Cook for yourself, give yourself permission to eat when you have an appetite, relish every bite, and push your plate away when you’re full. New to Meal Planning? Start here! Need More Meal Planning Ideas? We Have You Covered!
Initially, I embraced bouillon, but when I got older I dismissed it as a culinary cheat: artificial and inferior. But I eventually loosened up, especially when I learned skilled cooks in many countries rely on bouillon as an easy and affordable way to infuse rice, bean, meat, and vegetable dishes with extra flavor. What can bouillon do for you? A lot, especially if you use it strategically rather than an all-out replacement for actual stock....
Tahini, at its most basic definition, is a paste made of ground sesame seeds. Sometimes the seeds are roasted; sometimes they aren’t. Unroasted seeds are considered raw. People either tend to love it or hate it. If you’re on the “hate it” side, you might want to rethink your position and explore your sesame seeking options. “To make tahini, sesame seeds are soaked in water (sometimes salted), then crushed so the hull separates from the tender inner germ....
What’s in season in September? If you didn’t fill up on tomatoes in August, you have one more month to enjoy seasonal fresh tomatoes of all kinds — heirloom, cherry tomatoes, romas. You’ll also still find plenty of cucumbers, summer squash, and stone fruit. Eggplants and green beans are peaking in early September. Apples are the fruit that define September for me. Have you made plans to go apple picking yet?...
Take this salad for instance: Just one little tablespoon of miso makes an ordinary dressing pop with bright flavor. What Is Miso? Miso is fermented soybean paste. The soybeans are inoculated with a type of mold. That might sound creepy until you consider that so many favorite foods are fermented, including yogurt, cheese, wine, and sourdough bread. Over time, the soybeans transform into a salty, funky, flavorful paste that lasts indefinitely in the refrigerator....
How about pulled pork? Or maybe lentil stew? Chorizo and eggs is always a winner! The following recipes all serve double duty. They’re great meals on their own, but they also make great toppers for baked potatoes! So whether you want a light meal or something more decadent, each ones of these recipes will boost your humble potato into the upper stratosphere of dinner satisfaction. Need a baked potato crash course?...
No more! Thanks to the benefits of technology, I now use an air fryer to make my egg rolls and they turn out almost as crispy and delicious as the deep-fried version! Why Air Fry Egg Rolls? There are two reasons why you might want to air fry your egg rolls. Some traditionally fried recipes adapt well to the air fryer, but egg rolls work really well. They come out crispy and browned, and if you have access to an air fryer, this is a must try!...
One quick way to make use of zucchini noodles is to just toss the raw “zoodles” with salad dressing. Instant zucchini salad! With this recipe, I thought I would take the zucchini salad idea a step further and make a favorite Asian noodle salad, but with zucchini noodles. In addition to the zucchini there is thinly sliced cabbage, grated carrots, sliced bell pepper and green onions. Everything is tossed with a toasted sesame oil rice vinegar dressing....
The Secret to This Banana Cream Pie Recipe I start this homemade pie with a creamy, custardy homemade vanilla pudding flavored with vanilla bean paste. The method is simple with results that truly rival any boxed pudding mix. The ingredients are added to the pan all at once, whisked smooth, and stirred over moderate heat until thickened. My version, like many classic takes, layers ripe bananas within the pudding. I pour in half the pudding into the crust, add a layer of sliced bananas, then spread the remaining pudding over the fruit....
This recipe makes a whopping sixteen cups. That’s enough to feed a crowd or to hoard in the freezer for those dreary cold nights when it gets dark way too early and the cupboard is bare. On any given Saturday morning, I might start this early and give it a long, lazy simmer while I sip my coffee, read the paper, or throw in a load of laundry. I can call up friends and have an impromptu, casual gathering with very little elbow grease....
The recipe is based on a bread pudding recipe from the now-closed famed Bon Ton Cafe in New Orleans. My friend Becca gave us the recipe years ago and now it’s a family favorite, especially around the holidays. The sauce uses plenty of bourbon (Becca says Bon Ton’s sauce has even more bourbon in it), but feel free to cut down the amount. We have directions for making a kid-friendly, bourbon-free version of the bread pudding and the sauce in the recipe note....
Breakfast casseroles are really quite easy to make. Bread, eggs, milk, and cheese are your base. Where you can get creative is with the seasonings and additions. In this one, we are celebrating spring with asparagus and leeks. Feta is our cheese of choice, along with some Parmesan for the topping. Bacon makes an important appearance as well. (You can skip the bacon if you must, but I don’t recommend it....
It’s an easy way to take a recipe that relies on butter up a notch in flavor. Just by cooking the butter a little past the melting point results in the milk solids in the butter browning, and creating a wonderfully nutty aroma. It’s fun to do with butter-based sauces (check out these scallops in a brown butter caper sauce), baked goods that call for melted butter (like these brown butter chocolate chunk cookies), or with vegetables such as winter squash that you sauté in butter....
My family takes football season very seriously. But in truth, I’m just there for the food. With this buffalo chicken dip, I’m ready for kick-off! Ingredients for Buffalo Chicken Dip Buffalo chicken dip takes the flavors of buffalo chicken wings and transforms them into one tasty party dip: hot sauce, chicken, and a creamy, tangy sauce made with cream cheese, sour cream, and shredded cheese. Many recipes use bottled ranch dressing dressing to add extra flavor and creaminess, but my twist is to skip the bottled dressing and make the dressing from scratch....
And they are so, so good! What Do Carmelitas Bars Taste Like? These bars are very rich and sweet but are offset with just enough salt that the sweetness is balanced. I love a chewy edge pieces, and the edges on the bars are perfection. For those of us that aren’t fans of a chewy edge, don’t worry! The interior pieces are tender and gooey, like the center of a fresh oatmeal chocolate chip cookie—but with the addition of caramel and coconut....
Dark sweet cherries adorn grocery store shelves and farmers markets come summer. Knowing that their availability is limited, it’s easy to go overboard. When you’ve got more cherries than you know what to do with, look no further than this simple Cherry Cake that won’t make you break a sweat. This is a rich butter cake flavored with almond extract and studded with fresh sweet cherries. It’s wonderful as a snacking cake that can be served for breakfast or dessert, so you can enjoy cherries all day long....
Uncomplicated. Unpretentious. So good you’ll be drinking the sauce! Cooks up quickly too. Serve it with noodles or dumplings (shown with spaetzle). A Simple Chicken Paprikash Recipe We first posted a version of this recipe in 2006 and quickly learned that many people have a family favorite way of making chicken paprikash. The dish is a tradition of Hungary (spelled there “paprikas”), though we are not claiming that our version is traditional....
This is the perfect recipe to meal plan. Make it on a slow weekend to serve during your busy week ahead. It’s also a great recipe for a crowd—it easily feeds 6 to 8—with a simple green salad on the side dressed with this bright dressing. The Best Bread for Stuffing I like the tang of sourdough, but a baguette, a ciabatta, or any Italian-style loaf would work. I’d avoid rye or pumpernickel as their flavors are too assertive for this dish....
So when Audrey suggested that we make chocolate ice cream, I was all over it. My Favorite Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe The credit for this recipe goes to Audrey, who has been making it for her family with great results. My own meager contributions were to include some salt and instant coffee (both ingredients intensify the chocolate taste), and vanilla to help deepen the overall flavor of the ice cream....
