Halloween is on the way! Ground turkey and brown rice stuffed into funny pumpkins is one way to do it, or to at offset the candy corn and there will be candy corn! I’m bringing back the Healthy Stuffed Pepper because it’s too cute not to share again.

My tradition every year is to go to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens to see the display of scarecrows. Different organizations/artists render their own viewpoint and these larger than life creatures are spread throughout 55 acres of beautiful gardens. The scarecrows will be there through Halloween. The following are actually pictures of two years ago. They have new scarecrows this year, which you can visit until the end of the month.

Cheekwood sits right there in Belle Meade, and in order to get there,  you have to pass the most amazing mansions that you think only exist in the movies and shows like the new hit Nashville.

During this season, they also have a pumpkin patch and a place to take pictures. This picture is from 2012, but I still love it.

These are just a few of the scarecrows.

You can picnic at Cheekwood any time of year!

Around the perimeter of the park, we discovered this trail with a very interesting sculpture garden. The giant half man/half rabbit is just plain creepy, but the glass bridge is charming. I don’t think most people know about this area of the park, because we are usually the only ones in this section, which makes it kind of cool in an enchanted forest way.

Two other attactions are the Treehouse and the Trains, including a running Thomas the Train.

Membership at Cheekwood has reciprocation at hundreds of parks in the country. Tell me, do you have a beautiful botanical park in your city like this? If you come to Nashville, this is a great place to visit.

The Recipe

Truly you could stuff these peppers anyway you like. I’ve done it two ways. One day I used left over meatballs crumbled up and mixed with cooked brown rice and on another day, I used ground turkey, brown rice and raisins. I’ve also tried carving before the peppers are baked and after. I had better luck carving after, but if you do, you must make sure the peppers are not too soft. Use an exacto knife if you have one and roast the peppers without any foil or covering. The foil or covering will soften the pepper too much.

Print

Jack O Lantern Stuffed Peppers and the Scarecrows of Cheekwood

Carving faces into orange bell peppers for Halloween and stuffing them with ground turkey and brown rice is fun and healthy.

Course Main Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 4 orange bell peppers
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• sea salt pepper
• 2 tablespoons raisins
• 2 cups cooked brown rice

Instructions

• Cut out the core of the pepper and remove seeds.
• Saute onion and garlic until softened. In meanwhile, mix ground turkey with olive oil, Worcestershire Sauce, parsley, salt and pepper, raisins.
• Add turkey to frying pan and cook until done, turning frequently.
• Add in brown rice. Mix.
• Stuff peppers. Turn upside down into baking dish.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350.
• Cook. Using exacto knife or sharp pairing knife, carve face.

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