10 dinners i cant wait to make this fall

This lasagna soup might just be the reason fall is everyone’s favorite season. One pot, extra cheesy, and so easy to make! 🍂

Pannbiff was dinner in my house growing up, and it still a dinner I absolutely love. It’s basically a smashed Swedish meatball served with creamy mashed potatoes, everything you want on a cold night. These days I make more of an adult version, with a big pan of sweet caramelized onions cooked down in broth and poured over the top. A dinner that definitely will make your house smell amazing. I’ve made this more times than I can count, and it’s about time I wrote it down.

There’s something about shells and Italian sausage that just makes sense. I didn’t grow up eating Italian sausage, I don’t think I had it until a couple of years ago, but it was love at first sight. Shells go with pretty much any ground meat though, and this one came together on a whim the other night. It was so good! These creamy sauce based pasta dishes will thicken up as they cool, so when you reheat leftovers, add a splash of broth on the stove to loosen it back up.

This lasagna is ridiculously easy to make, and it comes out so flavorful and comforting. It’s chicken Alfredo in lasagna form, thick, creamy, and delicious.

This is an incredibly easy, flavorful, comforting chicken dish, made with just a handful of ingredients you probably already have on hand. It makes a generous batch, so expect leftovers, and it is one of my new favorite options when I am feeding a crowd. Shredded chicken can go a lot of different directions, but this caramelized onion version is a sure successful way of making it.

This is one of those meals I come back to again and again when I'm having people over, or whenever I've got a little extra time on my hands and want to make something that tastes incredible. The beauty of it is that so much of the work happens ahead of time and hands-off. You can salt the chicken the night before, get your sauce base going earlier in the day, and then let the oven do the heavy lifting while you pour the wine and actually enjoy your guests. It comes out deeply savory and golden, but bright and sunny from all that lemon and olive, so it never feels heavy.

It was actually one of the very first recipes I ever shared when I started posting food on social media, and years later it’s still in my regular rotation. I use the premade marinated shawarma chicken from Trader Joe’s, the spices are so good, and the whole thing goes from fridge to table quickly, mostly hands-off time. Two sheet pans, a pot of rice, and a dressing you shake up in a cup. Warm roasted sweet potatoes, basmati, kale that softens just slightly when everything gets mixed together, and the sweet maple Dijon dressing added at the end. It is so flavorful, and I can eat it for days (which I do, because it packs beautifully for lunch)

I love a sheet pan dinner in the fall. There is something about piling a bunch of really good ingredients onto one pan and letting the oven do the browning for you. Everything comes out of there deep and savory and so much more flavorful than the amount of effort would suggest. I spooned Green goddess dressing over the hot pan at the end, and between that and the salty feta crumbles it turns a simple tray of sausage and gnocchi into a delicious dinner.

If you're a steak and potatoes household, this one is going to be your new favorite. It has everything you love about that classic plate, the seared steak bites, the potatoes, the seasoning, except it all happens in one pan and the sauce is creamy. The beef broth and heavy cream build a sauce right in the pan. Every potato is coated and every piece of steak has something to sit in!

I somehow always keep orzo in the pantry so this dish can easily be whipped up if you grab some shrimp from the grocery store! It’s so creamy and feels fancy but easy enough to make for a weeknight 🥘 skip on the red crushed peppers if you don’t like spicy 🌶️