Spooky Stuffed Peppers

Need a quick Halloween themed dinner idea? We have the best tasting solution. These stuffed peppers don't take much effort or ingredients and are very forgiving to make. Even better, if people want to fill their own peppers, they have the option to include or exclude whatever ingredients they want!

You don't need much to make these:

• Bell peppers (1-2 fist sized peppers per person) (other peppers work great as well)
• Cheese (pick your favorite, or several favorites and mix them)
• Beef or chicken (or other)
• Taco mix or other flavorings

There are many ways to open up a pepper. For this meal, we decided to open the top off by cutting out a hole around the stem of the pepper, similar to how most people carve pumpkins. You can then cut/scoop out the seeds inside as you see fit.

Once the stem has been cut off, you will place the pumpkins peppers upside down in ~1/4 inch of water in a medium to large sized baking pan. Cover the peppers in foil. Place them in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

This step is highly customizable. You can add whatever ingredients you have time for or desire. There are tons of excellent stuffed pepper recipes online that all make mouth-wateringly delicious meals. We decided to keep it simple and tasty with just two filling ingredients: meat and cheese.

Prepare your chicken or beef using whatever method you prefer. For this instructable, we used chicken with taco mix on the stove top pan.

For the cheese, pick some of your favorites and mix them together. I like spicy cheeses in my peppers when I can find them. Pictured in this step are 3 cheeses from Costco: habanero cheddar, jarlsberg, and shredded jack cheese.

Set these ingredients off to the side until the peppers come out of the oven.

I chose to carve the peppers now because I didn't want to do it too early and have the carvings deteriorate in the oven while unsupported, and didn't want to carve them after stuffing because I would eat them too quick.

Carve anything you want. For the small amount of space on a pepper, I decided to just do some jack-o-lantern style faces. If you get creative, share pictures!

After the 20 minutes in the oven, take the peppers out and let them cool down until you can handle them by hand.

Once cool enough, start stuffing in meat and cheese (and everything else) until you can't fit any more. Layer the fillings as you go for a more uniform filling. The cheese will melt all over though so don't worry too much.

Put them back in a baking pan. You went them to be somewhat snug together in the pan so that they don't fall over. Even if they do fall over, they will still taste great.

Put the peppers back on the baking pan.

Turn the oven down to 350 degrees. Put them back in the oven for another 20 minutes.

Pull the peppers out and then drench them in some more cheese!! Then put them back in the oven for another 15 minutes.

They are best eaten warm out of the oven :)