down first, cover foil with oil, then add the pumpkin. And baking sheets aren’t a good idea from experience 😉 )

425 F for about an hour, then check to see if fork goes in easily. If not, roast for another 15 minutes or so.

Try not to overcook – the pumpkin will start to lose its juices and deflate before your eyes. And you’ll have a watery mess to clean up (I also know this from experience).

When the pumpkin is nice and roasted place it in the sink, cut it into quarters (you should be able to cut through it SO easily), scoop out seeds and stuff (metal utensils get the job done nicely), cut the quarters into 3 pieces each, place the roasted pumpkin pieces upside down on a cutting board, peel/slice off outer pumpkin layer, fill large bowl with peeled, roasted pumpkin pieces, and mash with a hand blender.

 Scoop out 2-cup portions of roasted pumpkin into sandwich bags.

So much pumpkin – YAY!

Leave an opening in the sandwich bag enclosure to squeeze out extra air. Seal it back up when you’re done!

Once I lay the bag flat out, I open the middle of the bag just a tiny bit to squeeze out any extra air I can without making a huge mess. Then I seal it back up again and pat it down nice and flat.

If I notice any lumps in the bag, I can squish those out once the bag is all sealed up.

The bags are stacked and ready for freezing!

I ended up with 48 cups of roasted pumpkin puree from those 3 big, orange pumpkins that decorated my front steps for a few weeks beforehand.

I make “vegetable muffins” (with zucchini, squash or pumpkin) usually once a week. My pumpkin muffin recipe calls for 1 cup of puree, so I’ll most likely make a double batch, and freeze 12 of the baked muffins for the following week. This also saves on time and effort for me in baking more when all the ingredients are out and the oven is being used anyway.

This whole process really satisfies my goals of Waste Not, Want Not as well…

• Less waste – not buying things that really just end up as garbage
• Reduce/reuse/recycle
• Good stewardship of resources
• Supporting local farms means less impact on the globe

Win-win!

And yum-yum 🙂