Easy recipes for busy families

Every one of these is built for a real weeknight. They scale to your table, they print to a clean card, and most of them will bend around whatever is already sitting in your fridge.

Kitchen Basics

Seared Scallops Over Parmesan Risotto

The $40 restaurant plate, decoded: bone-dry scallops, a nearly smoking pan, ninety seconds a side, and a risotto that is just rice, stock and patience.

55 min total 4 plates $8.50 a serving

Weeknight Dinners Kid approved

Flank Steak Pinwheels Stuffed With Spinach and Provolone

One butterflied flank steak, a layer of spinach and provolone, roll, tie, slice. Butcher-counter looks, weeknight effort.

42 min total 6 pinwheels $3.80 a serving

Weeknight Dinners Kid approved

Greek Chicken Pita Bowls With Homemade Tzatziki

Yogurt-marinated chicken, real tzatziki, warm pita and a chopped salad, laid out as a build-your-own spread. The kids assemble their own and everyone eats.

40 min total 6 bowls $3.20 a serving

Batch Cooking Kid approved

Baked Mac and Cheese That Stays Creamy (Feeds a Crowd)

The tragedy of baked mac is a creamy sauce going into the oven and grease coming out. One can of evaporated milk ends that forever.

55 min total 10 servings $1.40 a serving

Weeknight Dinners

Crispy Buffalo Wings Without a Fryer

No fryer, no shame. A baking powder toss and a hot oven get wing skin to shatter, and the two-to-one butter ratio makes the sauce stick instead of slide.

60 min total 4 servings $2.60 a serving

Weeknight Dinners Kid approved

Mongolian Beef That Beats the Takeout Version

Thin-sliced beef, a cornstarch dredge, and a five-ingredient sauce that turns glossy in ninety seconds. Faster than the delivery app and it costs a third as much.

25 min total 4 servings $3.40 a serving

Breakfast Uses it up

Corned Beef Hash With Crispy Potatoes and a Runny Egg

The canned stuff gave hash a bad name. Shredded corned beef fried crisp with diced potatoes and an egg on top is a different food entirely.

40 min total 4 plates $2.20 a serving

Batch Cooking Kid approved

Smoked Corned Beef (Better Than Boiled, Every Time)

The same store-bought brisket everyone boils flat, smoked at 250F until it shreds. Somewhere between pastrami and pot roast, and it is not close.

435 min total 8 servings $3.10 a serving

Fridge Cleanout Uses it up

Anything Goes Fried Rice (Use Whatever's In the Fridge)

Cold day-old rice, a screaming hot pan, and whatever vegetables and protein are already in your fridge.

22 min total 4 servings $1.65 a serving

Kitchen Basics Kid approved

The 5-Ingredient Weeknight Tomato Sauce

Whole canned tomatoes crushed by hand, simmered with butter, an onion and garlic until it tastes like it took all day.

50 min total 4 servings $1.10 a serving

Weeknight Dinners Kid approved

Garlic Butter Chicken Thighs in 20 Minutes

Boneless thighs seared hard, basted in garlic butter, finished with a two-minute pan sauce.

22 min total 4 servings $2.40 a serving

Batch Cooking Kid approved

Make Ahead Freezer Breakfast Burritos

Twelve burritos in one afternoon that reheat in 3 minutes without a single soggy tortilla.

65 min total 12 burritos $1.80 a serving

Weeknight Dinners Kid approved

One Pot Creamy Chicken and Rice

Creamy, tender, and done in one pot, with a rice ratio that accounts for the juice the chicken gives up.

45 min total 4 servings $2.85 a serving

Kitchen Basics

The Pan Sauce Formula That Works With Any Protein

One five-part ratio turns the brown stuff stuck to your skillet into a glossy sauce for chicken, pork, steak, or fish.

30 min total 4 servings $2.80 a serving

Breakfast Kid approved

Sheet Pan Pancakes for a Crowd

One half sheet pan, one pour, 12 squares of fluffy buttermilk pancake while you sit down with your coffee.

25 min total 12 squares $0.45 a serving

Weeknight Dinners Uses it up

Sheet Pan Sausage and Whatever Vegetables You Have

One pan, 35 minutes, and whatever vegetables are going soft in the crisper drawer.

47 min total 4 servings $3.10 a serving

Fridge Cleanout Uses it up

Stale Bread Panzanella (and the Best Croutons You'll Make)

Stale bread is better than fresh here, and salted tomatoes make the dressing for you.

35 min total 4 servings $1.85 a serving

Weeknight Dinners Kid approved

30 Minute Weeknight Chili

Thirty minutes start to finish, and three small moves make it taste like it cooked all day.

30 min total 6 servings $2.35 a serving

Kitchen Basics Uses it up

Vegetable Scrap Stock (Stop Buying Broth)

Fill a freezer bag with onion skins, carrot ends, and mushroom stems, then turn it into 8 cups of stock for about a dime a cup.

65 min total 8 cups $0.10 a serving

Fridge Cleanout Uses it up

Wilted Greens Frittata (Save the Sad Spinach)

The bag of spinach going limp in the crisper becomes dinner in 25 minutes.

28 min total 6 wedges $1.35 a serving

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