December Cook's Calendar 🗓️
Help with meal-planning inspiration for the busy holiday season
This month, we’re keeping the Cook’s Calendar streamlined, with a mix of new recipes and asked-for favorites that our kids can’t get enough of.
In December’s Cook’s Calendar, you’ll find 2 new recipes plus 3 One Potato favorites from the archive. These recipes are perfect for mixing and matching to create your menu for the month, whether you’re cooking weeknight family dinner or looking for a dish to cook for a holiday gathering. Bookmark this email for quick access to the Instacart links with pre-filled grocery lists for each recipe. You can even combine ingredients from multiple recipes in a single order—just make sure to shop from the same store on the Instacart site.
We know how time-consuming it can be to plan meals each week. With this core list of recipes, you’ll save time and energy by having your shopping list ready, building confidence in prepping and cooking each dish, and even learning what you can batch and freeze for future meals. In December, you may be attending a lot of holiday parties for school and work, ordering in more than usual, or needing a quick and easy go-to recipe for those days when you are cooking at home. Let’s make December delicious, efficient, and stress-free!
Reminder: each month, the core recipes list will be a mix of favorites from the One Potato archive, and new recipes for you to try and enjoy.
This overview email includes links to this month’s new Thursday morning recipes; don’t worry, the new recipes will arrive in your inbox every Thursday morning for day-of or weekend cooking, but they’re linked here so you can plan ahead or start using them in your meal planning rotation at the start of the month.
BONUS: by making the same recipe a couple of times, your kid can become an expert at doing their part to help out, and gain confidence with that recipe, ingredient, or kitchen skill.
Paid Subscribers access the full archive of Recipes + Sauce library, and all One Potato Specials articles + interviews published on Sundays. Free Subscribers have access to one full NEW recipe / month. One Potato is reader-supported; a subscription costs $45 for the whole year, or $5/month. You can upgrade here.
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How to Use One Potato Cook’s Calendar & Weekly Recipes
Plan Your Week: At the start of the month (or each week), check your schedule. Decide how many family meals you’ll be cooking that week—some weeks might be 5, others only 2 or 3.
Choose Your Recipes: Pick from the 5 recipes provided—mix and match based on your time and preferences.
Do you have extra time for meal prep? Are you more comfortable with one recipe over another? Make it as easy as possible on yourself!
Save Time with Bulk Cooking: Look for bulk cooking tips in the recipes to make meal prep faster for the second or third time you cook them. Double or triple the recipe1!
Use the Instacart Links: Bookmark this email for easy access. At the start of each week, click the Instacart button to pre-fill your grocery cart. Remove items you already have at home to shop more efficiently.
Pro Tip: Instacart saves your cart even if you leave the page—no need to worry about losing your items!
December Recipes
New Recipes:
Lemon Garlic Chicken and Brussel Sprouts Sheet-Pan Dinner
Potato Latkes and Chicken Soup 🔒
From the Archive
Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts with Cider Glaze, served with Vegetable Wild Rice and Haricot Vert 🔒
Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry with One Potato Stir Fry Sauce 🔒
Bucatini w/ Herb-whipped Ricotta and One Potato Marinara Sauce, served with side salad 🔒
HOLIDAY SPECIALS & HOSTING: Keep an eye out for special Bonus recipes arriving in your inbox each week from Chef Lola for Boxing Day Leftovers, New Year’s Eve Appetizers, and fun with making kids mocktails!
—> Behind the Paywall: Complete shopping list organized by recipe for you to print or copy/paste to shop in-store; tips for batch-cooking ingredients for use in multiple meals week-to-week and in more than one of these recipes; how to shop for and store ingredients to use in multiple recipes; ideas for mixing and matching sides and sauces from these core recipes.
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