Meal Plan: Fall Dinner Ideas

This week’s Fall dinner ideas meal plan is a serious celebration of fall featuring butternut squash, leeks, pomegranates, pears and persimmons.  I loved each and every recipe! I hope you enjoyed your Halloween, what did you dress up as? Below is a picture of our two older kids before trick or treating. Maverick was batman, we called him BatMav and Adelaide was a Leopard just like last year.  She had an Elsa costume and mermaid costume but decided they were “too itchy.”  I get that, I dress primarily for comfort too. Rick and I were robbers with our bag of “Cash” but we unfortunately never got a good picture.  We have all been eating way too much candy and it feels good to eat at least some real food for dinner to counter balance all the halloween candy that is floating around. Click here to access this week’s fall dinner ideas grocery shopping list.

Fall Dinner Ideas

Autumn Chopped Salad from Espresso and Cream

Prep Time: 10 minutes  Cook Time: 15 minutes (for bacon) Total Time:  25 minutes

Ingredients: romaine lettuce, pears, dried cranberries, pecans, bacon, feta cheese, poppy seed dressing, balsamic vinaigrette.

This salad is simple to make and delicious tasting! I forgot to add in the pecans and used a papaya poppyseed dressing we happened to have in our fridge.  I think the salad might be even better using spinach instead of romaine and will make that substitution next time.

Creamy Butternut Squash, Bacon and Leek Pappardelle from How Sweet Eats

Prep Time: 10 minutes  Cook Time: 30 minutes (for bacon) Total Time:  40 minutes

Ingredients: bacon, leeks, garlic, butternut squash, pepper, nutmeg, half and half, parmigiano-reggiano cheese, pappardelle pasta.

Wow, this pasta was rich and so full of flavor.  It was like two of my favorite pastas (butternut squash pasta +fettuccine with bacon, goat cheese and leeks) got married and had this dish as their baby.  I will definitely be making this again next time I’m in a bacon-pasta-cream mood, which is a often.

Smoked Gruyere Butternut Squash Soup with Roasted Spicy Chickpeas from How Sweet Eats

Prep Time: 20 minutes  Cook Time: 40 minutes (for bacon) Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients: olive oil, unsalted butter, sweet onion, garlic cloves, red pepper flakes, butternut squash, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, nutmeg, chicken or vegetable stock, {smoked} gruyere cheese, half and half or coconut milk, chives, chickpeas, cayenne.

I love the combo of soup + roasted chickpeas in this recipe.  I used half and half instead of coconut milk and left out the cayenne in the chickpeas because my kids don’t appreciate spicy foods.  I also used regular gruyere cheese because I cannot stand smoked cheeses no matter how hard I try to like them.

Fontina, Pear and Caramelized Onion Galette from Cheese Talk

Prep Time: 10 minutes  Cook Time: 1 hour 10 minutes  Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients: prepared pie crust (or cornmeal dough: unsalted butter, flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, ice-cold water), butter, onion, salt, white/red wine/white balsamic vinegar, fontina cheese, salt, thyme, rosemary, pepper, pears, egg yolk.

I just love galettes, and this recipe did not disappoint! I didn’t even bother making the cornmeal crust because I was too lazy and simply used prepared pie crust instead. I also left out the rosemary for my love, picky Ricky and added a little bit of parmesan on top of the fontina.  If you prepare the caramelized onions ahead of time then this recipe comes together in half the time.

Persimmon Salad from The Forest Feast

Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients: fuyu persimmons, cilantro, red onion, pomegranate seeds, olive oil, juice from orange, juice from lime.

My parents have a huge persimmon tree in their front yard so now I have a huge bag of persimmons at my house.  This seemed like an interesting recipe to use some of them in. I was a little skeptical about this dish but I ended up loving it; all the flavors go together perfectly.  I am going to a Friendsgiving next weekend and plan to bring this as my dish.

When you make any of these fall dinner ideas please share on instagram using hashtag #rainbowdelicious & and tag me at @rainbowdelicious , I’d love to see what you are up to in your kitchen!