You may know Julia Turshen as the activist behind the Feed the Resistance cookbook, the co-author on a number of Gwyneth Paltrow’s books, or the cook you follow on Instagram for weeknight dinner inspiration (and pictures of snuggly dogs). But I know Julia as the woman who changed the way I think about leftovers.

In a world of recipes designed for four people, I’m almost always cooking for three (myself and two roommates) — consistently leaving me with an awkward amount left over. But I hate wasting food, so I’ll pack up that skimpy amount of rice, those three cubes of tofu, and the last bits of broccoli florets and promise to repurpose them. The furthest I ever get is the microwave.

In her new book, Now & Again: Go-To Recipes, Inspired Menus + Endless Ideas For Reinventing Leftovers, Julia has managed to make me excited about leftovers — a sentence I never thought I’d say. The book is organized into seasonal, stress-free, affordable menus, each with accompanying suggestions on how to prep the meal ahead of time and repurpose any extra food. Her recipes, as we’ve come to expect from her, are approachable and inspired, and the smart leftover ideas even more so.

Leftover salad, in my kitchen, becomes a sad, soggy pile of greens. In Julia’s, it’s processed into pesto, baked into an herby Persian frittata, or sandwiched between thick slices of bread for a gooey grilled cheese. Leftover twice-baked potatoes are cooked down into a super-rich potato soup, or mashed into patties and pan-fried until crisp. She includes tips on how to spark new life into leftover takeout (including what to do with all those soy sauce packets), suggestions for repurposing odds and ends of snacks, and fresh new ideas for not-so-new produce (banana bread milkshake, anyone?).

I talked with Julia about her favorite recipes in the book, the moment she first fell in love with leftovers, and her advice for taking the stress out of entertaining.

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A week of better breakfasts promises days that start with ease (not chaos), and food that fuels us, whether we eat at home or on the run. A better breakfast, in our book, is one you can cook once and eat all week without getting bored, and is nourishing, convenient, and, of course, flavorful. May we introduce you to our new favorite strategy? The 1×5 breakfast.

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For perfectly cooked green beans that are flavorful, crisp, and tender, you have to employ a quick two-step technique. Here’s how to do it.

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Although I’m fairly new to meal prepping, it didn’t take me long to get into the groove. I discovered that while I like having some sort of rough framework for what I’m going to eat during the week, I also need some flexibility. Since I’m only cooking for myself and my husband, we have the luxury to cook somewhat spontaneously on weeknights, which makes our busy weeks more fun and enjoyable.

My Power Hour Meal Prep Plan provides a rough guideline for a week of wholesome, feel-good meals, but leaves room for mid-week inspiration. Oh, and it comes together in just one hour.

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Command hooks are as ubiquitous as they are handy. But don’t get it twisted: The stock you see in the aisles at Target is only a small taste of what the entire line has to offer. In addition to those adhesive hanging hooks, Command has several highly specific applications of their removable (aka renter-approved) technology.

They’re just the perfect thing for tidying up some messy corner of your home. From simple spray bottle holders to a full-blown smartphone charging station, read ahead for ten highly specific Command hook solutions that are every bit as unique as they are renter-friendly.

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As much as I adore meal planning, I’m a very reluctant meal prepper. Preparing our dinners for the week over the weekend feels a little too much like locking our meal plan in place forever without flexibility. But we have a big family change on the horizon — my husband is going back to school full-time next month — and we need to figure out a better system for prepping breakfasts and lunches.

This week’s five dinners all require very little prep work — although they are still easy family favorites. Win-win!

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The recipe that I am about to describe might not sound (or look) very delicious, but if Ree Drummond aka The Pioneer Woman (aka general business genius) says that it is, who are we to question it? It is called 7-can soup and, other than seven cans of literally anything you want — plus a hunk of Velveeta — there’s not much more to it.

CAN we cook it? Yes we CAN.

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Nothing quite encapsulates everything we love about comfort food more than smooth, creamy, buttery garlic mashed potatoes. Oh, and to make it easy on you, we made this in the slow cooker, which means you can make these rich, satisfying potatoes a regular occurrence at your dinner table. Here’s how to do it.

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Don’t sleep on canned fruit. Yes, the thought of canned fruit likely brings to mind something mushy or overcooked, or swimming in sugary syrup. But not all canned fruit is bad canned fruit — I promise! In fact, I always have the following three canned fruits on hand for baking, cooking, and making cocktails.

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I’ve often thought that Ina Garten could read the phone book and I would think it was fascinating, and this week she proved this with a fun new Instagram video in which she literally just shows people how to put food in bowls. That’s it! No cutting, no stirring. She just puts some store-bought snacks in bowls, and suddenly it looks like a nice cocktail party.

“Once in a while, I make something simple to serve with drinks, like figs wrapped in prosciutto,” she writes in her latest Instagram video. “But mostly, I like to find delicious little appetizers that need no cooking at all.”

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