It is really and truly starting to feel like fall around here. We’ve got the trees going all out for the remainder of the season, cool evenings, rainy and blustery days, and scary movies popping up on all the streaming services. I am LOVING IT.
Of course, we’ve got rain and plummeting temperatures in the forecast for the whole week, so I’m anticipating that our glorious autumn scenery will be replaced in short order with skeletal tree limbs and roads paved in damp leaves.
My husband and I are leaning into the cozy fall weather with our meal plan for the week. He helped me come up with five dinner ideas, and – as you know – if someone else is willing to do one third of the heavy lifting required to get a meal on the table, I am going to LET HIM.
Dinners for the Week of October 20-26
- Slow Cooker Chili: We did not eat this chili the first week of October as originally planned. But it is IN THE SLOW COOKER right this very moment. I am… hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. This recipe calls for a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar, and it smells strongly of vinegar. Ew. Also, it makes approximately ten gallons of chili, so if it turns out I don’t like it, my husband is going to be eating a lot of chili.
- Lentil Stuffed Sweet Potatoes: My husband and I were looking for a separate recipe and found this one, and it sounded good to my husband???? My husband who likes to have meat with every meal???? Heck yeah. These sound different and interesting and autumnal as hell.
- Shrimp and Orzo Risotto with Saffron and Lemon: This is the recipe we were originally looking for. It’s in the most recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated and I will try to come back and post a photo of the recipe. In the meantime, I think it’s similar to the America’s Test Kitchen recipe linked in the recipe title, but there’s a paywall. I got some impromptu frozen shrimp at Trader Joe’s the other day even though we don’t really eat a lot of shrimp these days – I had just arrived at the car line when Carla texted me that she had practice after school, which she hadn’t known about, and so I had time to kill and also I was hungry and also it’s Trader Joe’s – and now I have a Real Reason to make it!
- Pumpkin Ravioli with Browned Butter Sage Sauce: You know what else I got at Trader Joe’s? If you said, “a lot of things you don’t need” you would be right. If you said, “pumpkin ravioli,” you would also be right. Do I like pumpkin things? No. Do I typically make ravioli? No. But my husband was considering ordering pumpkin ravioli recently and so I had it in my head that he wanted to eat some pumpkin ravioli, and then I had time to kill at Trader Joe’s and I bought some, even though I had no idea how to prepare or serve it. (I also bought some goat cheese and caramelized onion ravioli – WHAT DO I DO WITH THOSE????) My husband to the rescue: he said he thought pumpkin ravioli would be good with some browned butter and sage, and lo and behold, there are recipes for that very thing all over the internet. I also got some French green beans at TJ’s, so we will have those on the side. (If you are counting, this is the second vegetarian meal of the week.)
- Mulligatawny Soup: Oh yes. It is perfect weather for soup and some crusty bread.
This meal plan pleases me for multiple reasons: 1. I did not come up with any of the ideas except the pumpkin ravioli, just had to second them. 2. There’s a nice variety of proteins, and we don’t repeat ANY of them. 3. New recipes are so much easier for me to make, sometimes, because of the novelty factor. 4. Except for the shrimp and orzo, these all scream FALL to me, which is fun. 5. I wish I had a fifth bullet because I dislike even amounts of bullets.
Of course, the downside is that I have to both buy ingredients I rarely / never use (sage??? saffron???? Aleppo pepper?????) and prepare five entire meals. I’m hoping the novelty factor does a LOT of work this week.
Anything on your meal plan you’re particularly looking forward to eating this week?
I want to come over on risotto and ravioli nights because those sound good!
I had a yen to make chili on Friday night, so I can confirm that this is a solid plan. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the vinegar cooks off (seriously NYT, whyyyyyyy???????).
I love pumpkin ravioli, and I heard recently that a lot of what is labeled pumpkin is actually butternut squash. Is that true? WHO KNOWS.
I had to check out the chili recipe, that one has about a million things going on, between the vinegar, the beer, the cocoa powder, the soy sauce…I’m guessing it will have a great depth of flavor.
Also, yum on the risotto. I wonder if I could feed my family the lentil stuffed sweet potatoes. Maybe? I don’t really like sweet potatoes, but they do. What would I eat? Grilled cheese? LOL.
I am also making a ravioli meal with a pumpkin-sage sauce! Great minds! It’s an old recipe and I can’t find a link to it, and it’s a ‘cheater’ recipe using pre-made ravioli, pre-made alfredo sauce mixed w/pumpkin puree and spices. I’m serving it with chicken sausage because of the “husband needs meat” situation, heh.
Damn, I have a shit-ton of garden sage I could have given you if we were closer (I wish this for SO MANY reasons). There is a pumpkin and sage ravioli at one of our favourite restaurants that i always order because it is amazing, so I have good thoughts for you. And a doctor husband who helps MEAL PLAN? YASSSSS.
I make a veal stew with apple cider vinegar and apple cider that is amazing, so likewise, hope the vinegar smell is not indicative of the taste.
I made your pumpkin cream cheese muffins and then immediately had to make them again because holy crap they are amazing and everyone devoured them thanksgiving weekend.
Trader Joe’s is dangerous! I will report back about the pumpkin ravs.
Please do!
There is no such thing as too much cake, so you’ve made the right decision! What kind of cake did you make this weekend and what kind are you making tomorrow?
My grocery store has had the most beautiful cauliflower in the produce section lately. I have avoided it because the last two cauliflowers I bought ended up in the trash, so clearly I need a cauliflower-centric meal to push me to use it immediately.
I must know how that chili came out!!! I looked at the recipe, and it seems like it’ll be flavorful and delicious. Now I’m carving chili, and if you have a favorable report, I’m going to veganize that recipe.
I love that you’re leaning into fall coziness! You’re inspiring me- we’re not having fall weather here but I can pretend.
Ahem. I’m CRAVING chili. Not carving it.
We love saffron! So much so, that we’ve just ordered bulbs to grow our own, and they were delivered today! 😀 Mr. will add a thread or two of saffron to his homemade tomato soup, and it gives such a richness – we also use it in rice dishes, because YUM.
Those goat cheese and caramelized onion ravioli have me drooling over here … I’d serve them with a very simple tossing of butter or olive oil, and an arugula salad {to cut the richness of the ravioli}.
I want to do better about meal planning … we will figure out a day or two in advance, but I think a longer stretch would be more helpful.
Hmmm apple cider vinegar in chili… that is strange/intriguing! I am kind of basic with my chili recipes but when I did whole 30 years ago, I found a good bean-less recipe with pumpkin that was ok. I don’t like sweet chili but it was good within the constraints I was eating under. I would not make it again, though! I made white chicken chili in the crockpot yesterday. And by made I mean I dumped the gallon bag of pre-prepared white chicken chili that a book club friend dropped off in Sept. I really liked it. Phil was “meh” about it but he’s not a big white chicken chili guy. Today we will heat up a pasta dish that the same book club pals dropped off at the same time as they dropped off the chicken chili. So that leaves one meal for me to make this week which will be seared ahi tuna and asparagus (both of which Phil will grill) and asian-style rice. I’m basically cooking/preparing about one meal per week these days between the food we’ve been gifted + door dash meals (still have over $1000 in door dash gift cards to work through which is NOT a bad problem to have).