Weekly Menu Planning - November 2025

Welcome to the November 2025 edition of the thread where we share our weekly menus and more.

Some of us share a day by day plan, others report last week’s actual meals, and some put together a list of ideas to work from the week. You do you, and take comfort that the best laid plans do change for all of us!

If you have recipe links or sources, do share them, as we all love picking up new ideas from everyone else’s menus! For context and because we’re interested, please include your location and how many you plan and/or cook for.

November means (for many) ordering a turkey and planning Thanksgiving. Or maybe being subversive and planning a non-turkey Thanksgiving. Some of us will be fetching out warm coats, scarfs and mittens, while other can finally turn off the air conditioning. What will be on your stove and in your ovens this month?

(The October thread remains available for reporting actuals and any follow-up discussions.)

I like Thanksgiving enough that I make Thanksgiving themed stuff from Canadian Thanksgiving until American Thanksgiving. LOL . I also use cranberry sauce year-round.

I didn’t get a real pumpkin pie fix yet, so I’ll be seeking out a pumpkin pie of some sort before American Thanksgiving.

Holiday Leftovers 2025

My immediate Nov cooking plan is steak on Saturday, and To Be Determined Take-out on Sunday.

I hope I will be more inspired by Monday.

I think I might start making bread stuffing more frequently, since we all like it a lot.

Hello friends the end of the Canadian football season is coming and I am very excited to spend the next three weekends immersing myself in football but sad because I will have to wait seven long months until it starts again I suppose I should find another sport to watch in the interim but I am not much of a sports fan. Football and cycling are pretty well the only two sports that sustain my interest. The only activity on tap this weekend is a drawing class that starts on Sunday. Onto my menus for this week:

Today: I went to the gourmet food shop down the street that has a lunch counter during the week. I haven’t been in ages and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed their meals so I bought a quinoa salad today. The salad included spinach, cherry tomatoes, turmeric cauliflower, and roasted eggplant with a beet tahini dressing and it was served with grilled haloumi on the side. It was delicious. I will have a cauliflower salad for dinner.

Saturday: The Canadian Football League semi finals are today! The eastern semifinals are at 2:00 then the western semi finals are at 6:00. I have a half hour window of opportunity to make lo mein noodles with broccoli and scallops for dinner. I need to perfect @Desert-Dan 's method of making dinner at half time (The recipe I will be following is from the cookbook “Going Solo in the Kitchen” by Jane Doerfer.)

Sunday: My sketching class is mid day which isn’t terribly convenient. It ends at 1:00 so it will be too late to head home for lunch then go on an outing after but there is a farmers market on site with some intriguing lunch options. There is a stand there that sells home made felafel and it’s been getting good reviews and long line ups when I’ve been there on market day so it must be good I will buy lunch at the market then go shopping at the mall down the street. I will have a Greek salad for dinner.

Monday: I will make two servings of aloo gobi tonight - one for dinner tonight and the other for dinner tomorrow.

Tuesday: Tonight is my watercolour class. I will have leftover aloo gobi for dinner.

Wednesday: Vietnamese carmelized pork bowl. I was looking through my recipe file last weekend to look for recipes for ground pork since I have one serving left in the freezer. I don’t recall making this recipe although I must have made it and liked it if I filed the recipe away… I’ll find out tonight if I still like it!

Thursday: Spaghetti with marinara sauce, salad on the side.

Have a nice week everyone.

Last night, (for Thursday night football) I cheated and just re-heated some leftovers.

I really, really wanted to watch the Ravens game, so during a commercial break (about half way through the second quarter) I threw some leftovers into the oven. When “Half-time” started, I plated and back to my TV.

I cleaned up after the game was over.

Hello all! Cooking for two in Chattanooga. I have a massive writing project coming up next week, so who knows if I’ll actually achieve my meal plans…
Breakfast: Apple fritters for DH’s birthday
Saturday, November 1: Out for dinner for DH’s big birthday. He doesn’t really want to celebrate, but we’ll take a hike and have a nice dinner up in the hills north of here. I also need to make a cake and Rice Krispies Treats for a big choral celebration Sunday.
Sunday: Birthday weekend continues: Jamaican jerk ribs from Jubilee, maybe potato salad, broccolini or green beans, chocolate cream pie
Monday: TBD
Tuesday: TBD
Wednesday: Pasta with greens and beans
Thursday: TBD
Friday: Moussaka and whatever veg didn’t happen on Sunday.
Happy Halloween to those who enjoy it Happy cooking! (ETA: Please consider donating to or volunteering at your food bank this month if you don’t already)

TO Blue Jays!!!

I should root for the Blue Jays but I never got over the fact we lost our beloved Montreal Expos - my favourite baseball team and from my hometown I will try and muster up some cheer and root for them tonight since this might be the last game of the series/year.

Sounds so good!
Happy birthday to Mr. mbcraw4d!

Happy Birthday weekend to DH

This reminded me of the book “Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant” which I know I’ve mentioned on and off — essays and recipes.

I love Viet pork chops, but have never tried the flavor profile with ground meat. Thanks for the idea!

I have that book bookmarked on my public library’s website. I hope to get to it at some point.

That pork bowl has fairly standard ingredients that I seem to use in most of my Asian dishes - garlic/ginger/fish sauce. This one calls for Thai chilis and I still have a few from my last trip to Chinatown. I will probably add either green or purple cabbage (or maybe both!) and some carrots.

We are back from our Philly trip, which was fun — a few hits, some misses, but we came home with plenty of culinary treats

One of them, the pillowy, tender, creamy ricotta ravs from Talluto’s made their way on our pasta plates last night, bathed in Rao’s marinara w/plenty of basil & a splash of open red.

Since it’s Ssssssspicy Ssssssunday, another treasure brought back will feature heavily for dinner tonight: Lao lemongrass snossidges from the SEAM courtesy of the lovely @Bigley9. I’m making egg-fried rice / a stir-fry with those skrompshiss suckahs, shiitake, peas, carrots, probz baby bok choy since I love it so, and ample amounts of HEAT provided by bird peppers. I’m already salivating at the thought of it, so dinner can’t come soon enough.

Monday either one of the fishies from The Freezer Down Below (still have a big filet of Arctic Char, golden tile fish, salmon & a huge-ass piece of halibut) with garlicky spinach on the side, or maybe a shrimp & corn chowdah. It’ll depend on my mood

Tuesday is cheapo movie night, and we’ve been meaning to catch “One Battle After Another,” which is very long. If we end up watching the afternoon show, we may finally be able to try a new Korean fried chicken place. If we go in the evening, most places will be closed after the movie

Wednesday might be Greek-style BISO chicken breast with some of the tender local haricots verts I froze, with my darling’s faboski pilaf.

Thursday Maybe that Korean fried chicken we are unlikely to pick up Tuesday

Friday or Saturday may well be poker nights, and we may well be hosting the game, since our kitties have settled in well enough to have more than 1-2 peeps over. It’s another stupid home game weekend, however, which tends to make takeout/delivery tricky.

Sunday will be spicy. Duh.

Wishing my fellow HOs a fabulous week ahead, with good food & even better company

Hi, friends. We made it through another crazy week in the Boston burbs, complete with monsoon weather! Our no-candy Halloween plan worked swimmingly; DH and I went to see “Roofman” (Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst) which was good but a little heartbreaking.

Today has been another cooking project day: granola for breakfasts (pumpkin spice, but I ran out of pecans and pepitas so added some pistachios and walnuts), red lentil soup for lunches, and a loaf of no-knead bread using the GF recipe from Bread Toast Crumbs. I keep fiddling with this recipe and if I didn’t finally get it right, I’ll call it a day and move on.

Sun: meatloaf (Virgie’s, from BTC) and smashed potatoes and roasted asparagus

Mon: queso chicken chili, cornbread

Tues: panko chicken and roasted broccoli
*when I made this initially, we didn’t love the honey mustard flavor, so I’m just going to marinate in Italian dressing.

Weds: pad thai

Thurs: meatloaf again

Fri: my parents and brother are coming to visit for the long weekend! I’m planning to make chicken souvlaki bowls (rice instead of pita bread) for dinner. We’re going out on Saturday night and then doing an early Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday.

Hope everyone does well with the early darkness… good luck this week!

Hi everyone

Still trying to rejigger my cooking mojo. Perusing menus here and past threads looking for inspiration.

Organized my freezer – by mistake – as I was searching for the bulk bag of yeast, and made some discoveries that need to be used (as in, apparently I froze a bunch of chicken before my trip, and there are also a range of other proteins and a bunch of prepped and portioned ingredients). So yay, and also… chopped-style challenge!

Also finally getting around to making the various bits I want to put into care packages for a few “kids” – 1 care package down, three still to go (hopefully tomorrow)!

Ideas / aspirations based on ingredients at hand:
– Simple pan-roasted chicken thighs + veg
– Cantonese poached chicken + veg + rice
– Roasted / sauteed Maitake and Baby Trumpet mushrooms, maybe with barley salad / risotto
– Butter Garlic Crab (first time working with crab from scratch here, woot!) + noodles a la NYC Chinatown or naan a la Mumbai seafood spots
– Garlic butter sheet pan salmon and asparagus (haricots vert) from COTM Teigen – maybe there isn’t such a thing as too much garlic butter
– Quesadilla / Frankie / Kathi roll using assorted kababs found in the freezer
– Something Korean: I found kimchi paste in the freezer, which feels like a sign for COTM Maangchi
– Kheema Macaroni or Kheema Shepherds Pie using some cooked kheema I froze at some past point

Good luck with the aftermath of the time change – for those who have to deal with it!. Wishing a calm and delicious week to all!

Whoever heard of too much garlic butter?

The Favorite Recipes thread is here:

It’s a rainy Monday in southwestern Ontario.

I have been keeping the plan much simpler lately.

Monday, a paella with shrimp and scallops.

Tuesday, I think I will finally make Tuna Chops. Looking at this recipe. Also, a green salad.

Wednesday, a Prime Rib with roast potatoes.

Thursday, roast chicken quarters.

Friday, haddock or pickerel, prep to be determined.

Thanks to @GretchenS for taking over these posting duties - much appreciated that you’re keeping this group going.

LLD also has never gotten over the loss of the Expos. But he (and I!) were rooting for the Blue Jays.

One of my local friends said that a certain recipe had “too much garlic” and I suddenly started questioning everything I knew about her.