Fall Chicken Stew with Quinoa and Butternut Squash

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Fall Chicken Stew with Quinoa and Butternut Squash

a photo of a bowl full of fall chicken stew including quinoa, chunks of butternut squash, chicken, and kale.

This “New American Heartland” fall chicken stew recipe is bulked up with quinoa and butternut squash. The dish is hearty and filling, and a perfect fall or winter dinner recipe.

When the cold weather sets in, I always want to make cozy, warm comfort food, but those are often not the most healthy recipes (i.e. beef stew, I love you forever, but you’re not healthy haha!). This seasonal dish is healthy, full of vegetables, protein and nutritious grains and it will warm you up from the inside out.

I’m making a loaf of easy herbed focaccia bread to dip in this scrumptious fall chicken stew!

What Do I Need to Make Fall Chicken Stew?

You’ve heard of kitchen sink cookies, and I seriously thought about naming this kitchen sink stew because you seriously add almost everything but the kitchen sink! Ha! But kitchen sink stew doesn’t sound appetizing at all. Here are the ingredients you will need:

  • Chicken Broth
  • Rotisserie Chicken: I like to use rotisserie chicken just to keep things quick and simple, but you can definitely cook your own chicken if you want. Grilled chicken breasts or left over roasted chicken would work great. I prefer to include for chicken breast and chicken thigh meat if I can for the most flavor.
  • Vegetables and Herbs: Butternut Squash, Yellow Onion, Diced Tomatoes, Kale, and Flat-Leaf Parsley
  • Flavor, Seasonings & Spices: Garlic, Kosher Salt, Dried Oregano, Ground Cumin, Nutmeg, Orange Zest and Black Pepper
  • Grains: Quinoa (Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains Blend)
  • Olive Oil

The measurements for all the ingredients can be found in the recipe card down below. Keep scrolling for all the details!

Substitutions and Variations

One of the things I love about stew recipes is how customizable they are! This recipe is perfect for adding to or swapping out. Here are a few ideas:

  • You can add cubed potatoes (red potatoes or yukon gold) or sweet potatoes or swap them for the butternut squash.
  • Use couscous or orzo instead of the quinoa.
  • If you aren’t a kale fan, try spinach instead!
  • Of course the veggies are totally up to you – peas, carrots, celery, etc.
  • If you want to make this stew vegetarian, omit the chicken and use vegetable broth instead of chicken stock.

How to Make This Chicken Stew Recipe

To get the depth of flavor you crave in a good stew, it takes a couple of steps starting with r

Crock Pot or Instant Pot Cheesy Meatball Soup [+Video]

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Crock Pot or Instant Pot Cheesy Meatball Soup [+Video]

a metal bowl full of cheesy meatball soup with potatoes and carrots and sliced white bread behind it

A creamy soup is turned into a crock pot or instant pot cheesy meatball soup with just a few pantry staple ingredients like carrots, potatoes, garlic, and corn, then add the cheese!

This year we are making sure we are on top of slow cooker and instant pot meals in case you’re freezing and not feeling like slaving over a stove like we are.

I’m going to include instructions for cooking this meatball soup recipe on the stove top as well.

Ingredients for Creamy Meatball Soup

I love a good hearty soup full of veggies, meatballs and cheese! This easy soup recipe checks all the boxes. Here is what you will need…

  • Meatballs: We just buy a package at the store to keep it easy, but you can make meatballs at home if you want.
  • Butter: used to sauté the veggies
  • Vegetables: garlic, carrots, celery, potatoes and corn
  • Soup Base: beef broth, whole milk, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco
  • Salt: adds flavor
  • Cornstarch: thickens the soup
  • Cheeses: sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack

The measurements for all the ingredients can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post. You can also save and print the recipe there.

How to Make Cheesy Meatball Soup – Slow Cooker

While you can totally just dump this all in a crock pot and wait 8 hours to build the right texture and flavor it’s not the way I do it.

I know, you don’t want to dirty another pan, but it’s quick and easy and the flavor will be worth it.

  1. Heat a dutch oven or large skillet over medium high heat and add the butter. Once it’s melted add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally until tender, about 5 minutes.
  2. Add the carrots, celery and garlic and cook for another 3 minutes.
  3. Throw in your frozen meatballs (unless you really want to go through the work of cooking homemade) just to get all of that flavor browning on them.
  4. Dump everything but the cornstarch and cheese into a slow cooker and put it on low for 6 hours or high for 3.
  5. Right before serving, combine the cheese and cornstarch in a separate bowl and then mix to combine.
  6. Add the cheese mixture to the soup and stir until the cheese is melted and the soup has thickened.
  7. Serve with a sprinkle of fresh parsley for garnish and a good hearty bread!

Watch How This Cheesy Meatball Soup is Made…

Easy Apple Dumplings with Sprite

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Easy Apple Dumplings with Sprite

a blue china plate with two apple dumplings and caramel sauce with vanilla ice cream on top

Who knew that crescent rolls, cinnamon sugar apples, brown sugar, butter and sprite could make the best easy apple dumplings with Sprite ever!

Ditch your old apple dumplings recipe. Do it. Ditch it. These easy apple dumplings have a couple of very minor changes that make a HUGE difference and I’m totally not kidding. I’ll never make another apple dumplings recipe again.

This recipe reminds me so much of my grandma’s apple rolls recipe just because that sugar liquid is so deceiving. You pour it all around the rolls and it almost puts you into a panic attack seeing all of that liquid around the dough, like is this really going to work?! Are they going to be a soggy mess?!

And then those golden, crisp, pillows of dough come out and you’re a real life hero to the whole family.

Creating This Apple Dumpling Recipe

This is seriously the craziest apple dessert recipe. Most apple desserts seem to be inspired largely from the way apple pie is made. Think about it: apple crisp, apple pull-apart bread, and apple pie scones are all takes on the classic apple pie. 

This apple dumpling recipe is similar, but as I’ve been making recipes from others over the years I felt like there was always something missing. Sure, it is a good recipe and one that your guests will love you for, but couldn’t it be taken up a notch without changing the whole recipe?

We started experimenting, a lot. Too much. I could hardly stand to look at another apple dumpling recipe, let alone the apple dumpling itself.

And then it hit me, when you’re trying to do something awesome and it’s not coming together, go back to the original recipe.

So I did. And do you know what I discovered? The apples were not like an apple pie, they were completely plain. No, no, no! Apples need a little cinnamon sugar action to really drive home that fall smell and flavor!

Well don’t stop there, I thought. We need a little cinnamon action in the butter mixture as well. Too many recipes called for just butter and brown sugar. No. We need more. We added vanilla and cinnamon. Let’s get this party started!

Easiest Apple Butter Recipe (Homemade From Scratch)

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Easiest Apple Butter Recipe (Homemade From Scratch)

a photo of two glasses full of apple butter with cinnamon stick, whole apples, and peeled apples all around them.

This recipe is so simple – it’s the easiest apple butter recipe from scratch. I use all fresh ingredients, and I promise you it tastes just as good as the apple butter you grew up with.

I grew up on pretty much 100% home-canned applesauce, which is amazing as my mom actually hates cooked apples. She did it for us and I’ve loved it ever since. But apple butter, now that’s the next level!! I use it on toast, cooked with pork or chicken, in quick breads and cakes, etc!

All you need is 6 simple ingredients, and this apple butter sauce is yours! Fill your home and belly with the smells and flavors of fall!

Recommended Equipment

Before You Begin

Prepare all the apples by removing the cores, peeling them, and slicing them into bitesize pieces.

What is Apple Butter?

Though it contains no butter, apple butter is a similar consistency of butter. Apple butter is super concentrated sweetened apples that have been pureed to a smooth spreadable sauce. You can think of it as an apple jam. It has intense delicious apple flavor.

Apple Butter Ingredients

Here are the 6 (possibly 7) ingredients you need to make apple butter from scratch:

  • Apples: You’ll need about 16 apples depending on the size of the apples to get 6 lbs of apples. Weigh the apples first and then core, peel and cut them.
    • TIP: You’ll need at least a 6 quart slow cooker to hold all these apples.
  • Dark Brown Sugar: You can use light brown sugar too, I just love the richness the dark brown sugar adds.
  • Sugar: just regular granulated sugar, helps apples caramelize
  • Cinnamon: an absolute must for apple recipes and all things fall
  • Ground Cloves: adds an extra bit of warmth and flavor
  • Salt: cuts through all the sweetness and enhances all the flavors
  • Vanilla: this is optional but does add delicious flavor

This is just an overview of the ingredients used in this recipe. The measurements for all the ingredients can be found in the recipe card down at the end of the post.

How to Make Apple Butter in a Slow Cooker

It doesn’t get easier than making this apple butter recipe in the slow cooker! Here is an overview of the steps:

  1. Combine the white sugar and spices/seasonings in a small bowl and stir to combine.
  2. Add the prepared apples to the sl

Apple Cider Donut Muffins

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Apple Cider Donut Muffins

I love the crisp autumn air, the leaves changing colors on the trees, the pumpkin spice everything and most of all, these apple cider donut muffins!

These apple cider muffins are one of our favorite healthy breakfast options. They have the perfect amount of sweet from the cider and brown sugar and the sour cream helps keep them extra tender and moist. 

a photo of several golden, fluffy apple cider donut muffins topped with cinnamon brown sugar.

 

Does your family have any fall traditions? I’m not sure if it’s like this everywhere else, but when fall rolls around here in Utah, all sorts of pumpkin patches pop up with corn mazes and fun activities for families. One of our favorite places is down in a little town called Santaquin at Rowley’s Red Barn. It is the cutest farm with a red barn where you can buy ice cream, fall produce, the best apple cider on earth AND the most outrageously delicious apple cider donuts. I don’t know what they put in those donuts, but they are dangerous!

These apple cider donut muffins are those donuts but in muffin form because, let’s be honest, muffins are just easier than donuts! Everyone has a muffin tin but not everyone has a donut pan. It’s time to make these donut muffins a new fall tradition in your family!

a photo of the corner of a muffin tin with baked apple cider donut muffins in it that are topped with brown sugar cinnamon.Read more

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