This Week's Meal List — Oct 26–Nov 1

Happy Sunday, friends! The mornings finally have that crisp fall bite here in California, and this week's menu leans right into it: roasted beets and blistered grapes, sweet potato everything, and a smoky butternut soup to close things out. Halloween lands on Saturday, so we're keeping the weeknights easy and taking that night off to chase our little monsters around the neighborhood.

This Week's Menu

What We're Cooking

Pomegranate-Sage Turkey Orzo Salad

Roasted delicata squash, gluten-free orzo, turkey, fresh sage and pomegranate, tossed in a creamy dressing made from blended cottage cheese instead of mayo. It takes about 40 minutes of active time on Sunday and gives you four weekday lunches. The two tricks: cool the squash completely before it goes in a container, and rinse the orzo the moment it drains so it doesn't clump into one starchy block by Wednesday.

Apple-Cinnamon Cheesecake Chia Bowl

Ten minutes of work plus an overnight chill, and breakfast tastes like apple-cinnamon cheesecake. Blend the cottage cheese completely smooth before it meets anything else, and stir the chia once about 20–30 minutes in so it sets evenly instead of clumping at the bottom of the jar. Diced apple and walnuts go on top right before you eat.

Blistered Grape Chicken & Beets

Roasted grapes are the trick nobody expects. Fifteen minutes in a hot oven and they split into something between jam and pan sauce, sweet and a little sharp, with no sugar anywhere in the dish. It all goes over whipped goat cheese with radicchio and toasted walnuts on top; 25 minutes active, plus oven time.

Goat Cheese-Chive Bison Boats

Sweet potato halves roast cut side up until they caramelize into a sturdy golden bed for smoky bison and spinach. The goat cheese-chive cream is blended with cottage cheese so it pours like queso, and it goes on cold. That hot-cold contrast is most of why this eats like a treat. About 25 minutes active while the potatoes roast.

Sticky Orange-Ginger Chicken Bowls

The takeout bowl, rebuilt, in 30 minutes. A light coat of arrowroot on the chicken makes the orange-ginger glaze cling instead of pooling. The whipped ginger-lime cottage cheese on top isn't a garnish: it's the cold, savory counterweight that keeps the bowl from being all sugar.

Apple-Sage Chicken & Sweet Potato Mash

Fall on a plate. Chicken thighs marinate for 15 minutes in cider and sage, then get a whole sage leaf pressed on at the end so it crisps instead of burning. The sweet potato is mashed with cottage cheese instead of butter: sweeter, lighter and carrying real protein. That's 25 minutes active, and you can grill or use a skillet.

Chipotle Chicken Tacos & Carrot Crema

Roasted carrots blended with cottage cheese make a crema that's sweet, smoky and bright orange (perfect for the night before Halloween). The red cabbage quick-pickles while everything else cooks and turns hot pink. Cut everything small and dry, because a taco is a two-bite package. About 30 minutes active.

Charred Pepper & Butternut Chicken Soup

Deep, smoky and just hot enough: roasted butternut and roasted red peppers blended silky with cottage cheese and finished with crispy chickpeas for crunch. Roast, don't simmer, because roasted squash tastes like caramel and smoke. Add the cayenne in stages so you get a warm hum, not a burn. This one is about 45 minutes active, and the leftovers make a great Monday lunch.

How to Provision for the Week

Shop once. One grocery trip covers the whole week, so everything on the list below gets bought today. The trick is knowing what keeps and cooking in the right order. Luckily this week's lineup already runs from most delicate to sturdiest.

• Proteins: Monday's chicken breasts and Tuesday's bison can stay in the fridge. Cut Wednesday's chicken into bite-size pieces and dice Friday's into ½-inch pieces, then freeze both flat in labeled bags along with Thursday's thighs. Move each one to the fridge the night before. The soup calls for rotisserie chicken, and one bought today won't last until next Sunday. Shred 2 cups as soon as you get home and freeze them for the soup.
• Use the delicate stuff first: The grapes and radicchio go Monday. The spinach is split across the lunch (today), the boats (Tuesday) and Thursday's greens. Chives go Tuesday, broccoli and scallions Wednesday. Keep the cilantro stems in a jar of water in the fridge for Friday.
• The sturdy stuff waits: Cabbage, carrots, poblanos, celery, whole butternut and jarred peppers easily last until Friday and Sunday. Leave the soup squash whole until next Sunday because cut squash doesn't keep as well.

Sunday prep, about an hour on top of the lunch:

• Peel the beets and cut them into ¾-inch wedges for Monday, while they're raw and come clean under a peeler.
• Dice Tuesday's onion and bell pepper. Thinly slice Wednesday's bell pepper and cut the broccoli into small florets. Store them in sealed containers lined with a paper towel.
• Toast all the nuts and seeds in one dry skillet, 2–3 minutes each: the walnuts for Monday and the breakfast bowls, pepitas for Tuesday and Sunday, and cashews for Wednesday. Store them in jars.
• Grate all the ginger for Wednesday at once (1 tbsp for the glaze, 1 tsp for the whip).
• Whisk Thursday's cider-sage marinade into a jar. Thursday night the thighs go in for just 15 minutes.
• Blend Monday's whipped goat cheese and keep it cold. Tomorrow's dinner is then mostly roasting.

Jasmine rice is quick and hands-off, so cook it fresh Wednesday. The cabbage quick-pickles in the 20 minutes the tacos take, so slice it Friday.

Sunday Batch: Set Your Week Up for Success

Don't skip this part. One batch of the Pomegranate-Sage Turkey Orzo Salad gives you four weekday lunches. Then mix up a couple of jars of the Apple-Cinnamon Cheesecake Chia Bowl so breakfast is grab-and-go. I make two or three today and mix the rest Wednesday night so every jar stays fresh.

• Undercook the orzo by a full minute from the box time and rinse it under cool water right away. Gluten-free orzo keeps cooking in the colander.
• Cool the roasted squash completely before it goes in with the orzo, or it steams everything soft. The salad keeps up to 4 days in the fridge.
• Pack the creamy dressing separately in a small container and toss it in just before eating for the best texture.
• Blend all the chia-bowl cottage cheese at once until completely smooth, then portion it into jars. Set a timer to stir each jar once 20–30 minutes after mixing.
• Keep the toppings separate. Pack the toasted walnuts in a little container and dice the apple the morning you eat it so it stays crisp and doesn't brown. If you want extra protein, stir in a scoop of protein powder (optional).

Grocery List

Covers all six dinners (serves 4 each), one batch of the lunch (4 lunches) and the chia bowl scaled to 5 servings.

Produce

• Butternut squash: 1 large, about 3 lb whole, for 2 lb peeled and cubed (soup)
• Delicata squash: 1, about 1 lb (orzo salad)
• Pomegranate: 1, for ½ cup arils (orzo salad)
• Sweet potatoes: 7 medium, about 3½ lb (bison boats, apple-sage mash)
• Beets: 1 lb, about 4 medium (grape chicken)
• Seedless red grapes: 1 small bunch, about ¾ lb for 2 cups (grape chicken)
• Radicchio: 1 small head (grape chicken)
• Red cabbage: 1 small head (tacos)
• Broccoli: 1 small head (orange-ginger bowls)
• Carrots: 3 medium (tacos)
• Celery: 1 bunch, 3 stalks used (soup)
• Red bell peppers: 3 (bison boats, orange-ginger bowls, tacos)
• Poblano peppers: 2 (tacos)
• Yellow onions: 2 small (bison boats, soup)
• Red onion: 1 small (tacos)
• Garlic: 1 head, 10 cloves (bison boats, apple-sage chicken, tacos, soup)
• Fresh ginger: 1 small knob, about 2 inches (orange-ginger bowls)
• Baby spinach: 14 oz, one 16-oz container (orzo salad, bison boats, apple-sage chicken)
• Apples: 3 small (chia bowls)
• Oranges: 2 (orange-ginger bowls: ½ cup juice plus zest)
• Limes: 4 (bison boats, orange-ginger bowls, tacos)
• Lemon: 1 (grape chicken)
• Scallions: 1 bunch (orange-ginger bowls; soup if you're doing low-FODMAP)
• Fresh rosemary: 1 package (grape chicken, apple-sage chicken; thyme works for the apple-sage)
• Fresh sage: 1 package (apple-sage chicken, orzo salad)
• Fresh chives: 1 bunch (bison boats)
• Fresh cilantro: 1 bunch (tacos)

Protein

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts: 4½ lb (grape chicken, orange-ginger bowls, tacos)
• Boneless, skinless chicken thighs: 1½ lb (apple-sage chicken)
• Ground bison: 1½ lb (bison boats)
• Turkey breast tenderloins: 1½ lb, or 3 cups diced rotisserie chicken (orzo salad)
• Rotisserie chicken: 1, for 2 cups shredded (soup)

Dairy & Refrigerated

• Cottage cheese: about 8¼ cups total, two 32-oz tubs (chia bowls 2½ cups, soup 1½ cups, apple-sage mash 1 cup, tacos 1 cup, bison boats ¾ cup, orange-ginger bowls ¾ cup, orzo salad ¾ cup)
• Goat cheese: 7 oz, two 4-oz logs (grape chicken, bison boats)
• Plain Greek yogurt (2%): ¾ cup, one small tub (grape chicken, bison boats)
• Unsweetened almond milk: 3¾ cups, one 32-oz carton (chia bowls)
• Unsweetened apple cider: ⅓ cup, smallest bottle (apple-sage chicken)
• Small tortillas: 8 corn masa, almond flour or cassava (tacos)

Grains, Pasta & Cans

• Gluten-free orzo: 6 oz dry, 1 box (orzo salad)
• Jasmine rice: 1 cup dry (orange-ginger bowls)
• Roasted red peppers: two 12-oz jars (soup)
• Chickpeas: one 15-oz can (soup)
• Chicken bone broth: 2½ cups, one 32-oz carton (soup)

Pantry (check before you go)

• Chia seeds: 1¼ cups (chia bowls)
• Walnuts: about ⅔ cup (grape chicken ⅓ cup, chia bowls 5 tbsp)
• Pepitas: a generous ½ cup (bison boats ⅓ cup, soup ¼ cup)
• Cashews: ¼ cup (orange-ginger bowls)
• Sesame seeds: 1 tbsp (orange-ginger bowls)
• Pure maple syrup: 3 tbsp (orange-ginger bowls, apple-sage chicken, chia bowls)
• Coconut aminos: 3 tbsp + 1 tsp (orange-ginger bowls, bison boats, tacos)
• Apple cider vinegar: ¼ cup (tacos, orzo salad, soup)
• Red wine vinegar: 1 tbsp (grape chicken)
• Dijon mustard: 2 tsp (orzo salad, bison boats)
• Arrowroot powder: 2 tbsp (orange-ginger bowls)
• Vanilla extract: 1¼ tsp (chia bowls)
• Toasted sesame oil: 1 tsp (orange-ginger bowls)
• Optional: unflavored or vanilla protein powder, 5 scoops (chia bowls)
• Optional: garlic-infused olive oil, for the low-FODMAP swaps (apple-sage chicken, tacos, soup, bison boats)
• Oils: avocado oil, about 10 tbsp; extra-virgin olive oil, about 7 tbsp plus a drizzle for the soup
• Spices: smoked paprika 3 tbsp, ground cumin 1 tbsp, cinnamon about 1 tbsp, garlic powder 1 tsp, red pepper flakes ½ tsp, chili powder ½ tsp, chipotle powder ½ tsp, ground coriander ½ tsp, cayenne ¼–½ tsp plus a pinch, sea salt, kosher salt, flaky sea salt, black pepper

Members, the full step-by-step recipes for every dish this week are waiting for you in the Recipe Club. Happy cooking, and happy Halloween!