🍁All The Fall Things 🍂 feat. Trader Joe's!

A bucket list to experience all the coziness of Autumn, including a Trader Joe's shopping list, comforting recipes, and of course, seasonal playlists!

Sep 27, 2025

It is now officially Fall and in the PNW temperatures are starting to drop. 🤎 ☕️ That is the most exciting thing!! Sweater weather is upon us 🥰 My calendar is filling up with responsibilities and all the autumnal activities I want to do.

I’ll be getting ready for the Holiday Bazaar I’ll be selling stationery at in November, I’m leading a women’s bible study group at my church through the winter, and I’ve been asked to share my testimony next month at a women's retreat. All good things.

This means I may not be writing as much on here though, at least until December. There are still many, many things I want to share so I’ll do my best!

A couple weeks ago, in my Autumn Academia post, I wrote about how to be a lifelong learner and making it fun by embracing the dark academia aesthetic & lifestyle. I shared a color palette and mood board for some ideas! :) But one Autumn-themed post is definitely not enough, so I’m sharing with you all my go-to’s for the season.

Featuring Trader Joe’s

Seasonal Treats

Every Fall I make at least one trip to Trader Joe’s (more is better!) once their seasonal stuff has arrived. Yup, this means lots and lots of Pumpkin scented, Pumpkin flavored items!

Some of my favorite TJ’s fall items are:

Apple cider donuts
Pumpkin spice rooibos tea
Spiced cider
Pumpkin pancake and waffle mix
Butternut squash Mac & cheese
Fall Zucchette pasta (which is shaped like little pumpkins!!and has a subtle butternut squash flavor) with the Autumn Harvest pasta sauce
Maple leaf cookies

Home & Body

Vanilla Pumpkin candle
Honeycrisp apple candle
Vanilla Pumpkin hand soap
Pumpkin ultra moisturizing hand cream
Pumpkin body butter
Pumpkin brown sugar body scrub (smells incredible!!)
Felted wool pumpkin
Felted wool garland in fall colors (pictured below)
Cinnamon whisks to place around the house for a delightful cinnamon scent throughout
of course, their mini pumpkins and heirloom pumpkins
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🍝 Fall Harvest Pasta Bake

This dish feels like a warm hug! Perfect on a candlelit rainy evening, accompanied by TJ’s spiced cider, this recipe uses the Fall Zucchette Pasta, Autumn Harvest pasta sauce, gruyere cheese, and caramelized onions.

NOTE: It’s a good idea to caramelize the onions ahead of time, they take a while. Method below. Cook & slice sausage while onions are caramelizing. Cook the pasta al dente once onions are almost done.

Ingredients:

1 pkg Trader Joe’s Fall Zucchette Pasta, cooked al dente
1 pkg Apple Chicken Sausage, cooked and sliced
1 jar Trader Joe’s Autumnal Harvest Creamy Pasta Sauce
2 large yellow or white onions, sliced
1 tsp olive or avocado oil
1/2 Tblsp butter, salted
2 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp mustard (preferably Dijon, but regular works too)
Pinch ground black pepper
About 1/4tsp - 1/2 tsp dried sage (or a few fresh sage leaves)
1 1/2 cups gruyere cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

Directions:

〰️ Caramelizing the onions

Heat the olive/avocado oil and butter in a wide sauté pan or cast iron pan on medium high until oil is shimmering.
Add onion slices and stir to coat them in the oil/butter. Spread onions evenly in the pan.
Add the mustard to the onions.
Stir onions every few minutes, letting them stick to the pan and brown but without letting them burn.
After about 30 mins lower the heat.
Add in the minced garlic, pepper, and sage. Stir occasionally.
Cook onions until they’re soft and caramelized (they should be a rich brown)

〰️ For the pasta bake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Add the zucchette cooked AL DENTE to a 9x13 baking dish (you can rub a little oil to the bottom of the pan so the pasta won’t stick)
Add the cooked and sliced apple chicken sausage to the dish
Layer on the caramelized onions and the Autumn Harvest pasta sauce
Layer on the gruyere and parmesan cheeses
Bake for about 25 mins or until it’s all bubbly and gooey! Enjoy!

🍦 Pumpkin Spice Cold Foam

I don’t know about you, but I’ve become a Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew fiend. It’s just. so. good. But I cannot afford the drink everyday OR the carbs that come with it! So I make my own low-carb version at home.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp to 1/4 cup pure pumpkin puree
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
sweetener of choice ( I used some keto maple syrup and brown sugar alternative)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a jar and secure the lid on
Shake, shake, shake! until you get your desired consistency
Pour over your coffee or eat with a spoon! 🤫

Fall Bucket List

973KB ∙ PDF file

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Blank Bucket List

951KB ∙ PDF file

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I think at this point it wouldn’t be a Heart Stuff Journal post without a Pinterest board or a playlist 😂 Because Autumn is my absolute favorite, there’s gotta be both!

📻 Soft Cinnamon Autumn

📻 Autumn/Folk Worship by Bri Sikes

All the Fall things Pinterest inspo board HERE
AND! Here’s an autumn academia moodboard :)

Let me know if you try any of the recipes or any of the TJ’s items! Have you already tried some? Are you as obsessed as I am?? Let me know! Happy, happy Fall! 🍂