Pumpkin Recipes:
• Creamy Pumpkin Nog
• Pumpkin-Spice Pound Cake
• Pumpkin Custard
• Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
• Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Muffins
Besides being popular for jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pie, this bright-colored squash family member is a good source of beta-carotene. From the Greek pepon–meaning large melon–you may find pumpkins not only colored orange, but yellow, red, or even white. And while you may not enjoy slicing up your jack-o-lantern for mealtime once Halloween is over, baking a sugar or pie pumpkin–or using canned pumpkin available at any grocery store–and adding your favorite pumpkin spices is sure to please your taste buds and diet.
The orange color of pumpkins shows off the vegetable’s plentiful offering of beta-carotene, which converts to vitamin A in the body. A diet rich in beta-carotene may reduce the risk for some types of cancer and may help prevent heart disease, according to Phyllis Balch and James Balch in their book Prescription for Nutritional Healing (Avery, 2000). Pumpkin seeds are also beneficial in the treatment of prostate disorders and irritable bladder. They contain valuable amino acids, vitamins, calcium, and even essential fatty acids in the form of omega-3s and omega-6s.
If you have come to love the flavor of fresh-baked pumpkin, you’re probably willing to take the time to clean and bake it. However, if you want the pumpkin flavor without the hassle, canned pumpkin will work just fine. But for the pumpkin lover, make sure you use a sugar or pie pumpkin (cultivated for flavor) rather than a nice large jack-o-lantern pumpkin (cultivated for size) from the huge stack outside your local grocery store before Halloween.