Hey-o! It’s officially fall. Can I get an amen?
Food and fall rank pretty high on my list of favorites, so I am here today to share a few of my fav fall-inspired recipes. Now, I am not a food blogger nor am I all that talented in the kitchen, so I have some rules on what I will and won’t do when it comes to trying new dishes:
- The ingredient list can’t be more than 10 items. Actually, 10 may be pushing it. Better make it 7. The fewer the ingredients the higher chance of success!
- One of said ingredients better be cheese. Unless it’s a dessert. Then it better be cream cheese.
- Estimated prep time needs to be less than 30 minutes because for someone like me, those 30 minutes actually equals at least an hour. I told you, my kitchen skills are still a bit under developed.
- Ideally, the recipe is on the healthy side and makes for good (or even better) left-overs the next day. I’m not saying I don’t get down with heavy cream or sticks of butter but I do try to keep it between the lines for the most part.
- This is going to be controversial but I am going for it…I can’t stand pumpkin spiced anything. If I see pumpkin anywhere in the recipe, I immediately abandon it. Do you know how hard it is to sift through Pinterest this time of year and try to find non-pumpkin recipes?
Hello? Is anyone still here after I dropped that pumpkin-sized bomb up there? Oh well, I shall continue on for the one or two people that I haven’t alienated!
SOUP
Is there anything cozier than snuggling up with a bowl of hearty soup when the weather starts to turn chilly? I think not. Soup is also a real work horse in terms of meal planning for busy families. They make for great meals to have on hand in the freezer and one batch can usually feed a small army!
This Tortellini Soup with Italian Sausage and Spinach is delicious and gets extra credit in my book because it has pasta in it.
Make a double batch of your favorite soup and then swap with a friend to get two meals for the price of one!
APPLES
After you have gone apple picking with the fam (find out where to go in our Fall Fun in KC Guide) you are going to need some recipes to use up your harvest! Baked apples just scream fall and with this version that uses the crockpot, it can’t get more easy-breezy!
Go beyond dessert and throw sliced apples in your salads or add them to your grilled cheese sandwiches. And this recipe for Skillet Apple Pork Chops (can also be made with chicken thighs) sounds like a dinner winner for sure!
FALL VEGGIES
I still have some growing up to do in terms of eating veggies happily but I found a couple recipes that have me pretty jazzed about root vegetables!
Have a build-your-own pizza night where roasted fall vegetables (think butternut squash, cauliflower, red onions, sweet potatoes, carrots, kale) are the star. You can make the veggies ahead of time and use store bought pizza dough to make a quick weeknight dinner.
Finally, this Butternut Squash Lasagna looks so good that even die-hard meat eaters may go vegetarian for it. Now, I know what you’re thinking – “Lindsay, lasagna breaks at least 2, maybe 3, of your cardinal rules above.” You’re right, it does but sometimes rules are meant to be broken. While I can’t whip this out on a week night, it does sound perfect for a Sunday night dinner with leftovers to last the week ahead!
Give a shout out to your favorite recipe of the season and share the link below. I’ll even allow pumpkin-related recipes because I am nice like that.
Now, if you will excuse me, it’s Sunday and I am going to go enjoy one of my other favorite F-words. Football, people, it’s football. GO CHIEFS!
