What are we eating for Thanksgiving, you say? ALL THE THINGS. One year I realized that I was completely jazzed while preparing our Thanksgiving dinner. It suddenly came to me that I was making all of my very favorite things. I look forward to that dinner like no other. I have planned out a super frugal Thanksgiving dinner and I start with my from scratch recipes every year.
The offbeat holidays we are using as an excuse to celebrate something are: National Plan Your Epitaph Day (Nov 1), World KindNess Day (Nov 13), and Use Less Stuff Day (Nov 18).

Ideas and resources for menu planning in November, many seasonal fall and real food recipes. Very simple ingredients, from scratch. As always, these are all frugal recipes intended for a tight budget. Real food/from scratch/traditional diet/nutrient dense/whole food/blah blah blah. My monthly meal plans use an alternative meal planning method, recipes organized into tiers based on how perishable the ingredients are, not sorted into particular days.
*Attention real food purists/whole foodies – the recipes I link/pin are all from scratch, but some of them you may have to make substitutions or modifications. For example, I link recipes that have sugar, but you can substitute whatever your favorite sweetener is.
*Don’t forget to read about how I meal plan at Frugal, Flexible Monthly Menu Planning!*
In this post: Seasonal Produce ~ Recipes ~ Download PDF ~ Pinterest Boards ~ Other Plans
Seasonal produce for November includes:
Vegetables
Artichokes
Arugula
Brussel Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Garlic
Kale
Leeks
Lettuce
Onions
Parsnips
Peppers
Potatoes
Pumpkins
Squash
Sweet Potato
Swiss Chard
Fruits
Apples
Clementines
Cranberries
Pears
Epicurious Seasonal produce maps by state
CUESA Seasonal vegetables by month
Recipes from the November Meal Plan (organized by how perishable ingredients are)
Tier 1/Most Perishable (ie kale, spinach, shrooms)
Butternut Squash and Mushroom Tart with Gruyère from Cooking Light
Chunky Italian Vegetable Stew from Real Simple
Clean Eating Autumn Harvest Turkey Chili from The Gracious Pantry
Clean Eating Chicken & Parsnip Soup from The Gracious Pantry
Harvest Vegetable Orzo from Once A Month Meals
Mushroom and Lentil Pot Pies with Gouda Biscuit Topping from Epicurious
Quinoa Minestrone Soup from Generation Y Foodie
Rustic Spinach and Cornmeal Soup from Bon Appetit
Savory Sausage, Spinach, and Onion Turnovers from Cooking Light
Tier 2/Less Perishable (ie cauliflower, pepper, scallion)
Buttermilk Chicken Dumplings from Country Living
Chinese Pork & Vegetable Hot Pot from Eating Well crockpot
Crispy Cauliflower-Carrot Fritters with Smoky Garlic Aioli from Oh My Veggies
Pasta Primavera with Creamy Cauliflower Sauce from Don’t Waste the Crumbs
Slow Cooker Mexican Style Corn and Potato Chowder from The Nourishing Home crockpot (tier 3 if you use heavy cream)
Winter Vegetable Soup Recipe with Butternut Squash & Cauliflower from Cookin Canuck
Tier 3/Pantry or Make It Whenever (ie carrot, celery, leek, onion)
Chunky Lentil and Vegetable Soup from Budget Bytes
Creamy Sweet Potato Soup from Cooking Light
French Onion and Apple Soup from Cooking Light
Graupensuppe (German Barley Soup) from Saveur
Pumpkin Black Bean Bake from Better Homes and Gardens
Root Veggie Tartiflette from Gnowfglins
Slow Cooker Veggie Pot Pie Stew from Skinny Ms crockpot
Sweet and Savory Moroccan Stew from Big Girls Small Kitchen
Download PDF. This has the links in the order listed above. Keep in mind I don’t limit myself to particular days, so this is not in order by date. Save it to your desktop and you will always have a quick reference when you’re hunting dinner, you probably have the ingredients for Tier 3 recipes at this very moment!
Other November Real Food/Whole Food Meal Plans
Bi-Weekly Whole Food Meal Plan for Oct 26–Nov 8 from The Nourishing Home on The Better Mom
Frugal Real Food Meal Plan November 2014 from Don’t Waste the Crumbs
Grain-Free Weekly Meal Plan 11/3 – 11/8 from Real Food Outlaws
November Meal Plan from Letters from Sunnybrook
Real Food Meal Plan: November 1st, 2014 from Real Food Whole Life
Real Food Recipe Round Up + Weekly Meal Plan November 2nd from Sassy Moms in the City and Musings of a Housewife
Real Food Meal Plan Week 37 for Real Food Real Deals
Real Food Weekly Menu Plan 11.3.14 from O’Boy Organic
Weekly Meal Plan: November 2nd – 8th from The Vintage Mom
Whole Foods November 2014 Menu from Once A Month Meals
November Meal Plan Pinterest Boards:
Meal Plan November (just look at all that tastiness!)
Meal Plan Fall
Recipes to Try Fall
Thanksgiving
Frugal Thanksgiving Meal
In this post: Seasonal Produce ~ Recipes ~ Download PDF ~ Pinterest Boards ~ Other Plans
Shared with Fat Tuesday, Flaunt It Friday, Healthy, Happy, Green & Natural, Lou Lou Girls Fabulous Linky Party, Menu Plan Monday on Org Junkie, Merry Monday, Mostly Homemade Mondays, Motivation Monday, No Rules Weekend Blog Party, No Rules Weekend Blog Party, The Party Bunch, Real Food Recipe Roundup, Say G’day Saturday, Thrifty Thursday, Turn It Up Tuesday, Oh My Heartsie Girl’s Wordless Wednesday, Real Food Wednesdays and Wake Up Wednesday
*Also see our


We hope you enjoyed our November Real Food Monthly Menu Plan post for seasonal eating
Photo credits: Thanksgiving place setting from A. T. on Flickr
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How often do you make an effort to eat seasonally?
Great post Melissa so packed with such good foods. Thanks for stopping by to linkup!!!
Thanks for hosting!
Thanks for the meal plans! And thanks for sharing with the Wake Up Wednesday Linkup! I love seeing fellow crunchy moms on here!
Crunchy moms are my favorite. Thanks!
Great tips. Stopping in from the WW group. You have given me some great ideas for my shopping list.
Thanks for stopping by!
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