Kick your Halloween meal planning up a notch with these delicious Jack O’ Lantern Stuffed Peppers. Made with orange bell peppers and delicious Southwestern flavors, these festive pumpkin peppers are sure to be a Halloween hit! 
How cute are these jack ‘o lantern carved peppers?! They’re the perfect Halloween dinner idea or they’d be the perfect main dish for a pumpkin carving party! Everyone around our house loves them and I love how easy they are to make! These little extra touches really can make holidays so much more fun! And the beauty of stuffed peppers is that you can tailor them to your personal tastes.
Stuffed Peppers
If you’ve never had stuffed peppers, you’re missing out! Even if bell peppers aren’t your favorite on their own, stuffed peppers are a great meal idea. These jack o’lantern peppers happen to have a little spicy Southwestern flair (because we were serving them with our 2-ingredient queso dip). But if the Southwestern flavors we used for these jack o’ lantern peppers don’t suit your taste buds, we’ve got various other stuffed peppers ideas on the site that you could substitute the filling with:
- Fire-roasted Stuffed Red Peppers
- Turkey & Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
- Cheesy Homesyle Italian Stuffed Peppers
But none of those recipes are nearly as cute as these little “pumpkin peppers”. So, you’ll definitely need to get orange bell peppers for this recipe no matter what filling option you choose. AND a tip is to look for peppers that are shorter and stand up nicely on their own. 
How to Make Jack O’Lantern Stuffed Peppers
If you’re good with Southwestern flavors, you should love this stuffed pepper filling! For the recipe, you’ll just need 5 main ingredients (in addition to the orange bell peppers): ground beef, RO*TEL, rice, black beans, and cheese! The filling is easy to whip up in a skillet. You’ll cook up about a pound of ground beef. Once that’s cooked, you’ll add two cans of RO*TEL® Original Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies, a can of black beans, some cooked rice, and some cheese. 
It doesn’t take long at all and you’ve got a stuffed pepper filling that’s full of flavor! Once the filling is done, you’ll put it in the orange bell peppers that you’ve carved to look like pumpkins! I recommend carving the peppers while the filling ingredients are cooking!
Isn’t it cute?! You’ll want to carefully cut the tops off (but you’ll save those for later). Then, remove the seeds and inside white tissue. Once the pepper is gutted, use a very small kitchen paring knife (the smaller the better) to carve a jack o’lantern face out of the peppers! You can carve the faces to be as cute or as scary as you like! Once you stuff the peppers and bake, the results are both adorable AND delicious!!!
YUM! It’s the perfect Halloween food! Now, here’s the printable recipe:
Jack O’Lantern Stuffed Peppers Recipe
Pumpkin Carving Party Food
Ingredients
- 6-8 orange bell peppers
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 2 cans 10oz RO*TEL® Original Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies
- 1 can black beans drained
- 2 C cooked rice
- 1-2 C shredded pepper jack cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large skillet, brown ground beef.
- Once the beef is cooked through, add the RO*TEL, black beans, and cooked rice. Simmer on medium heat for 5-10 minutes. Near the end of the simmer time, stir in cheese.
- While the mixture simmers, prepare the bell peppers. Cut the tops off (set aside to reuse) and remove the seeds & white tissue inside. Using a very small paring knife, carve each pepper to look like a jack o'lantern.
- Place cut peppers inside a large baking dish and completely fill each pepper with the mixture. Top each pepper with more cheese if desired and then place the pepper top back on top (to complete the pumpkin look)
- Place in oven and bake for approximately 10-15 minutes (just until the peppers are cooked some, but still firm. You don't want mush)!
- Serve warm and enjoy!
Notes
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