November Meal Plan

The next two weeks we will be cooking almost entirely from one cookbook.  We received the cookbook from our  good friend who works in publishing (and yes, it is very nice to have friends like that!).  The cookbook comes from the brilliant cooks behind Cooks Illustrated , a magazine that is known for its recipes being thoroughly tested.

The book is called The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook (available locally as well as from Amazon.com and Amazon.ca ), and it’s put out by America’s Test Kitchen .  Basically it’s a compilation of all the vegetarian recipes from Cooks Illustrated .  What I’ve always loved about that magazine is the length they go to in explaining why their recipe works, and that’s included with every single recipe in this book.

You might see a few reoccurring ingredients in the 2 week meal plan that follows.  One is barley, specifically pearl barley.  It turns out I ordered us a 12 kg sack of that wonderful stuff from Bailey’s and now we’ll be working our way through it all winter.  The other common ingredients are kale and squash, because they’re healthy and delicious, but more importantly they’re local and abundant right now.

Keep in mind that you can keep harvesting your kale until it’s completely covered in snow (and it will just taste better and better!).  And winter squash has “winter†in its name because it can be stored through much of the winter.  Yes, it can and should be enjoyed now but it’s good to stock up and fill your pantry with it too so you can eat it until March or sometimes April if you store enough.

Butternut is one of the best keepers in our experience, whereas acorn squash doesn’t hold up quite as long.  The only real way of knowing what keeps best in your climate is by buying a wide variety of squash and keeping an eye on them.  Whenever one gets a soft spot it needs to be eaten quickly.

The links provided are mostly to recipes that are similar to ones in the cookbook, but in many cases they are not nearly as thorough as those in the book.  If your local library carries the book you should definitely check it out, but if not I feel like this is a worthwhile book to own (of course we got our copy for free so it’s easy for me to say!).

Nov. 1-14

• Monday – Red Pepper Polenta Triangles (our own invention, but similar to this ), Kale Caesar Salad  (we briefly fry the kale to soften it a bit)
• Tuesday – Barley Risotto (we made it vegetarian, but otherwise it’s like Michael Smith’s recipe ), Sweet and Sour Cabbage Apple Salad  (we omitted the fennel and it was still great), Glazed Beets ( along these lines , but with jam for the sweetener)
• Wednesday – Roasted Red Pepper and Winter Squash Soup (recipe coming soon), Fresh Bread

• Thursday – Braised Kale and Butternut, Celeriac Sweet Potato Roesti
• Friday – Smoky Pumpkin Empanadas
• Saturday – Spaghetti Night, Salad
• Sunday – Pulled Pork Tacos
• Monday – Pumpkin and Kale Bread Pudding , Roasted Beet Salad
• Tuesday – Carrot Ginger Soup , Fresh Sourdough Bread
• Wednesday – Barley Kale Tabbouleh , Sweet Potato Fries, Broccoli and Cheese Sauce

• Thursday – Frozen Quiche, Salad
• Friday – Pizza Night

This post is shared at Menu Plan Monday which is a great resource for meal ideas!

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