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Healthy Recipe: Sweet and Salty Pumpkin Seeds

FitSugar — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:47:00 PDT

It's a tradition in my house to carve pumpkins and roast pumpkin seeds the night before Halloween. Between my entire family though, we have too many seeds to bake. So I save them in a container in the fridge to roast later that week. These make a great snack because they're sweet and salty, and 1/4 cup of seeds contains 18 grams of protein and 457 milligrams of potassium.

There's a special ingredient in my roasted pumpkins seeds. To find out what it is

Sweet and Salty Pumpkin Seeds
An old family favorite

Ingredients

2 cups pumpkin seeds, remove pulp
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a bowl, toss the seeds with the oil, honey, cinnamon, cumin, and salt.
Spread the seeds evenly in one layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring the seeds every few minutes.
Remove from the oven and cool completely. Taste the seeds and re-season if desired.

Serves 10

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Do you have a healthy snack or recipe to share? Then share it in the Lite'n It Up - Healthy Recipe Group and I might just post it on FitSugar.

Smart Swaps For Salad Toppings

Laura Marie Given — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 02:10:21 PDT

Salads are a great meal option when you're trying to lose weight, but calorie-packed toppings can make your "smart" choice an unhealthy pick. Hoping to get lean by beach season? Stick to your slim-down goals by substituting nutritious add-ons for the most common topping offenders. Make these simple, health-conscious ingredient swaps to boost your salad's nutrition without sacrificing flavor:

Instead of . . .

Candied pecans, choose almonds: When it comes to crunchy toppings, avoid excess sugar and calories by skipping candied options and going for toasted, unsalted nuts instead.
Cheese, try avocado: Craving something smooth and creamy? Choose ripe avocado over cheese to get the same smooth texture with healthier, more satisfying fats.
Dried cranberries, pick pomegranate seeds: If you like to add some sweet, tart flavor to your salads, try pomegranate seeds, a nutritional powerhouse. Packed with antioxidants, vitamin C, and fiber, they're a great topping with plenty of health benefits.
Bacon, add edamame. When you're considering different protein picks, swap out salty bacon for filling edamame. By choosing the soy beans, you'll steer clear of unhealthy fats while still filling up on some substantial protein.
Croutons, toss in seeds: Hoping to add a bit of crunch? Pass on croutons - and a handful of empty calories - in favor of vitamin-rich pumpkin or sunflower seeds, which also contain some protein.

The bottom line: when you choose the right toppings, salads can be a healthy, satisfying meal that's easy to throw together. Still, it's important to consider the nutritional quality of your ingredients before you toss them in. Otherwise, you may be eating extra calories that won't leave you satisfied.

A Reader Recipe: Buttercup Squash and Apple Soup

Fit Community — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:06:02 PST

FitSugar reader For the Love of Fiber has a healthy recipe to warm you up on a cold day. She shares it with us in our Healthy Recipe group in the Fit Community.

This soup offers up a lot of flexibility, ingredient-wise. Since buttercup squash might not be readily available at your local store or farmer’s market, it can be swapped out for butternut squash or even pumpkin.

If you haven’t jumped on the coconut oil train yet: 1. What are waiting for? and 2. Extra virgin olive oil or butter can be used in lieu of it. Finally, your broth can be either chicken or vegetable. Obviously, if you’re going for a vegetarian soup, choose the latter. I used both because of what I had on hand: remaining chicken broth from a previous recipe, and a mind-blowing vegetable broth fresh off the stove that was made from vegetable scraps (carrot and sweet potato peelings, garlic and onion ends, herb stems, celery stalks, asparagus pieces, and bell pepper ribs) that would have otherwise been composted. It was a fantastic idea I stumbled upon from the kitchn. And because this girl hates to waste, I roasted up the seeds Sweet ‘N Salty Pumpkin-style, and used them to garnish the soup. So green, it’s scary. Oh, and it’s gluten-free. Hi-Yooo!

See the recipe after the break!

Whet Guests' Appetites With a Spicy, Seasonal Salad

Susannah Chen — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:39:02 PST

Whenever I have people over for a sit-down holiday dinner, I like to set the tone with a hunger-inducing salad as the first course. For my most recent dinner, I foreshadowed the Fall meal to come with a peppery medley of in-season produce.

This salad, with its salty, spicy, tangy, and sweet components, turned out to be the perfect way to get guests psyched for supper while still leaving plenty of room for the main course.

Toasted on the stove, pepitas, or hulled pumpkin seeds, impart a nutty flavor to the olive oil, which plays a crucial part in the aromatic dressing. Make this your Thanksgiving salad when you keep reading.