Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and thyme and sauté until onion has softened, about 5 minutes.

Add squash and chicken broth; bring to a simmer, then cook until squash is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

Crumble bouillon into the soup. Season with cumin, allspice, salt, and pepper, then remove from heat.

Working in batches, pour soup into a blender, filling no more than halfway. Hold the lid in place with a kitchen towel, then carefully start the blender using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to purée.

Pour soup into a serving bowl. Alternatively, you can use a stick blender and purée the soup in the pot.

Garnish with pepitas or sunflower seeds.

In a large saucepan, combine the first 6 ingredients; bring to a boil.

Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Discard cinnamon sticks.

Use additional cinnamon sticks for stirrers if desired.

Preheat oven to 350°. Cut and discard tops from peppers; remove seeds.

In a Dutch oven, cook peppers in boiling water until crisp-tender, 3-4 minutes; drain and rinse in cold water.

In a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until beef is no longer pink and onion is tender, 8-10 minutes, breaking up beef into crumbles; drain.

Remove from the heat. Stir in 3 cups tomato sauce, rice, salt, garlic powder and pepper.

Spoon into peppers. Place in an ungreased shallow 3-qt. baking dish. Drizzle with remaining tomato sauce.

Bake, covered, until peppers are tender, 25-30 minutes.

Serve with toppings like cheese, parsley or sour cream as desired.