What We are Eating: Fall Favorites

It officially feels like FALL here at camp. We LOVE the cooler weather, the changing of the mountain leaves, and especially, trying new fall-inspired recipes.

Fun off-season fact: we actually share recipes amongst our Head Staff group all year long, making sure everyone on our team knows the good things others are cooking. Who is the best cook in our bunch? Jimboy…hands-down! We also love doing an annual soup-swap around this time of year, where each of us goes home with a quart of soup to freeze and eat when we need an easy dinner. Food is a constant topic around the camp-planning table during the fall!

While nothing beats picking fresh vegetables from our camp Garden and then eating them for lunch, here are a few of our fall recipe faves we’ve been enjoying this year:

Appetizers & Extras

• Everything Ranch Cheese and Pretzel Snack Mix: Catherine’s church small group devoured this the other day.
• Tomato Tarts: Our resident gardener Laura uses her summer tomato bounty to make these delicious tarts. She recommends switching in goat cheese for the cheddar and basil for the thyme…smart move, Laura!
• Caesar Dressing: Ellen-Anne lives by the Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat cookbook, and the caesar dressing is her FAVE. Here’s an adaptation of it online, but check out the actual cookbook for the real deal.
• Baked Goat Cheese: If Alli from the kitchen says this is the BEST, than sign me up!
• Sheet Pan Nachos: Is there a more perfect Saturday football-watching food?

Soups

• Best Ever Chili Recipe: Jimboy RAVES about this chili recipe. Double the diced tomatoes, and you’ll be golden.
• Pizza Soup: That’s right - if you can’t have Gerv’s pizza at camp, you can pretend you’re enjoying his pizza in a bowl with this soup!
• Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Chicken Chili: A slower cooker and cream cheese? Yum! A Catherine fave.
• Cozy Thai-Inspired Chicken Noodle Soup: A little different, a little delcious.
• Fire Roasted Tomato Soup: Don’t worry, not spicy! Serve with grilled cheese to make all of your eaters happy.

The Main Meal

• Flank Steak: This recipe is so legit it comes from one of Lell’s old cookbooks! Find the recipe in the image; nothing says delicious like a stained recipe! And, a note to the cooks: the onion, chives, dill, and celery seed should not be optional…they add the zing!
• Slow Cooker Cuban Mojo Pork: Super easy and flavorful!
• Cedar Plank Salmon: Buy some cheap cedar planks online (or grab some at the grocery) and make this ALL the time. It’s on the menu weekly at the Brown’s house.
• Dad’s Leftover Turkey Pot Pie: If it’s good enough for Laura and Gerv, it’s good enough for me. Perfect for a post-Thanksgiving meal.
• Healthier Homemade One Pot Hamburger Helper: Alli and her family have been loving this recently, and her husband didn’t even realize it had vegetables in it (score!).
• Copycat Chipotle Chicken: This is so tasty and makes your tacos and salads really sing!
• Air Fryer Chicken: The boys in the Brown household ask for this almost nightly. So easy!
• Sausage Ricotta Meatball Bake: Does anything scream “fall eating” more than this?!

Desserts

• Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies: Made every year in the Elbaum household; always a win!
• Pecan Pie Bars: Perfect if you are looking for a pecan bar that doesn’t use corn syrup. These are delicious!

What are you cooking these days? Let us know below. We’d love to try some of your family’s favorite recipes this fall!