December Meal Plan 🎄🍫✨
Guest recipe from Chef Julia Turshen!
Hello hello!
Did you miss me after my big long week off?
I hope not, and that you were face-planted in a delicious pie or caught red-handed in the kitchen picking at the turkey carcass (guilty).
For the December Meal Plan, I’m delighted to share a tantalizing collection of seasonal recipes, which includes a very special guest recipe from Julia Turshen’s new book, What Goes With What: 100 Recipes, 20 Charts, Endless Possibilities.
I first stumbled upon Julia’s cookbooks in a shop near my twin sister’s home in the Hudson Valley (where Julia lives and cooks).
I was immediately drawn to her recipes: they are relatable, practical, and most important of all, reliable.
(How often have you made a recipe from a cookbook that didn’t work? Probably more than is acceptable.)
What’s more, Julia wants to empower her readers to become confident, creative home cooks.
Her new book does exactly that.
In What Goes With What, Julia gives readers a blueprint for making magic with everyday ingredients they might have in their kitchen, from dependable recipes to her signature charts.
When I asked her for a dish that would be fitting for December, she suggested her Beef, Spinach, and Feta Meatballs (recipe below), which can double as holiday party appetizers or stand in as a hearty, flavor-packed lunch or dinner amidst the hubbub.
These meatballs are the perfect addition to this month’s spread:
Kale Salad with Pomegranate, Goat Cheese, and Maple Walnuts (GF / V Optional): Obsessed with this simple winter salad. I make extra buttery-maple toasted walnuts for the girls’ lunchboxes.
Warming Winter Lentil Soup (GF / V Optional): My oldest daughter loves Annie’s Lentil Soup, but you can make it for half the price in bulk, and freeze extras for easy weeknight meals or lunches.
Crispy Potato Latkes (V/GF optional): Hannukah falls on Christmas Day this year! Don’t miss the chance to make one of the most beloved Jewish foods, even easier with my onion hack (you’ll see!).
Molasses Glazed Wild Salmon with Acorn Squash (GF/DF): Truly divine. My go-to way to prepare salmon and easily adaptable for kids.
Chocolate Peppermint Holiday Bites (GF / V): I tested this recipe on 15+ kids and their parents at the school playground and it was a HIT. This is a no-bake, tahini and oat based treat that involves smashing candy canes (which are easy to leave out for those of you who want a candy-free energy ball). This recipe is GF / DF / V and allergy-friendly, but also highly adaptable if you want to make it with peanut butter or other nut and seed butters.
I can’t wait to hear which recipe you like best, and which you’ll add into the rotation this month!
Without further ado, here is the December Meal Plan:
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