Autumn is our favorite season, you guys. Thanksgiving, cooler temperatures, brisk walks and rustling leaves…we love it. Now, it may not be as brisk in LA as we want, but we can pretend, right? And, with Halloween around the corner, we though October the perfect month to highlight caramel apples. These are one of our favorite seasonal treats (along with cider donuts & pumpkin-spiced everything), and we’re glad to be celebrating them this month! Download & enjoy!

Finally, October is here, and in LA today it’s a temperature I can pretend is “fall.” (It’s 78 here, folks, and I am wearing shorts and a t-shirt and am almost chilly and I will take it.)

Fall is hands-down my fave time of year for produce. I love a berry, don’t get me wrong, but there’s nothing better than pumpkin, pomegranate, and all the hearty greens combined with some spaghetti squash.

Apples * Acorn Squash * Brussels Sprouts
Kale * Mushrooms * Pomegranates
Pumpkins * Spaghetti Squash * Tomatoes

This Pesto Spaghetti Squash is one of our go-tos in the season. I love adding beets, chicken, a hearty green, and some sundried tomatoes. The basics are a spaghetti squash and pesto. (I recommend maybe using goat cheese, too, if you want to go crazy!)

I had forgotten we made this until I was looking for pumpkiny recipes for this post, and I’m glad I found this again! Pumpkin Goat Cheese Gluten Free Pasta is an awesome way to get in pumpkin that’s not a muffin or something sweet. I really love using pumpkin in savory dishes, and having a can or two in the cupboard means I always have it available for recipes like this one.

I also love putting apples into savory dishes. I love an apple crumble or tart as much as the next person, but I hate that baking always makes things just that much more unhealthy. (Although let’s be honest, this grilled cheese isn’t a salad either…oh well, it’s delish!) Fontina Apple Grilled Cheese with some soup are perfect and quick dinners.

Butternut Squash. Kale. Bread Pudding. This one is also gluten free, and delicious, and easy, and makes great leftovers. I can’t get enough of winter squash, you guys. This is a good one for chilly weeknights and/or lunches for the week. You can use an acorn squash, too, if you want, whatever’s your fave winter squash.

So there you go – a guide to October, one of my fave months of all time. Enjoy this best of harvest seasons!

I told you guys a while back that we eat a LOT of chicken quesadillas around here. I used to joke to Corelyn that all I ever fed her was chicken quesadillas. That was mostly not a joke, let’s be real. But you guys, they are so easily and delicious, I can’t help myself. Plus, Jeff makes a killer quesadilla and the leftovers make great nachos, salads…you get the idea.

Anyways, I looked back and realized I had never made them for you. I couldn’t believe it! Now, you guys know that I am a fan of healthy, quick recipes, but I will admit cheese is my family’s downfall. And these quesadillas are certainly at the top of the list. But we eat these bad boys at least once every two weeks, and I will admit they are some of my fave nights. It’s so easy to put them together and they go great with a huge salad – or even add some kale to yours.

The recipe is below – I highly recommend to add green chiles (thanks Ree for teaching us this trick in your taco recipe) and the cumin. It just makes the chicken that much better. Feel free to add some cayenne or chili powder too (I just would definitely get the hiccups if I tried those! Did you guys know I get hiccups when I have spicy foods?)

And you can use whatever cheese you like – we use TJ’s spicy Monterey Jack, but we’ve been known to use cheddar and mozzarella if that’s all we have…do whatever you keep around! This should be a great short-on-time weeknight dinner recipe you can adapt to become one you go back to over and over!

Type: Quick Meals

Author: Jennie

Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15-20 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 pound chicken
• olive oil
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 can green chiles
• 1 block spicy Monterey Jack cheese
• tortillas
• chunky salsa
• 1 avocado

Directions

1. Dice chicken. In a cast iron, cook chicken with a smidge of olive oil and your cumin for about 8 minutes. When chicken is nearly done, add the green chiles and set to low.

2. Meanwhile, grate your block of cheese.

3. Using your cast iron or your cast iron griddle, make quesadillas: place tortilla, followed by chicken and cheese on half the tortilla. Turn heat to medium low and allow cheese to melt, about 3 minutes.

4. Fold over tortilla and flip, allowing to melt cheese on other side, about 2 minutes.

5. Serve with chunky salsa and avocado.

Happy Fall, everyone! It’s Jennie, from Garlic, My Soul, here and today I’ve got a new recipe to go along with an awesome new hotel, The Troubadour from Joie de Vivre! Opening soon, this hotel is in New Orleans in the Central Business District. The hotel will feature live music from local musicians, a swanky rooftop bar, and a casual bistro – talk about the full package, and in one of my fave cities to visit. New Orleans is a city unlike any other – vibrant culturally, musically, and with one of the best nightlifes around.

Oh and the food, too – oh but the food. New Orleans is such a treat to visit, and the cuisine is amazing. Now, say what you will about jambalaya, gumbo, and all the awesome Creole options, but beignets are simply my fave thing. Hot, coated in powdered sugar, and maybe dipped in some cafe au lait from Cafe du Monde?! Yes please. I thought it appropriate to make some in honor of this new hotel – after all, that’s something to celebrate, right?

These beignets are made with baking powder instead of yeast – no overnight rising. After all, celebrations shouldn’t be more work –  anyone should be able to have a beignet on a whim. These whip up as quickly as any other great weekend breakfast, so watch out waffles, beignets are coming for ya. Find the recipe over on Joyride, here.

These were first posted last fall by Ellen. These are delicious, simple, and scream fall. And, since today’s the first day of fall, I figured you might want to make these this weekend. Happy Autumn, folks!

*****

We’ve cooked up a new paleo creation at GMS, and we are really excited to share it with you! It combines a version of the super simple paleo pancakes and some delicious fall ingredients. This is a lovely fall treat, perfect to have for dessert or just anytime! The recipe makes enough for a crowd (about two dozen bites).

*Recipe requires a food processor. My mini food processor worked fine!

The “sandwich” part of the bites are made from paleo pancakes.

Ingredients for paleo pancakes:

3-4 soft bananas
5 eggs
Ground Cinnamon
Olive oil spray or coconut oil spray

Ingredients for pumpkin cashew butter filling:

1 cup roasted, unsalted cashews
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 can pumpkin
1 tsp pumpkin spice
salt

Other ingredients:

Blackberries

Also needed:

Toothpicks

Directions for paleo pancakes:

1.) Mash up 2/3 of a banana into a mixing bowl. Add a dash of cinnamon.
2.) Add 1 egg and mash everything together. Add another dash of cinnamon. Mix again.
3.) Spray a pan with oil of your choosing and set pan over medium-high heat.
4.) Pour the batter into pancake-sized circles (4-5).
5.) Once golden brown on one side, flip and cook the other side.
6.) Re-grease pan between batches.
6.) Set the pancakes aside.

Directions for the pumpkin cashew butter filling:

1.) Add 1 cup roasted cashews to food processor
2.) Add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and pinch of salt to the cashews at a time. Blend. Repeat until the cashews have a butter consistency. Be careful not to add too much olive oil or else the flavor will get overwhelmed with an olive oil taste! The cashew butter doesn’t have to be completely smooth.
3.) Add 1 tsp pumpkin spice and 1/2 can of pumpkin. Blend until smooth.

Putting It All Together:

1.) Cut the pancakes into 1 inch squares.
2.) Put a dollop of the pumpkin cashew butter on top of a square of pancake.
3.) Top with another pancake square
4.) Cut a blackberry in half. Add it to the top of a toothpick and place the toothpick through the rest of the mini sandwich.

And, you’re done! These bites are delicious and great for fall parties! I just made a batch of the pumpkin cashew butter to keep around and use as a filling for other dishes as well. And, we’ve talked about using the cashew filling in a Thanksgiving paleo pumpkin pie!