Dinner in a Pumpkin

I forgot - I promised a few people our traditional Halloween Dinner Recipe... so 1 week later here it is...

Dinner in a Pumpkin

Ingredients:
1 Med. Onion Chopped
1 1/2 to 2 Pounds Extra Lean Ground Beef
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 Cans Chicken with White & Wild Rice Soup (Undiluted)
2 Cans Creamy Chicken Mushroom Soup (Undiluted) - or I just use Cream of Chicken b/c that's what I have on hand and it still tastes good to us
1 Can Water Chestnuts, Sliced & Drained
2 Cups Cooked Rice
1 Cup Crisp Chinese Noodles
Cashews
1 Small to Medium Pumpkin Cleaned Out


What to do:
1. Paint a face on pumpkin with permanent markers (I copied my face out of a magazine this year - I thought the winking pumpkin was really cute). Cut top off and thoroughly clean out seeds and pulp.

2. In large pan, brown ground beef and onion together. Drain any grease from pan.

3. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, chicken with rice soup, creamy chicken mushroom soup, water chestnuts and rice. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

4. To Bake in Pumpkin: Spoon meat-rice mixture into pumpkin and replace top. Place entire pumpkin with filling on a baking sheet. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees or until the inside meat of pumpkin is tender. Remove lid and sprinkle Chinese noodles and cashews over the top.

5. Serve meat-rice casserole, and for vegetable, scoop out cooked pumpkin.

I usually have more casserole than will fit in the pumpkin - so I put the extra in a foil baking pan and freeze it to cook up later (don't put the noodles or cashews on until after you've baked it). To cook, let it thaw during the day - and cook at 350 for about 50 minutes.