Dinner in a Pumpkin

This is a nice, warm dish for a winter or fall day. Some people make this a tradition on Halloween. The vegetable is the pumpkin so all you need to add is some salad or fresh vegetables, and you have a nice balanced meal.
Remember you need to pre-cook the rice, unless you have some on hand, so add a few more minutes for that step.


Dinner in a Pumpkin

1 onion
1 1/2-2 lbs ground beef
1 1/2 cup cooked rice (I used brown)
1 can water chestnuts--somewhat chopped and drained
1 can mushrooms, with the liquid
1 can cream of chicken soup (or whatever cream soup you have)
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. brown sugar.

Cook onion and beef in a little bit of oil. Add all the other ingredients and mix and heat.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
While the meat is cooking, cut off the top and clean out the pumpkin.
Put the meat mixture in the pumpkin, replace the lid. Put it on a baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for about one hour, or until the pumpkin is fork tender. Serve by scooping out some of the pumpkin along with the meat mixture.