Welcome to Kitchn’s Food Budget Diaries series, where we show you how people around the country spend money on what they eat and drink. Each post will follow one person for one week and will chronicle everything that person consumed and how much it costs them.

Name: Tracy
Location: Mount Clemens, Michigan (near Detroit)
Age: 44
Number of people in family: 4 (my husband, Mark; me; and two sons, 15 and 13)
Occupation: My husband is a mechanical engineer and I am an English comprehension rater and I also shop and deliver groceries.
Household income: $100,000 (only my husband’s, as my income fluctuates depending on the needs of the company I work for which dictates how often I shop/deliver groceries).
Weekly food budget: $200 per week, plus $25 every other week for dining out

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Regardless of what diet you follow, everyone can appreciate an easy recipe. Whether it’s a weeknight dinner or something to satisfy a sweet tooth, churning out a fuss-free recipe is always on our agenda.

If you follow a vegan diet, the same rules apply. These 25 vegan recipes are as simple as they get and cover all the bases: main dishes, side dishes, snacks, and sweets.

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Whether you’re a vegetarian or just trying to eat less meat, there are lots of awesome dinners to be had from the grill this summer. That high heat can do wonders for vegetables, too!

These 10 recipes ditch the meat in place of in-season veggies and the results are so satisfying that they’re sure to become favorites.

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May is always a month full of outdoor gatherings with family and friends, thanks to the return of warm weather. Judging from the recipes you’ve saved, you’ve been busy cooking up plenty of crowd-friendly dips, pasta salads, and cakes for parties, potlucks, and barbecues.

Here are our 10 most-saved recipes from May.

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The sun is shinning down on you this month, dear star babies. It’s time to slip on those sandals, try on a new dress, and get recipe planning. I’ve done my research and found out exactly what you should be eating in June.

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Is it just me or does the warmer weather just absolutely dampen your motivation to cook at home too? It feels like the weather went from breezy to balmy really quickly, and my dinner mojo went away right with it.

So here’s the plan for this week to keep me cooking — no heating up the oven, no grilling, and making as many no-cook recipes as possible. Call it lazy if you want to, but I’m calling it my warm-weather meal planning strategy.

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Whether or not you know there will be vegetarians at your next potluck, it’s never a bad idea to bring something meatless just in case. Plus, more veggies will only add to the abundance of the spread.

These dishes ditch the meat in place of colorful vegetables and can be both a satisfying main for vegetarians or a side for those who eat meat. Either way, everyone will win.

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How much do you think about your gut? You know, your digestive system — and, more importantly, the trillions of probiotic bacteria and other organisms that live inside it?

Well perhaps we all should spend a little more time focusing on those little guys. Nurturing a well-maintained microbiome can strengthen immunity, aid digestion, improve nutrient absorption, and even boost mental health.

Probiotics — and the foods and lifestyle that contribute to a healthy microbiome— are the entire focus of the June issue of Cooking Light. It’s a special issue completely devoted to “gut health,” and if you only pick up one food magazine this month, this should be the one.

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Remember last month when Victoria Beckham celebrated her birthday by slicing into a hexagon of watermelon with a candle in it? And remember when everyone was like “STOP IT, THAT IS NOT A CAKE, THAT IS A STACK OF FRUIT,” and wondered if someone should start showing her flashcards so she could learn the difference before her 45th next year?

Well, I have just discovered a new fruit-centric tragedy, and it is even more unsettling than Posh Spice’s not-a-cake-a-melon.

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While one whiff of sour cow’s milk is all you need to know it’s gone bad, it can be a little harder to read the signals for almond milk. It of course spoils just like other kinds of dairy and non-dairy milk, but how can you tell? These are the things to look for to know if it’s time to toss it.

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