Pumpkin seeds are a delicious and nutritious snack when salted and roasted. They provide numerous vitamins and minerals such as amino acids, carbohydrates, fatty acids, zinc, vitamin E, and B vitamins. Most people toss the seeds out with the stringy pulp after Halloween, but you should salvage them. If you're willing to venture out of the kitchen, pumpkin seeds are a great low cost craft supply for children's art projects.

A popular snack to make out of squash seeds are roasted pumpkin seeds. As best you can, clean off the sticky strings and pulp that stick to them from the pumpkin's insides. Rinse them briefly in a colander. Let each batch dry by spreading them flat on wax paper. To cook them, arrange a single layer on a cookie sheet greased with butter, olive oil, or any vegetable oil. Bake them in a preheated oven at 250-325° F (120-163° C) until they are golden brown and fill the kitchen with a fragrant smell.

Many people prefer spicier pumpkin seeds. You can soak them in saltwater over night before roasting to better infuse the salt. Sprinkling them with cayenne pepper, chili powder, cinnamon, soy sauce, garlic salt, curry or Worcestershire sauce will add bite and flavor. Roasting the seeds in a skillet can work, too. Over medium heat, cook small batches until they begin to dance and pop.

Usually, pumpkin seeds are eaten with the hull intact, unlike peanuts or sunflower seeds. The hull contains much of the nutrients, and its fibrous texture clears out your digestive track. Of course, you can shell the seeds one by one, but it's probably not worth the trouble. Store-bought, pre-shelled pumpkin seeds are called pepitas.

Children have always been attracted to beans, rice, seeds, and nuts as organic mosaic materials. A bowl of dried pumpkin seeds, a rainbow of tempera paints, white glue, and several sheets of poster board can entertain your kids or a whole classroom for an afternoon. You can tack the beautiful results on a bulletin board or refrigerator door.

Let the children dip bunches of seeds in plastic cups of paint and dry them on newspaper. They could also attach the seeds to the paper first and paint everything afterwards. Even young artists will form sunbursts, outlines, or confetti patterns with the elliptical shapes. More experienced painters will incorporate the three-dimensional seeds with the flat paper to create portraits of pets, trees, or siblings.