If there is one trend I’m holding on to into fall and winter, it’s cottage cheese. Not only do I eat it weekly, but I absolutely love cooking and baking with it! Whether I’m blending it up and replacing Greek yogurt or heavy creamy or adding a scoop into my mac and cheese to add creaminess and protein, I love it and I’m not afraid to show it!

Since I’ve been on this cottage cheese kick for quite some time, I thought I’d round up my favorite FFF cottage cheese recipes that speak fall flavors. Think pumpkin cheesecake and hot fall dips for game day.

Cottage Cheese Dinner Recipes

It has been so fun testing cottage cheese in more savory ways. I mean, blend it up and you can make a high-protein pizza crust for gosh sakes!

High-Protein Cottage Cheese Desserts

If you haven’t tried blending you cottage cheese to replace Greek yogurt or heavy cream, you’re missing out! We came up with a high-protein dough recipe that’s basically 1:1 blended cottage cheese and flour, and we’ve been making so many variations of cinnamon rolls!

Cottage Cheese Breakfast Ideas for Fall

Cottage Cheese Appetizers

While I’m not a huge football girlie, I do love to hose and you can’t go wrong with a dip to share. Have you tried a hot cottage cheese dip yet? SO GOOD.

Turn my classic sloppy joes into juicy delicious meatballs! Simmered in my tangy homemade sauce, these sloppy joe meatballs are perfect for serving in a bowl or on a sandwich for dinner, or even with toothpicks as a game day appetizer. I can’t wait for you to try this recipe in your own kitchen .

A Few Featured Ingredients

• Ground beef: I prefer using ground beef for my sloppy joes, but this recipe will also work with ground chicken, turkey or pork. Chicken and turkey are leaner than ground beef, and tend to need a little extra oil in the meatball mixture. Pork tends to be a bit fattier, so you may need to add additional breadcrumbs.
• Italian bread crumbs: this is what gets the meatballs nice and crispy on the outside while also adding savory flavor from the Italian seasoning.
• Parmesan cheese: you’ll put the parmesan cheese right in the meatball mixture. It not only adds rich and salty flavor, it also helps the meatballs retain their moisture (aka meatballs that are juicy and never dry!).
• Tomato sauce: the base of my homemade sloppy joe sauce! Don’t substitute this, please and thank you .
• Light brown sugar: all sloppy joes need a little sweetness, and the brown sugar does just that!

Find the list of full ingredients in the recipe card below. 

Time to Get Cooking

This recipe is really quite simple, and can be broken down into a few simple steps:

1. Prepare the meatballs
2. Prepare the sauce
3. Cook the meatballs
4. Add the sauce and simmer
5. Serve and enjoy!

Find the full instructions in the recipe card below. 

My Favorite Ways to Serve

I love serving these sloppy joe meatballs in a bowl! If you’re new around here, the gals and I at Fit Foodie Finds love a good bowl recipe, and honestly, nothing is more perfect for it than meatballs. My go-to for this recipe is pairing the sloppy joe meatballs with a simple slaw, diced sweet potatoes and topped with a burger sauce. Yum!

This recipe would also be delicious on a bun ala meatball sammies .

Let your sloppy joe meatballs and sauce cool completely. Then, transfer into an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3-5 days.

How to Freeze Cooked Sloppy Joe Meatballs

1. Brown meatballs: Heat olive oil in a large cast iron skillet making sure the pan is thoroughly greased. Brown meatballs on all sides for 8-10 minutes total. Use a pair of tongs to turn each meatball every few minutes, being careful not to burn the outsides. Cook meatballs until they reach an internal temperature of 165°F.
2. Make sloppy joe sauce: Make the sloppy joe sauce and add it to the meatballs.
3. Cool meatballs and sauce: Let the meatballs cool completely.
4. Freeze: Once cooled, transfer them into a gallon-size freezer-safe bag with the sloppy joe sauce. Remove as much air as possible and then seal. Freeze for up to 3 months. 

More Stove Top Skillet Recipes

This is my go-to high-protein dough recipe! It’s seriously so good, incredibly easy to make, and super versatile — so much so that I’ve used it as a base for SO many high-protein recipes on Fit Foodie Finds (sharing them all below).

This dough packs 20g of protein per serving, and is perfect for both sweet and savory recipes. The protein-packed secret? Skyr yogurt OR blended cottage cheese! That’s right, you can use either one in this recipe and they’ll both add a ton of protein.

High-Protein Dough Ingredients

• All-purpose flour: AP flour is the base of this dough. It helps create the perfect crispy and chewy dough when baked. We have not tested this recipe (yet) with gluten-free AP flour or almond flour.
• Plain Skyr yogurt, Greek yogurt or blended cottage cheese: I tested this recipe with Skyr yogurt, Greek yogurt, and blended cottage cheese, and all were great at adding both protein and the right amount of moisture. Painterland Sisters skyr yogurt is my jam if you haven’t tried it yet. 
• Baking powder: Because this dough doesn’t have any yeast, it needs baking powder as a leavening agent. Don’t skip it!
• Sea salt: Every dough needs a lil salt, even when you’re making sweet recipes!

Greek yogurt or blended cottage cheese are great substitutes for Skyr yogurt in this recipe. Both are still packed with protein and will give you a similar outcome.

I prefer to use a 2% – 4% fat content cottage cheese for this dough because if you go low fat/nonfat, the water content is higher.

My Best High-Protein Dough Recipes

So, without further ado, here are some of my most popular recipes made with this high-protein dough as the base

This cottage cheese Alfredo is so creamy and packed with 15g of protein per serving all thanks to the blended cottage cheese Alfredo sauce!

Cottage cheese is a high-protein, miracle cheese that we just can’t get enough of. You won’t believe how easy it is to blend up the Alfredo sauce with just a few ingredients of cottage cheese, sauteed garlic and onion, and a splash of heavy cream.

Obsessed with cottage cheese recipes? These cottage cheese pancakes, protein mac and cheese, cookies and cream cottage cheese bark, and cottage cheese ice cream are tasty recipes that are high in protein.

What makes this cottage cheese Alfredo different from classic Alfredo sauce?

Classic Alfredo sauce is made with heavy whipping cream, butter, and parmesan cheese. While this recipe does call for a little heavy cream, the basis of it is blended cottage cheese and sautéed garlic and onion.. This is a lower-calorie and fat alternative with a very similar flavor profile!

Make sure to have a high-speed blender before starting!

• High-speed blender: a Vitamix or the Beast are our two favorite blenders. Just be sure you have a high-powered blender that will easily cream the ingredients together.

When making the cottage cheese Alfredo sauce, be sure you blend the ingredients long enough (at least 30 seconds on high) to ensure all the ingredients are homogenous. You want to ensure that the sauce is nice and creamy, with no lumps. This is important so that when the sauce is warmed up it doesn’t not separate.

We kept this dish basic with just pasta and sauce. If you’d like to add vegetables, steamed broccoli is a great addition. Spice things up with red pepper flakes, too!

If you are storing leftovers where the pasta and the sauce are already mixed together, let the pasta cool completely and store it in an air-tight container for up to 5 days.

Since this cottage cheese Alfredo is a creamy and substantial pasta dish, we recommend serving it alongside a crunchy salad or adding protein to the top.

If you want to add an animal protein to this pasta add this delicious crunchy pan-fried chicken or sauteed shrimp.

This apple burrata salad, chicken Caesar salad, or an easy cucumber salad are great salad options!