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FOOD OF THE WEEK
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This weekend is the beginning of the rush for that golden treasure full of taste and health!
 
Around here it's that time of year again even if I didn't know it was October the grocery stores are full of huge piles of orange, orange and black strips and white globes.
 
The warm, comforting smell of spicy pumpkin pies and muffins fills homes, and summer floral centerpieces are replaced by playful displays of pumpkins and gourds.
 
A member of the cucurbits family of fruits. This is one I'm not really sure about? A fruit or vegetable? Gourds are supposed to be in the squash family I thought and since pumpkin is also listed by many as a gourd I don't know about the fruit aspect. Take this tidbit for what it's worth?  I'm simply telling you what I've found reported in some university extension sites.
 
Pumpkins date back many centuries. The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word for "large melon" which is "pepon." and was nasalized by the French into "pompon." The English changed "pompon" to "Pumpion." Shakespeare referred to the "pumpion" in his Merry Wives of Windsor. American colonists in turn changed "pumpion" into "pumpkin." The "pumpkin" is referred to in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater and Cinderella. It has grown to be a center of attention in the U.S. at Halloween, not as a food but as a d?or. Most assuredly is much greater for eating!
 
Thanksgiving here in the U.S. brings the pumpkin pie tradition to it's ultimate peak. Native Americans dried strips of pumpkin and wove them into mats. They also roasted long strips of pumpkin on the open fire and ate them. The origin of pumpkin pie occurred when the colonists sliced off the pumpkin top, removed the seeds, and filled the insides with milk, spices and honey. The pumpkin was then baked in hot ashes. Now that sounds really good to me. The early Americans used pumpkin as a pie crust and not a filling more than any other use. Unique!
 
The bright orange color of pumpkin is a dead giveaway that pumpkin is loaded with an important antioxidant, beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is one of the plant carotenoids converted to vitamin A in the body. In the conversion to vitamin A, beta carotene performs many important functions in overall health.
 
Current research indicates that a diet rich in foods containing beta-carotene may reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer and offers protect against heart disease and other illnesses. Beta-carotene offers protection against other diseases as well.
 
Low in calories and rich in nutrients - 1 cup organic, boiled and drained, without salt - contains;
 
Calories 49, Protein 2 grams, Carbohydrate 12 grams, Dietary Fiber 3 grams, Calcium 37 mg, Iron 1.4 mg, Magnesium 22 mg, Potassium 564 mg, Zinc 1 mg, Selenium .50 mg, Vitamin C 12 mg, Niacin 1 mg, Folate 21 mcg, Vitamin A 2650 IU, and Vitamin E 3 mg.
 
Pumpkin seeds are rich in nutrients as well as very tasty and one of my youngest daughter's favorite things. She makes many jack-o-lanterns every Halloween just so she can dig the seeds out and roast them.  I end up having to cook the pulp in as many ways as I have time for.
 
Pumpkin flowers are also edible and many love them, I'm told. I found recipes for pumpkin flower soup, deep fried pumpkin flowers and stuffed pumpkin flowers. Rather unique but I haven't tried any of them. I plan on doing that one day.
 
Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites, of which I am a bit skeptical that it worked very well? Native American Indians made an emulsion from a mixture of pumpkin and watermelon seeds that served to heal wounds for members of the Yuma tribe. The Catawbas ate the fresh or dried seeds as a kidney medicine, while the Menominees drank a mixture of water and powdered squash and pumpkin seeds to ease the passage of urine. In settler folk medicine the ground stems of pumpkin were brewed into a tea to treat "female ills," and the ripe seeds were made into a palatable preparation to dispel worms.
 
Pumpkin was used in folk medicine to treat kidney inflammation and intestinal parasites and was once listed as one of the Four Greater Cold Seeds in an 18th century list of medicines. Today pumpkin is employed to treat irritable bladder and prostate complaints, namely benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The fatty oil in pumpkin seeds is mildly diuretic, and the seeds' principal constituent, cucurbitacins, appears to inhibit the conversion of testosterone into dihydrotesterone. The presence of zinc and amino acids further treat BPH. Pumpkin is not said to reduce prostate enlargement but to relieve symptoms only. Pumpkin seeds are also thought to help relieve dizziness.
 
Pumpkin seeds are taken principally as a safe deworming agent. They are particularly useful against tapeworms in pregnant women and in children, for whom stronger-acting and toxic preparations are unsuitable. The seeds are also mildly diuretic, and have been used in Central American herbal medicine as a treatment for nephritis and other urinary system problems. Varieties of pumpkin that are particularly diuretic, tonic to the bladder, and high in zinc have been recommended in the early stages of prostate problems. The pulp is used as a decoction to relieve intestinal inflammation, and is applied as a poultice or plaster for burns.
 
So these gold globes have many uses and medicinal content. Eat and enjoy the traditional pumpkin pie.
 
My Pumpkin Pie recipe that combines the health of soy to the pumpkins great health inducing nutrients for a double holiday treat!
 
Makes two pies
 
1 box of silken firm tofu, drained
2 1/2 cups of fresh pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt 
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground dry ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoons nutmeg
 
2 - 9" pie crusts
 
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
 
Put tofu and pumpkin in a food processor or blender and blend on high until smooth and creamy, about four minutes. Stop the machine every once in a while to scrape large pieces of tofu down into the machine's blades. Add rest of ingredients and blend well...The result should be a light orange-colored creamy paste with no lumps of tofu.
 
Pour into uncooked pie crusts;
Bake 40 to 60 minutes or until the crusts are dark brown (but not burned).
 
Sometimes, after I pour the pie filling into the crusts, I will line the outer edge of the pie with pecan halves all around it and bake. Gives a slightly decorative look as well as a really neat flavor?
 
Enjoy your healthy treat,
Lena

NOTE: Sadly food alone cannot yield all the necessary healthy nutrients - especially balance of minerals - as they did in centuries past, so we can't rely totally on our food intake! Because of the lack of nutrients in our soils and the pollutants added in the form of air pollution, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers important nutrients are almost nonexistent and we know the body is not capable of producing minerals with even the healthiest of diets, as it can vitamins, and must be obtained from our foods or daily supplemented...  Click Here to understand why minerals are so important to your body's health!

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 HEALTH TODAY
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