Friday Five - Favorite Fall Foods

It's Friday and that means it's time for a Friday Five link up with Courtney, Mar, Cynthia and a host of other awesome bloggers!  The theme for this week is Favorite Fall Foods.  Well, I always love talking about food and Fall foods tend to be among my favorites as I bring out the heartier stuff for the impending colder weather.  And boy is it already needed this year! For recipes I've posted about before on my blog, I've included a link to those posts.

1.  Dal or Indian style lentil soup - This has always been a comfort food for me because I grew up eating it.  And it's hearty, healthy, economical and still tasty!  What's not to like? I tend to serve it over rice and with greek yogurt for a complete meal.

2.  Grilled cheese - I love the ooey gooey meltiness of a good grilled cheese sandwich and enjoy experimenting with different varieties.  One of my favorite varieties is sharp cheddar, spicy mustard and thinly sliced apple.  The colder the weather, the better the sandwich tastes, I promise.

3.  Roasted fall vegetables - I love roasted brussel sprouts or winter squash.  I keep this one simple and don't even really have a recipe.  Just olive oil, salt and pepper in an oven hot enough to carmelize the veggies.  Yum.  A perfect side for an autumn meal.

4.  Stuffed baked potatoes - Why are potatoes so comforting?  One of my favorite cold weather meals (and one of the easiest) is a potato (or sweet potato) just cooked in the microwave and stuffed with veggie chili and topped with cheese.  Yum!  And it can be as healthy or not as you want it to be.  Load on the cheese and sour cream if you're indulging or stick with a just a flavorful veggie chili and extra vegetables if you're trying to keep it healthy.  Either way is super tasty.  And it's easy to make this for a crowd if you're doing some low key indulging.  I did it as a baked potato bar for a party and it's easy for people to customize toppings, vegetarian or not, and can be gluten free to boot.

5.  Homemade bread - I have a bread maker and homemade bread is so easy!  The smell of cinnamon raising bread baking on a cold morning is wonderful and the taste of the warm bread once it's ready is even better.  I haven't perfected a recipe for this yet but I've been enjoying the trials.

I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead of them!  I'm excited to be watching the Hunger Games movie tonight and doing a 5k at a State Park under their holiday light display tomorrow evening.  And hopefully lots of resting before Thanksgiving week begins. And if you have any favorite Fall foods, I'd love to hear about them :)