Every time I flip on an episode of Fixer Upper, I imagine what life would be like as a member of the Gaines family. On weekends we’d go antique shopping, with Joanna leading the charge (in search of the perfect vintage barn door that we would then magically convert into a master bedroom headboard), and then after that’s done we’d make biscuits. (Barn doors and biscuits sound about right, right?)

Honestly, I’m not far off. In her cookbook, Magnolia Table, Joanna says that she spent a year’s worth of Saturdays perfecting this biscuit recipe, Goldilocks-style. They couldn’t be too heavy, flat, light, salty, dry — too anything, really. They had to be just right. A noble pursuit!

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While people love to complain about the produce at Trader Joe’s, the salad kits are actually pretty darn amazing. We should know: We spent the last two months eating and talking about nearly every salad kit sold in America.

See, the salad kits at Trader Joe’s are just super interesting. They go above and beyond the standard set that we see in most supermarkets (read: TJ’s has options beyond Southwest- and Asian-inspired!). The Trader Joe’s team comes up with surprising ingredients and combinations that miraculously work well together. Riced cauliflower in a salad? Yes! Dried blueberries in another? Yum! Shredded broccoli in a third? TJ’s knows what it’s doing!

There was just one salad kit we didn’t love (the Yellow Curry Chopped Salad), and here are the five we loved the most.

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Here’s a piece of widely accepted knowledge that no one ever questioned, at least when I was a kid: Ginger ale will soothe nausea or an upset stomach. But as one viral tweet recently pointed out, this fizzy drink is not the miracle cure for all of your digestive ailments. My world has officially been turned upside down.

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It seems like just yesterday that everyone was wild about Halo Top, the high-protein ice cream favored by workout fanatics. Hailed as a so-called “healthy” alternative to traditional ice creams, Halo Top has fewer than 300 calories, and 20 grams of protein. There’s just one downside: A pint of Halo Top usually costs around $4. As usual, Trader Joe’s is here to rescue shoppers on the hunt for deals. The beloved grocery store chain will now stock a much cheaper version of a protein-packed ice cream, called Swell.

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Designed for cleaning hard-to-scrub surfaces, Magic Erasers (or melamine foam pads) are the gifts that keeps on giving. Not only can you deep clean everything from your kitchen oven to the grout in your bathtub with one, but when purchased by the eight-pack, these sponge-shaped wonders also break down to less than a dollar a pad.

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Truth be told, when it comes to meal planning, I’ve long taken the old-school pen-and-paper approach. In part because I’m a list maker at heart who loves a good notebook and colored pens, and also because I believed it to be the simplest approach. But turns out I might have really been missing something along the way.

Until now I’ve been resistant to move to a meal planning app (of which there are so many!), for no other reason than I’m a creature of habit. But the tide has turned, and I’ve learned that using a meal planning app might just be the easiest, most efficient and streamlined way to approach meal planning.

I’ve weeded through many of the meal planning apps out there to find the ones that are truly helpful, and for some, even worth the $5 price tag. Here are the three you should know about.

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We’ve all had those nights — the ones when you get home and the last thing you want to think about is what to cook for dinner. The easy answer feels like reaching for those takeout menus or heading straight to Seamless, but I know I’ll always feel better if I suck it up and pull even the simplest thing together instead. These are the low-effort recipes I always lean on when I really don’t feel like cooking.

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One of the best things about Samin Nosrat (author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and host of its follow-up Netflix series) is her low-key, down-to-earth, and joyful approach to cooking. No matter what she’s making or talking about, she makes cooking seem fun and downright accessible.

During a recent guest appearance on the Forever 35 Podcast (episode 54), Samin hopped on the phone with hosts Kate Spencer and Doree Shafrir to talk about the way she makes people feel in the kitchen. “I love that you don’t need fancy stuff to make good food. That is a message that is really important to me and I really wanted that to come across in the show,” said Samin.

They followed this up with a discussion about Samin’s top inexpensive picks for must-have kitchen gear. Here are her choices.

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When we first discovered the magic of Instant Pot spaghetti, we didn’t just create one new recipe. We unlocked a formula for protein plus pasta plus jarred sauce, meaning a whole new world of quick and easy pasta dinners at our fingertips.

Instant Pot chicken Alfredo takes advantage of both the Instant Pot’s sauté function and its pressure-cooking ability, while shortcutting the sauce with a favorite jarred version. That means this creamy classic is easy to make anytime with just a few kitchen staples.

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