Category: Fall

Tons of pumpkin fun

10/26/2017

5 more days! Yes, the countdown to Halloween has begun! I’m really excited because I love seeing so many pumpkins everywhere. My friends at the Dallas Arboretum had a great idea for all of their pumpkins. They made pumpkin houses, pumpkin landscapes and a huge pumpkin village out of them.

It took more than 40,000 pumpkins to create these gardens bursting with fall colors. That’s a lot of pumpkins. I don’t have that many pumpkins but even with a couple we can have tons of fun!

Most of us only get one or two pumpkins to play with and that’s totally awesome. Before you carve up your pumpkin, take a few minutes to play with them. What do they feel like? How big are they compared to things on your body, like your eyes or head?

After finding pumpkins as big as our heads and eyes, we decided to have a pumpkin race!! Now don’t do it like my son did when he was two. He thought the pumpkin was like a turtle and put it on a start line and starting cheering! It was quite adorable how he took my pumpkin race so literally.

What we really do is create pumpkin obstacle courses. Use small pumpkins like orange sports cones and zig-zag in and out of them. You’ll be surprised how much the kids get into it. Let them create a course for you too. We often play so hard that we never get to even carving our pumpkins. We wind up doing that the next day! (Last Halloween we actually carved our pumpkins the day after! I guess when I saw I’m flexible when it comes to playing it’s true!)

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Pumpkin Fries - RECIPE

10/23/2017

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‘Tis the season for truck loads of pumpkins.

I know most kids tend to think about only carving pumpkins, but don’t forget pumpkins are a vegetable too! They are totally edible! To prove my point we’re making
PUMPKIN FRIES!

The only problem with this yummy snack is there isn’t ever enough!
Pumpkin offers major health benefits that go beyond those of other superfoods that get so much more attention. Pumpkins are full of flavor and nutrition…a great way to help teach your kids healthy habits!

What’s Needed:

·        Fresh pumpkin

·        2 to 3 tablespoons of live oil

·        Salt (optional)

To make pumpkin fries, cut the pumpkin into sticks that look just like normal potato French fries. We often grab a good chunk of off the bottom of our jack-o-lantern lid when we’re carving pumpkins!

The oven should be heated up to 450 degrees while you’re cutting the pumpkin.

Once the fries are cut, throw them into a plastic zipper bag or bowl and mix them up with olive oil and salt. Place them onto a cookie sheet and bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Once they start turning brown, it’s time to pull the fries out of the oven and let them cool for a couple minutes.

As soon as my daughter took a bite she declared that her “taste buds were doing cartwheels!” I’ll take that food review any day!

We’re also created the traditional pumpkin pies and mashed pumpkin but these fries are our favorite!

Nutritional note: raw pumpkin only has 15 calories per ½ cup and is full of iron, zinc and fiber!

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