Meal Plan Around In-Season Produce - Winter

Meal Plan Around In-Season Produce - Winter

Surprisingly, the first day of winter isn't until December 21st, but if you ask me it begins December 1st. Doesn't it just feel like winter as soon as this month hits? Not to mention the few snowfalls we've had by now...snow is totally an indication of winter in my books.

With the change of season from Fall to Winter, comes a change in in-season produce. If you don't already meal plan around the produce that is in-season, now's the time to give it a try. In-season produce is a lot cheaper, and not to mention it tastes better! The tricky part is knowing what is currently in-season.

So here's a list of produce that is in-season for Winter (December, January, February):
*Information from Suite 101

VEGGIES:

• Artichokes
  
• Bok Choy
(try Won Ton Soup,Vietnamese Crispy Chow Mein with Beef Stir-Fry)

• Broccoli
(try Beef & Broccoli)
• Brussels Sprouts
  
(try Bacon-Braised Brussels Sprouts)
• Leeks
(try Cream of Leek & Celery Soup, Braised Leeks with Thyme)
• Mushrooms
(try Grilled Asian Beef Kabobs)
• Radicchio
• Radishes
(try Pecan Chicken over Salad with Maple BBQ Dressing)
• Snow Peas
  
(try Firecracker Shrimp Bowties)
• Sweet Potatoes
(try Roasted Sweet Potato with Pecan & Marshmallow Streusel)
• Turnips
• Winter Squash

FRUITS:

• Apples
• Bananas
  
(try Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies)
• Coconut
• Cranberries
  
• Grapefruit
  
• Kiwi
• Oranges
(try Citrus Spinach Salad)
• Pomegranate
• Rhubarb
  

If you don't have any recipes for using these items a couple good websites for recipes are:

Allrecipes
Foodnetwork
Recipezaar

In all of these websites, you can go to the 'Ingredient' search engine, and type in the ingredient you are looking for. It will give you a bunch of recipes with that ingredient and you can have it sorted by the most highly rated recipes.

Another good one is: Supercook. This website allows you to type in all the ingredients you have on hand, and it does a big search of a few different recipe websites to find recipes with your ingredients. It tells you which recipes you already have all the ingredients for, and which items you still need for other recipes.

So give planning around in-season produce a try...I bet if you took a look at your grocery stores flyer for this week, you would find most of these items in there for way cheaper than usual.