Today is the first day of November, a blank slate to be filled with PeeWee football games, PTA meetings and plans for Thanksgiving travel. Who has time to figure out what the family will be eating each night?

We gave it a shot. For the second time this year, The News & Observer offers a month of dinner ideas that you can prepare and serve at home. Many of the recipes come from cookbooks published this fall, and others you will be able to find in our own pages in the weeks to come or at popular recipe sites on the Web. Most are quick to fix or rely on time-saving techniques, such as using a slow cooker or making an entree whose leftovers can be used to make a totally different dish.

This Thai Chicken Noodle Salad (our suggestion for Nov. 21), for example, gets its start the Sunday before as Roasted Chicken and Turnips with Peanut Sauce. Both recipes come from the cookbook "Homemade in Half the Time," which includes a whole chapter on double-duty dinners.