A one-pan dinner that combines juicy sautéed shrimp, hearty brown rice, fiber-rich beans, and fresh veggies, this is a healthy, filling, and colorful recipe that will alleviate your meal-planning stress. To exterminate any final fragments of belief you may hold that I pull together a beautifully presented, well-rounded, and restaurant-worthy dinner every night (or even most every night), I do not. Thank you leftovers, grilled cheese, and a personal favorite, going out to eat....

Meet your new favorite one-pan dinner wonder: rosemary chicken thighs. Complete with a serving of fruit (apples), vegetables (Brussels sprouts), and protein (chicken thighs), this easy oven recipe comes together in under 45 minutes and could not be easier to prepare. True to its place among other one pan greats like Sheet Pan Chicken with Rainbow Vegetables and Sheet Pan Chicken with Sweet Potatoes Apples and Brussels Sprouts, today’s rosemary chicken thighs offer fast prep and easy cleanup....

While steadfast and reliable—this is an easy dump-and-go crockpot recipe—this crockpot chicken recipe is not to be underestimated. It is bursting with layers of flavor, lightly creamy, packs in the veg, and is healthy too. I’m a sucker for Thai food (like Thai Chicken Curry, Healthy Shrimp Pad Thai, and Coconut Curry), because I adore its freshness and complex layers of spice. Considering Ben married me for the Thai Peanut Chicken Stir Fry in my cookbook, I’d say he’s a fan too!...

Simple, consoling, and warm with fall spices, healthy sweet potato cookies are an autumn afternoon spent sipping hot cider (or Mulled Wine) with your beloved grandmother, or your affectionate cat. Unless your cat isn’t affectionate, in which case you should invite your best friend over instead. If your cat and your best friend are one and the same, then that’s twice the sweet potato cookies with chocolate chips for you....

Fruit crisps and I are old pals. They are one of the fastest, easiest desserts to throw together before dinner—this vegan apple crisp topping takes less than 5 minutes to prep—and they bake in the perfect amount of time to serve hot out of the oven when you are ready for dessert. In the spirit of full disclosure, I didn’t set out to make this a vegan apple crisp or a gluten free apple crisp, or really anything other than ridiculously yummy....

Hopefully, they’ll also mention something about my being a good person—while eating slices of pie. I have a fierce, somewhat inexplicable desire to be a great pie baker. The only rational interpretation I’ve found for this compulsion is that I consider pie to be the dessert translation of love. It’s messy, it’s intentional, and it doesn’t have to be perfect to be magnificent. In fact, I consider “pie” and “love” so synonymous, I once baked heart-shaped pies....

If you ask me to name my favorite anything—be it a favorite quick bread, muffin, healthy breakfast, or even day of the week—I’m not going to be able to answer without naming off at least three different options. I’ll probably text you later with my fourth and fifth. Making the category more specific won’t help either. I can’t even commit to a favorite individual zucchini bread recipe (Vegan Zucchini Bread?...

The simple 15 bean soup is so many things I am craving right now. Similar to this Crockpot Vegetable Beef Soup, it’s hearty and filling, without being food-coma-inducing, a much-appreciated hiatus between the moments of holiday excess. It’s incredibly economical (like this Crockpot Lentil Soup), helpful at this time of year when we end up spending extra everywhere else. It yields a generous portion, so it is ideal for feeding a large crowd or eating a few days later on a night when you’re short on time to cook....

I shied away from the air fryer for the first year of its popularity, because I generally loathe to add appliances we don’t need, and I wasn’t convinced I “needed” an air fryer. Had someone fed me these air fryer Brussels sprouts, I would have jumped on the bandwagon IMMEDIATELY! (This is the air fryer we ultimately ended up buying and have been pleased with so far.) Air fryer Brussels sprouts are F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C-A-L-L-Y crispy....

And yes, I am totally down for cream cheese frosting at snack time. It makes the applesauce cake even better, and I can heartily attest that it will improve your 3 p.m. mood! Applesauce makes cakes moist and tender and can help sweeten them naturally. Swapping applesauce for oil in cakes, breads, and muffins is one of the oldest (and best!) healthy baking tricks. I use it in many of these applesauce recipes, such as these top-rated Healthy Oatmeal Cookies....

Between mid-April and mid-May, I traveled 15 out of 24 days, visited six cities, turned 30, and published 11 recipes. I watched Tabasco sauce be made on a small island off of Louisiana, ate and drank my way through Nashville (twice), walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, sipped wine in Sonoma, and learned that my step dad officially beat cancer. My Kansas family surprised me by coming to visit, and my new Wisconsin family threw me a birthday party that was more special and beautiful than anything I could have imagined....

Well maybe not life-altering, but it is certainly dinner-time/meal-prep/everything-that’s-usually-wrong-with-chicken-breast-altering. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been tackling ways to cook juicy, tender chicken breasts that are scrumptious enough to enjoy all on their own, or to mix with your favorite salads, pastas, and more. Baked Chicken Breast and Air Fryer Chicken Breast use brining to make the chicken juicy.Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Breast insulates from the outside, while Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts tackles from the inside....

I cooked this vegetable beef barley soup for friends we were visiting in Colorado. We had no agenda, beyond catching up and eventually settling in for dinner. This humble soup is just the sort of recipe for a laid-back evening with people you love. Like all great beef soup recipes (Instant Pot Beef Stew; Beef Bourguignon; Crockpot Vegetable Beef Soup) it does require some up-front vegetable chopping and batch searing, but the rewards of it simmering gently on the stove, then warming your belly are well worth it....

Tired of the same ol’ same ol’ for lunch every day? Ditch that tired ham sandwich and treat yourself to a healthy, filling, and wholesome Buddha bowl. Made with a marvelous mix of caramelized roasted veggies (including Roasted Broccoli), creamy avocado, crispy tofu, nutty quinoa, and an herby tahini dressing, Buddha bowls are a great-big bowl of feel good. They have a generous serving of nutritious ingredients, plenty of color, and a whole lotta YUM!...

I was brainstorming easy holiday dessert recipes, and when my list reached a length that would have us surviving on cookies and Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls every day from now until next Christmas, I sent the list over to my dessert recipe-picker numero uno, my younger sister Elaine. Thirty seconds later, she texted me with an all-caps “CINNAMON BLONDIES,” followed by every positive emoji, including my personal favorite, the jazz hands....

With zucchini, July is all romance. It’s been ages since we’ve been together, we can’t get enough of each other (I bake 100 loaves of Zucchini Banana Bread), and sappy violin music follows us everywhere we go. I’m in summer produce heaven. By August, zucchini gets clingy. It moves from occupying a small corner of my crisper to sprawling lawlessly all over the bottom shelf of my refrigerator and out onto the counter....

A legitimately tasty version of a time-honored side made easy in the slow cooker, this is the green bean casserole we all need! I came to green bean casserole late in life. After years of wondering how it became a seemingly obligatory part of Thanksgiving (why waste space on an overcooked casserole when you can pack in the Cornbread Stuffing, Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole, or any of these Thanksgiving recipes instead?...

Say buh-bye fatty ranch dressing that negates every salad it touches. Hello to this protein-packed skinny ranch dip! As I shared back when I posted this Roasted Red Pepper Parmesan Dip, nothing makes me more skeptical than a dip that advertises itself as “skinny.” Most of the time, I’d rather have less of the real-deal than more of a low-fat dip that doesn’t satisfy. Fortunately for us, a thick, dreamy base of plain Greek yogurt is the ideal stealthy healthy vehicle for the addictive garlic, onion, and dill spices that create classic ranch flavor....

This zippy tofu stir fry is a cacophony of color and flavor that bursts from the bowl and makes the descriptors commonly associated with tofu—“boring,” “mushy,” “hippies only”—seem as accurate as my bowling game (i.e. wildly off target). How to Make the Best Tofu Before I launch into all of the lively ingredients that make this stir fry boogie, let’s address the elephant in the kitchen: tofu. It’s divisive, and I can understand why....

Of all the fancy uses for an Instant Pot, the ones I value most are the basics, done better: Instant Pot Brown Rice, Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats, Instant Pot Lentil Curry, and today’s revelation: Instant Pot boiled eggs. Tips abound for the best way to cook hard boiled eggs that: 1) avoid the green ring (green or gray means your hard boiled eggs are overcooked) AND 2) are easy to peel....