The very last few days of summer and the autumn season is pumpkin season and the right time to take advantage of the high nutritional value of pumpkins, the perfect fruit to incorporate into your diet during this season.
Pumpkin is not just for desserts (and there are many choices), a delicious and warm spiced pumpkin latte at Starbucks nor just as a Halloween ornament. In season, at less than $3 for a whole large fresh pumpkin (or less than $2 for smaller whole pumpkin), it's an extremely inexpensive fruit that is highly nutritious, as well as delicious, and can be used to make pumpkin pancakes, dinner dishes or simply added to your oatmeal breakfast, just to name a few choices.
Pumpkins are loaded with vitamins (A, C, B2, E), good amounts of minerals (potassium, iron, magnesium) and high in antioxidants. As a fruit, it is extremely inexpensive giving you a huge bang for your buck nutrition-wise. Pumpkins even contain a little bit of protein and as well as being a high source of citrulline which is a non-essential amino acid that has many health and exercise benefits. Citrulline increases the production of nitric oxide which may in turn improve exercise performance (particularly when strength training) and decrease muscle soreness.
I have found that eating pumpkin has increased my strength and energy levels when weight training. Whether that is due to my consumption of citrulline in the pumpkin or it could just be coincidental or simply dependent on a myriad of other factors. Try this fruit with your morning breakfast to determine if it works for you or helps you when strength training.
You can also read more about the full and comprehensive health benefits at HealthLine.
Overall, adding pumpkins to your diet is an excellent choice for its nutritional value at this time of year or freeze baked pumpkin for winter use.
I have decided to add it to my home-made oatmeal, as a change of pace.
Oatmeal Ingredients:
- Oatmeal
- Cinnamon
- Water or milk, or half and half of each
- Pumpkin (pureed in a food processor or mashed by hand)
- Nuts, seeds, raisins (1 to 2 tablespoons) for the crunch
- Flax seeds (1 small teaspoon)
- Probiotic yoghurt (a few tablespoons as a topping)
Cook the oats along with the first 5 ingredients. Once cooked, add the yoghurt.
Baking the Pumpkin
Baking the pumpkin in the oven beforehand is really easy, but it is a little time consuming. Take the time to prepare now to save time later.
- Cut in half. Doesn’t really matter which way (vertical or horizontal, I noticed)
- Remove seeds (wash and roast the seeds), spoon out unwanted sticky stuff (pulp) inside the pumpkin.
- Place upside down on a parchment paper on a cookie tray
- Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit in the oven (outer shell will be fairly soft when fully cooked - see 2 photos below showing cooked pumpkin) and let sit for 5 minutes still while halves are upside down. This will finish off the cooking process without having your oven on.
- Spoon out cooked pumpkin.
- Either mash it or puree it in a blender.
- Use it within a week with your oatmeal or freeze the extra for later use.
Observations
I have noticed since I have been adding pumpkin to my oatmeal, in my last workout, I had more strength and energy. Maybe just a coincidence, I will have to monitor this for a few weeks, or due to the citrulline in pumpkins or the cumulative good other effects upon the body of eating it due to healthy amounts of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants that this food contains.
More Recipe Ideas for Oatmeal
Pumpkin and Strawberry Oatmeal
Basically the same recipe as above except that I added fresh sliced strawberries and a little bit of chocolate milk for flavor and omitted flax seeds.
Pumpkin and Pineapple Oatmeal
A very healthy and delicious combination of 2 fruits - pumpkin and sliced pineapple - along with probiotic yogurt, cinnamon, oats and water.
Pumpkin and Cherries with Probiotic Yogurt Oatmeal
- Pumpkin
- Frozen and thawed cherries
- Variety of nuts and seeds
- Probiotic yogurt
- Oats
- Half milk, half water (or alternatively, all milk or all water)
- Cinnamon
