Meal prep has taught me a lot of things along the way, but doing just two rounds of Meal Prep Power Hours has taught me perhaps the most useful lesson of all. And that is: If I have just a few (cheap!) things — from plain pasta to hummus — always waiting in the pantry or fridge, it can make all the difference. My whole family eats better, and I can flex my meal plan to include better lunches and breakfasts too.

These are the 12 recipes I find myself reaching for time and time again, even if I only have a single hour to prepare one recipe and chop some vegetables for the week. Many of them can do double duty as either breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner, and all are kid-friendly enough for even the pickiest eaters.

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Forget what you heard about so-called “healthy eating” New Year’s resolutions. You made it all the way through 2018 and now you have to do another year all over again. You deserve something special, a small treat for yourself. Ah yes, this nearly seven-pound tub of Nutella from Costco will do just fine.

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There are so many diets and healthy lifestyles, it can be tough to navigate which one is right for you. Everyone might be talking about the pegan diet (a mix between eating vegan and Paleo), or Whole30, or the ketogenic diet right now, but those might not necessarily be your best option. If you’re feeling lost, here’s a helpful tip: U.S. News recently tried out 41 popular diets and decided that the “best” diet for 2019 is actually the Mediterranean diet.

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You straighten up your house on a near-daily basis, but when it comes to your fridge, it’s probably in constant disarray, especially after you hit the grocery store. We feel you. It’s easy to just shove everything in there and think the problem will solve itself — I mean, it kind of does, as you eat the stuff that’s in there. Plus, that mess is easy to ignore because you can just close the door and poof! The mess is gone.

But here’s the big advantage to keeping your fridge in tip-top shape: It will reduce food spoilage. Ever look in the back of the fridge and find broccoli you bought two weeks ago, now unusable? Simply put: You can’t eat the food you can’t see. And if you don’t eat the food that you buy, it’s cash in the trash.

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Guy Fieri might be best known for downing absurd combinations of meat, grease, and carbs on his television show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, and for the menus of his own restaurants, filled with “Donkey Sauce,” fried chicken, and portions big enough to feed a family of five, but he tells Today.com that the food he eats at home is actually not that different than what’s on anyone else’s table.

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If you have decided to start 2019 off with a healthy resolution like the trendiest diet of the moment, Whole30, you might be thinking that your favorite fast-food meals are strictly off the table. I’m here to tell you this is not the case. Thanks to Chipotle, you can still have your fast casual “cake” and eat it too. The chain has just launched new menu items tailored to Paleo, keto, and Whole30 dieters.

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When my siblings and I used to act up in the grocery store, my mom had a very unique way of deescalating the situation. She’d force the three of us to hold hands in whatever aisle we were in and sing this, uh, special song and whatever fist fight or hair pulling had broken out would immediately dissolve into an embarrassed fit of giggles. Public humiliation for the win!

No one said bringing your kids to the grocery store was easy. With that in mind, we compiled a list of tips from some of the smartest moms we know to help you get through it. (Singing and dancing in the produce aisle not included.)

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January is already proving to be a weird month. At least at Costco it is. Usually, we’d round up all the best sales for the month, but after browsing through the site, we decided there was really only one thing worth calling out. Most of the deals are on cabinets (save 25 percent on semi-custom cabinets!) furniture (barstools!), and other seriously random finds.

The one thing worth writing home about? The Vitamix S30 Personal Blender.

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Dear Marge,

Help! My mother-in-law is feeding my baby sweets. We don’t give our 2-year-old daughter anything with added sugar, and my mother in law knows it.

One night, after my mother-in-law had watched Becca for us (which she does twice a week while I work), I saw an empty box of animal crackers in the garbage. I didn’t say anything to her, but the following week when she came over, I pointed out the containers in the fridge with my daughter’s lunch, and casually mentioned (again) that we don’t give her any cookies or sweets. My mother-in-law just nodded as though in agreement. When I put Becca in her pajamas that night, I found chocolate stains on her sleeve. Since then, there have been a bunch of other incidents. I am 100% positive she gives her sweets every time she sees her.

I feel like she is just totally ignoring what I want for my own child. No matter how many times I say it, and no matter how nicely, she simply does what she wants. I don’t know how else to tell her. I’m really frustrated and pissed off.

Signed,

— Sugar Turf War Mom

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While many people will tell you that no, you do not need to drink eight glasses of water every day like previously believed, there’s no denying that water is still pretty darn important. And that all of us should probably drink more of it.

If you’re trying to hydrate more in 2019, we’ve got all sorts of tips and techniques to help. Sip, sip, hooray!

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