On the one hand, during the months of November and December, I want to be on super saintly eating behavior in my own kitchen. On the other hand, it’s the HOLIDAYS. It’s a special time of year, and we both know that last slice of Pumpkin Sheet Cake is not going to eat itself. This Instant Pot stuffed acorn squash meets me halfway. It’s packed with cozy holiday flavors.Ingredients such as cranberries, nutty wild rice, and thyme make this dish wholesome....

Sheet pan chicken recipes are true heroes in our household (along with these other one-pan meal wonders). They’re the best no-fuss dinner option, and perfect for when work runs late. When groceries are dwindling low and you’re craving a healthy, balanced meal full of flavor (and color), the sheet pan answers the call. Today’s baked Italian chicken is the latest sheet pan hero to save the day in our kitchen....

My general meal planning tactic is to create recipes that use up whichever leftover ingredients I would be the saddest to see spoil. Was it the artisan salami I bought on impulse at the fancy supermarket which commanded our menu? The shallots that have been lurking in a dark corner of our pantry? The gruyere cheese I used to make Crab Artichoke Toasts? No—it was the bundle of fresh dill for which I paid a grand total of $....

When you need a fast, healthy dinner that uses ingredients you have on hand (who doesn’t?), fried rice is the granddaddy of them all. It delivers the essentials. Whole grains, vegetables, and lean protein are present in every bite.It’s flexible. Those past-peak veggies in your crisper drawer? Use ‘em here!It is FAST. Be sure you prep all of your ingredients before you start cooking. This recipe moves.It’s DELICIOUS. Even those who might shy away from other Asian recipes cannot deny the appeal of a rice-based dish (particularly once you factor in that sweet, sticky sauce!...

Guests always flock to Cheese Dip Guy. Meanwhile, Carrot Girl (that’s me) missed the memo that she was attending a party, not a detox spa day. Fortunately, despite my irrefutable celery stick ways, my friends still talk to me at social gatherings. I credit this achievement partly to my charm, but mostly to the fact that my veggie trays are usually accompanied by another more indulgent treat to pass as well (like Chicken Satay with Peanut Dipping Sauce or Brownie Bites)....

This recipe is sponsored by DeLallo. I know that all palates are different and that some people are more sensitive to spice than others. After six years of living in Wisconsin, however, I’ve decided that on a scale of 1 to 10, this state starts panting and sweating at anything above a 2. It doesn’t mean the food here is bland. It does mean that when a menu describes a dish as “spicy,” you need to have a heart-to-heart with your server to decipher what “spicy” actually means: really, actually spicy or Wisconsin spicy....

The grilled steak is tender, the cheese is decadently creamy, and the sweet caramelized onions and fig jam will have you licking your plate clean. This easy steak sandwich recipe is as elegant as these Fig Goat Cheese Appetizer Bites and as primally satisfying as the best Air Fryer Steak. Tender, juicy pieces of medium-rare steak smothered in Brie cheese tucked between crusty artisan bread with fig jam, Dijon caramelized onions, and peppery arugula, its complex blend of flavors that will make you feel like a star chef....

If someone had let me in on how simple stuffed pork tenderloin is to make, I would have started cooking it a long, long time ago. With its fancy presentation—doesn’t anything done in a roulade look fit for a magazine?—I assumed stuffed pork would be too fussy for the average weeknight. Stuffed anything was the kind of meal I’d order on a restaurant menu (especially anything like this Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast)....

You can pair sweet potato fries with just about any of your favorite main dishes, or do what I do: polish ‘em off straight off the pan! After years of my snitching fries off of Ben’s plate at restaurants, to his tremendous relief I have finally started ordering my own, especially when sweet potato fries are an option. I adore them. When they are crunchy outside and tender inside, sweet potato fries are a top life comfort food....

Risotto is one of those recipes that I made often when Ben and I were first married but slowly drifted away from over time. Perhaps it was the onset of practicality. I began to feel like eating a plate of starchy grains showered in cheese on an average weeknight might not be the best long-term healthy eating strategy, especially since the two of us had a stellar record of polishing off the entire pot in a single sitting....

“BLT” stands for “bacon, lettuce, tomato” and is a classic sandwich where these three ingredients star. I look forward to making BLTs every summer, when tomatoes flood farm stands and I can ogle over their splendid array of colors, patterns, and shapes. A BLT can be a thing of beauty, but (as is often the case with the simplest recipes), they can also be distinctly underwhelming. If up until now, your BLT experience has consisted of sandwiches that are any of the following: dry, bland, mushy, mealy, or slippery with mayo—you’ve been missing out on one of summer’s most precious jewels....

I realize that “frittata” is technically Italian and that both “house” and “wine” existed long before someone combined them, but I am appreciative nonetheless because they allow me to maintain my dignity in sensitive situations. When I’m out to dinner, instead of having to delicately state, “Please bring me the cheapest wine on your menu—I’m low on cash and not picky,” I can say, “I’ll take the house red please....

I don’t know about you, but once summer arrives, my weekend eating habits tend to become a little…lax. Now instead of wasting my energy on regret, I’ve found it a much more positive, productive, and healthy use of my time to prepare a few nourishing meals to enjoy throughout the week. I have more energy, feel better about myself, and by Friday? I’m ready to greet the weekend with gusto....

Time is something I never seem to have enough of and, as a result, I am a chronic multitasker. I cannot simply just talk on the phone—I need to talk AND unload the dishwasher, AND attend to a pile of laundry that’s been giving me the evil eye for the past three days WHILE devouring some Coffee Cake Muffins for dessert. Acute (if self-imposed) busyness might be at the root of my multitasking, much of which is spent with my face glued to a screen (as I dream up a recipe for the BEST Apple Bread)....

I dabbled in summer-league softball from the ages of 7 to 11, and I might have stuck with it a bit longer if playing fast pitch weren’t a requirement for the age 12-and-up crowd. I could barely handle my dad pitching to me overhanded in the backyard, so the idea of a softball hurtling towards my person with any kind of actual velocity was too much to fathom. Thus ended softball....

I often fall for the easy logic that more is more. Why own one good black dress when you can have two, or a single set of wine glasses where there’s space for three? I also have somehow acquired more pairs of boots (my greatest shopping weakness) than anyone with just two feet should ever reasonably own at one time. Therefore, you would think that more is more logic would also apply to cooking—isn’t a dish with more ingredients inherently better than a dish with fewer?...

Lean protein? Check! Veggies? Yep! Whole grains? Uh huh. The gang’s all here. On my totem pole of house chores, washing dishes is at the very bottom, above only snow shoveling (brrr) and vacuuming (I know it’s easy, but I despise it for some reason). Hence, I’m always to add to my collection of healthy one pan recipes, meals that cram all the healthy food groups you need into a single pan....

This delightful recipe was born out of necessity. Due to a broken stovetop, I was relying on one, small electric burner to do all my non-oven cooking. On the bright side, only having access to one burner at a time inspired me to bulk up my collection of delicious one-pot recipes like this shrimp orzo (and Chicken Broccoli Ziti). The pasta, asparagus, and shrimp all are made in one handy pot, meaning you only have one pot to worry about washing at the end of the meal....

In an end-of-days scenario in which I have to pick just one dessert to enjoy for the rest of my life, my answer is ice cream. I could eat ice cream twice a day, every day…and when this oat milk ice cream was in my freezer, that’s exactly what I did! Ben and I share a weakness for ice cream. We have an unspoken agreement that when one of us suggests a spontaneous trip to our favorite local ice cream joint, the other one must oblige....

Y-O-U! Cooking fish can be intimidating, which is why I like to share recipes that eliminate the guesswork and give you tips to ensure success. This Baked Salmon in Foil and this Fish en Papillote (another great cod recipe) both use the packet approach to lock-in moisture and deter overcooking. This Fish and Chips calls on a panko breadcrumb coating to lock in moisture. The Well Plated Cookbook has my three favorite fish recipes everrrrrr....