My fave recipes for fall.

Hi. Let’s talk about fall. I love this time of year… besides the fact that it starts to get cold enough to think about shopping for some killer winter jackets, it’s my fave time to be in the kitchen making delicious food that literally warms me up.

Tonight, we’re gonna talk about my all-time fave recipes to make this time of year. Check out and follow my Pinterest for culinary inspo. Peep my healthy recipes board or dessert porn to get your ass into the kitchen and cooking with me.

PS. If you don’t follow me on Instagram you might not know that during my mini blog-cation, I dyed my hair purple… I did.

Anyway, I dig the fresh seasonal selections right now – big fan of all the squashes, love real pumpkin, and honeycrisp apples… I even love most of the fake, disgusting yet delicious Halloween candy. Secretly I’m hoping I get no trick or treaters so I can eat what I bought for them myself. I love all of the treats that come with the holiday season and parties – so I have to make sure to keep myself in line with my meals so I can afford to gorge.

One of my favorite ways to make food is in a crockpot. It’s usually pretty easy to prep any recipe that gets thrown in there and cooks itself over the course of the day, leaving your place smelling like whatever deliciousness is inside. My personal fave (and those of my friends) is basically chicken pho. Yummmm.

 My homemade version is adapted from the new Williams Sonoma Slow Cooker book of deliciousness (recipes). Above is a photo from their blog of a chicken soup that is a slight variation but definitely delicious and doesn’t need to be cooked all day – I will share the exact how-to for mine in a later post dedicated to the wonderful world of crockpot cooking.

I made this butternut squash lasagna a few years ago for the first time and was instantly HOOKED. Like, make multiple times a month, addicted. It subs slices of butternut squash for lasagna noodles, and if you omit the cheese it’s paleo (which I was at the time I first made it).

It’s worth the effort for none of the guilt that comes with usual pasta. As is typical with lasagna, leftovers are even better than the dish is hot so this is a great one to portion out and eat throughout the week. Highly advise trying this recipe.

Now, let’s talk about pumpkin spice. I know I hated on the fake flavoring and Starsucks lattes in this post, but I’m a sucker for pumpkin pie spice… You can buy it premade or mix up your own.

Every year I bake pumpkin and pecan pies with crust a la my grandmother’s recipe for Thanksgiving… I cannot wait. In the meantime, mix up your own authentic pumpkin pie spice and add it to your coffee, apples, egg whites (just me? try with a serving of almond butter – like a crepe) or on sliced, baked sweet potatoes. What you’ll need and how much to make it can be found here.

What would fall be without a festive drink? One of my fave bloggers is Lauryn from The Skinny Confidential, and she recently posted this apple vodka cocktail which looks amaze.

I’m probably going to need to make for my next girls night… get the deets to mix up this bad boy on TSC here.

We’re heading into one of my favorite times of year to eat the food I want and not feel bad about it, so I try super hard to eat clean and stay on my workout grind so I feel good about indulging. Soon I’ll be sharing tips to stay motivated plus easy skinny substitutions and ideas to help you stay healthy come the holiday season!

xx