Dinner in a Pumpkin

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons melted butter or olive oil

1 1/2 to 2 lbs. ground beef

Salt and pepper

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced (optional)

1/2 cup celery, finely diced

1/2 cup onion, finely diced

1 small to medium pumpkin

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 can (15 ounces) french style green beans, drained

1 1/2 cups cooked rice

2 (10 3/4 oz) can cream of mushroom or celery soup

1/2 to 1 cup milk

1 (8oz) can sliced water chestnuts, drained

Directions:

Cut off top of pumpkin and thoroughly clean out seeds and pulp. Drizzle inside of pumpkin with butter or olive oil and season with a little salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large skillet brown beef. Add onions, celery. And mushrooms and cook until the beef is crumbly and no longer pink. Season with salt and pepper. Add both cans of soup. soy sauce, rice, beans, and water chestnuts and 1/2 cup of milk. Stir to combine. If mixture looks too dry add a little more milk. Spoon mixture into the cleaned pumpkin shell. Replace pumpkin top and place entire pumpkin, with filling, on a baking sheet. Bake 1 hour or until inside meat of the pumpkin is tender. Put pumpkin on a plate. Remove pumpkin lid and serve. Scoop out cooked pumpkin and serve with the casserole.