39 Comforting Easy Fall Recipes For Your Menus

If you’re looking for some easy fall recipes to add to your menu for the season, look no further! Here are some of AOC’s tried-and-true recipes for everything from comforting soups and stews, to breads, to desserts flavored for the season with apples, maple, and spices. All of them are completely doable and work for both family dinners and company holiday meals.

While fall is not my favorite season (give me summer and salads any day), it is probably my second favorite. We get to decorate with pumpkins, the trees turn beautiful colors, and we can finally turn the oven back on, bring out the soup pots, and basically make the house smell divine.

If you can’t have warmth outside, let’s bring it all inside, right?

I’ve rounded up some of my family’s all-time favorite recipes that are great in the fall (or any time the weather is cool, really) to help you create your fall menus. To make it easier for you, I’ve separated them into mains, sides, salads, breads, and desserts.

How to Create a Fall Dinner Menu Using These Recipes

Here’s what I’d suggest as an easy way to fill out your menus for the next couple months:

Grab a blank calendar for whichever month you’re working on. Go ahead and do two months and you can fill in the extra days with the recipes you already make for your family. If you’re a subscriber, you can just go to the VIP Library and download the current calendar, printing off just the months you need. If not, click here to subscribe and get all the goodies in the library! Or do what I do and use the monthly calendars in The Flexible Planner for your menus.
Look at your family calendar and fill in anything you know about now that would impact dinners (sports events, school events, family dinners, etc.)
With this page open on your device, scroll through the main dishes and add the ones you’d like to try to the days on the calendar that would work for you. For example, if it’s a busy day and you’ll be home late, choose one of the slow cooker recipes that you can prepare in the morning (or even the night before, leaving it in the fridge before starting to cook it the next morning).
Add a few side dishes and salads to the recipes that need it (like the mini meatloaves or pigs-in-a-blanket or soups that would be nice with a bread). You can also use one of the sides as a springboard for a meal, like bake a ham or chicken and serve it with the scalloped potatoes and a salad.
Look at the breads – what would you like that’s not on the calendar? Maybe add a scone recipe and list it as a breakfast or snack choice on the days following your baking.
Finally, check out the desserts and see where you can add a sweet to the calendar. Once a week is a good idea.

TIP: Definitely plan a family apple tasting day with the caramel apple dip when your family will all be home – it was one of my kid’s favorite traditions!