A Month Of Meals For Chilly Weather

Looking for some meals to make in fall and winter? Check out my month-long meal plan for chilly weather!

Yesterday I sat in Panera Bread and planned the whole month of meals for our November. I’ve never done this before, but I did it for few reasons:

• I just had a newborn baby, we’re homeschooling, and I barely have time to brush my teeth. Maybe it would save time? Maybe I’d only have to meal-plan once, and maybe I’d have to shop less, too?
• It might save money because I could resuse meals or ingredients throughout the month.

I’m not going to lie. It kind of hurt my brain to think of all my recipes, remember ingredients, plan our calendar, etc. But it sure is nice to have the whole month planned!

Note: I only planned for 28 meals. I planned for the month of November which has Thanksgiving. If you’re like me, there are always a few days where you visit friends/eat out anyway. Another note: We are pretty simple when it comes to lunch & breakfast. It’s oatmeal or frozen waffles with sausage and eggs, and for lunch, sunbutter sandwiches with fruit, veggies, and hummus, or leftovers! No one seems to mind the monotony. 🙂

So here are my 28 chilly weather meals!

Week 1

• Saturday: Roast Chicken in the crock pot, organic Trader Joe’s applesauce, frozen green beans, and roasted baby potatoes (I quartered them, drizzled with olive oil and salt, and roasted at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Amazing!
• Sunday: Pioneer Woman’s Tortilla Soup (I actually had some of this frozen.)
• Monday: Use leftover roast chicken to make Creamy Chicken and Rice.
• Tuesday: Use leftover roast chicken to make Molly’s Mexican Casserole (my cousin Molly delivered me the most amazing dinner she invented, and I’m trying to recreate it. I am layering tortillas, diced avocados, sauteed green peppers, shredded chicken, salsa, and refried beans and then baking at 350 for about 25 minutes. We are dairy-free, but cheese would be terrific in there, too.) Here is a similar recipe.
• Wednesday: Trader Joe’s Turkey Burgers with frozen sweet potato fries and salad.
• Thursday: Salmon (got at Aldi’s) with panko bread crumbs and butter on it, served with jasmine white rice and frozen peas.
• Friday: Vegetable Beef Soup with French Bread (Of course this ambitious meal will need to be cooked the day all my children are fussy and we have 1000 errands. But I have high hopes!)

Week 2

• Saturday: Breakfast for dinner: nitrate-free bacon, smoothies, homemade pancakes, and hash browns from Trader Joe’s.
• Sunday: Grilled Chicken, Grilled Vegetables, and potato chips – My husband likes to grill on Sundays. I love having the day off!
• Monday: Stuffed Pepper Stoup from Stacy Makes Cents with homemade corn muffins – You have to purchase Crock On the ebook cookbook to have this recipe. I promise you a thousand times over you won’t regret it. This particular “stoup” is incredible, and so are the other recipes in her book.
• Tuesday: Trader Joe’s White Lightning Chili with homemade corn muffins
• Wednesday: Super-Easy Sausage, Potato and Pepper Bake
• Thursday: Crock-pot Refried Beans, Mexican Rice, served with Fritos, tomatoes, avocados, cheese and sour cream if desired. The first time I made rice and beans I felt sorry for us because you always hear about “rice and beans” for poor people’s meals 🙂 . And then I tasted it and it is now a staple. Plus super cheap!
• Friday: Leftover Vegetable Beef Soup from freezer, probably with Alexia dinner rolls

Week 3

• Saturday: {out}
• Sunday: Hot dogs (we use nitrate-free Oscar Mayer Turkey Dogs), chips, stovetop white beans (my kids love these – a can of organic great northern beans simmered with olive oil) and salad
• Monday: Minestrone Soup (freezing some for later)
• Tuesday: Turkey Meatballs and Spaghetti (freezing some meatballs for later)
• Wednesday: Split Pea Soup with Sausage: My friend delivered some of this after we had a baby, and it is divine. I never thought I would love split pea soup so much. It is similar to this recipe, but I’ll add Coleman’s All-Natural Pork Kielbasa.
• Thursday: Super Easy Nachos (layer your homemade refried beans from last week, cheese, avocado, tomato, etc. and bake on a cookie sheet)
• Friday: Tyson’s GF chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries

Week 4

*note: For us, this is the week of Thanksgiving, so I planned a really easy week since I’ll be packing and making some dishes for Thanksgiving. I listed a few suggestions for Thursday/Friday that we’re not actually eating, but would work nicely for chilly weather.

• Saturday: Roast Chicken in the crock pot, corn casserole (I’ll make something similar to this), frozen green beans, and cooked cranberries
• Sunday: Taco Stew – really excited to try this one
• Monday: Turkey Meatballs (from freezer) and pasta
• Tuesday: Minestrone Soup (from freezer)
• Wednesday: Stuffed Pepper Stoup (from freezer)
• Thursday: Mom’s Best Ever Chicken Soup (freeze half for later!)
• Friday: Homemade Pizza Day (check out my fool-proof dough recipes and 8 unique toppings)

Whew! We’re done! Have you ever planned a whole month of meals? Was it worth it?

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