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Fun Fall Tradition: Dinner in a Pumpkin

What types of fun fall traditions do you have? Do any of them involve food? I discovered a great one called “Dinner in a Pumpkin” which is a meal that is easy to make and serves a large number of people. It’s perfect to make for Halloween because then you can have a fall-themed meal for your stepkids and children before they go trick-or-treating.

The other wonderful thing about this meal? You can get your whole family involved in the preparation of it, so it becomes more than just a meal. It’s a bonding activity! I’ve also found that when children are involved in making the meal, they are more likely to eat it, especially if it’s something new!  So, are you ready to try it out? Here’s what’s involved…

Step 1: Gather the ingredients. These will vary depending on the recipe that you use. If you do a quick Google search, you’ll see quite a few variations of “Dinner in a Pumpkin” pop up.  We chose to use this recipe, but we opted to leave the water chestnuts out.

Dinner in a Pumpkin ingredients

Step 2: Cut the top of the pumpkin and clean out the pulp and the seeds. This part was pretty messy, so I didn’t take any pictures of the actual cleaning part. We *might* have had a lot of fun taking pictures of our dog, Romeo, with the pumpkin. (He’s a good sport!)

BONUS: You can separate the seeds from the pulp and bake them in the oven after you bake the pumpkin. Roasted pumpkin seeds with a little salt are the perfect snack for later.

Pumpkin
Romeo and the pumpkin 🙂

Step 3: Cook and assemble the ingredients for the inside of the pumpkin.  Cut up your onion and saute it. Brown the hamburger, and add mushrooms, soup, and soy sauce. Put this inside your clean pumpkin and put the pumpkin “lid” on. Your pumpkin should be on a baking sheet.

Dinner in a Pumpkin

Step 4: Bake your pumpkin for one hour at 350 degrees. Take your pumpkin out and make sure that the inside of the pumpkin is soft. Baking times will vary depending on your oven and the size of your pumpkin.

Dinner in a Pumpkin
The finished product! Yum!

Step 5: Serve and enjoy. Serve the meat and scoop the pumpkin out as the vegetable to go along with your meat.

Be prepared to make this a new fall tradition with your family or stepfamily! You’ll have lots of opportunities to talk and laugh together as you’re cleaning out the pumpkin and cooking. Enjoy this special time together as a family!

Do you have other fall traditions involving food? Share your pictures and recipes in the comments! We’re always looking for new ideas and we’d love to try them out!

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