Dinner in a Pumpkin

This has been a tradition in our home since we were little girls...A favorite for Halloween! I have posted pictures of our last two years...You can be creative with how you'd like to serve your festive dinner...In a carved Jack-O-Lantern, with the front cut out of a pumpkin or just with the lid cut off, the pumpkin cleaned out and used like a bowl...

This is so fun for Halloween.

Dinner In a Pumpkin

(clean out a pumpkin to cook the dinner in...)

1 Tbsp minced onion

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1-8 oz can sliced water chestnuts (optional)

2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1-4 oz can sliced mushrooms

1 1/2 cups cooked rice

In a large frying pan, saute onion until tender. Add meat and brown. Drain. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms and soup. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cooked rice and water chestnuts. Pour mixture into pumpkin and bake at 350 for one hour. (Place pumpkin on a cookie sheet when cooking....)

(The pumpkin is yummy too....like squash! Fun to serve with "mummy fingers" (pigs in a blanket) or other spooky side dishes...)

(Note: If you don't have time to bake it in the pumpkin, you can bake at 350 for 15 minutes in a casserole dish and then scoop it into the pumpkin to serve.)

Enjoy!!