I walked into the grocery store yesterday and saw some beautiful orange bell peppers. I was hit that these would make some awesome stuffed pepper “pumpkins.” I have wanted to try making some stuffed peppers for awhile now, so this was perfect. It will be so surprise that this native Arizonan decided to go with a Mexican style filling.

Stuffed Pepper Pumpkins

Yield: 4 Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

• 4 orange bell peppers
• 2 cups prepared Spanish style rice – I will be sharing my favorite recipe for Spanish rice soon
• 1 cup cooked ground turkey or ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning
• 1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1/4-1/2 cup salsa
• Mexican blend shredded cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Prep the bell peppers by washing, removing the top and scraping out the inside. If you want to present the peppers with the top on, cut off the section with the seeds, so that it is flat as possible. If desired, draw on a pumpkin face with a food coloring marker.

2. Combine the prepared rice, seasoned ground turkey, black beans, and salsa.

3. Stuff the inside of the peppers with the filling. Be sure to pack the filling in nice and tight.
4. Place the stuffed peppers in a baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.

5. Bake the peppers with the tops on for 30 minutes in a 375 degree oven.
6. Remove the peppers from the oven. Remove the pepper tops and set aside, they are done cooking. Sprinkle the top of the peppers with the shredded cheese and return to the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted bubbly.
 
Once they come out of the oven, add the tops back on and they are ready to serve!

The good thing about pumpkins is that they will fit all the way through to Thanksgiving. You can omit the faces and have a nice harvest style meal.

We all really liked the filling on its own too. My kids couldn’t be persuaded to eat a stuffed pepper, so I used some filling and made them burritos. Yummy, yummy!
These would make such a fun dinner on Halloween. You could stuff the kids with some nice healthy dinner and then they might not eat so much candy.