Today’s tip is frugal, healthy AND fun! Instead of buying cans of pumpkin, try making your own pumpkin puree. It is so easy, and really fun for the kids too!
Remember Pumpkin Day? Well the day before or the day of, we’ll usually make up a batch of our own pumpkin puree. It’s super simple.
1. Start with a pumpkin. A pie pumpkin works best, but I’ve been known to use whatever I can find at the store or farmers market.
Isn’t it cute?
2. Cut that pumpkin in half. Scoop out the seeds and any stringy pulp, put in a pan, drizzle with olive oil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour (depends upon the size of the pumpkin).
3. Once the pumpkin is done, pull it out of the oven, cool it and scrap the flesh from the outside – you’ll know it’s done because it will come out easily with a spoon and you can mash it all up – it will have the same consistency of canned pumpkin, but be much lighter in color.
Ick!
4. Store in the fridge and use within the next few days for pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, etc.
So, for the price of the pumpkin, you’ll end up with pumpkin to bake with, pumpkin seeds to roast, and interesting experience for your kids!
I haven’t made ‘fresh’ pureed pumpkin in ages. Thanks for the reminder how easy it is! I’ll definitely be bringing some of these orange pretties home to bake! (Mmmm…pumpkin pancakes!)
It IS super easy – and your puree is so much fresher! Plus you know it contains nothing but pumpkin! Enjoy!
Two questions… About how much do you get from an average pie pumpkin? Can I freeze it to use later?
Amy, the pumpkin I used was pretty small – maybe 6 to 8 inch diameter and I got almost two cups of pulp and a cup of roasted seeds. I didn’t scrape it as closely as I probably could have, but I did rescue all the seeds. You could absolutely freeze it for later – I typically do that every year – roast a few when I can get them on sale in October, freeze them in one and two cup portions and use them all year for baking.
Wow! I hadn’t realized it was this easy! Thank you for the tutorial. 😀