sheet pan meatballs with crispy turmeric chickpeas

In October of last year, I made one of the best, and prettiest, dinners I’d had all year and couldn’t wait to tell you about them. Then I got a *little* (29 flights and 24 cities in 7 weeks) busy and somehow (somehow!) they — along with the Dutch apple pie, this endive salad and some brown butter carrots I’m still holding out on you — fell by the wayside. And so let me present a long-overdue entry in the Best of 2017 files, eagerly hoping to make a run in 2018.

what you'll need, kindaseason and spice the chickpeastoss the spiced chickpeas with half of onion slicesmix the meatballs

This dish is inspired by two others. The first is a favorite recipe from my first cookbook, the sesame-spiced turkey meatballs that teeter on a lemony smashed chickpea salad; I will forever love the combination of lemon, spices, chickpeas and just enough protein to balance the meal out. The second is a sheet pan chicken with turmeric, roasted and lightly pickled red onions and lemon I spied on the New York Times website last year and couldn’t get out of my head. However, I’m on a bit of a meatball kick, especially since I recently realized (only after all of you have been telling me for years and me stubbornly waiting to find out) how easy they are to bake, and how delightfully they keep their golf ball shape when you do. And those spiced meatballs, just barely tweaked, work fantastically here.

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Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood Could Reunite to Judge The Great American Baking Show — Food TV

When Mary Berry announced in 2016 that she was leaving The Great British Bake-Off, but that Paul Hollywood was staying, it felt like The Beatles were breaking up. Bake-Off was a fantastic show unlike any other, and a big part of its riveting-but-wholesome vibe was due to the great rapport between Berry and Hollywood.

But there’s good news around the corner: It looks like Berry and Hollywood might be getting back together on The Great American Baking Show.

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The Best Foods for Healthy Skin — Wellness Tips from The Kitchn

The myriad products that line pharmacies and beauty stores are the only proof we need to confirm that we’re all a little obsessed with having perfect skin. While I don’t plan to admit to you the number of hours I’ve wasted searching for a great eye cream, I will say that eating a good diet can work so many wonders on your skin. (You might not even have to worry about finding that life-changing eye cream!) No matter what kind of skin you’re after, these are the foods you should be filling your plate with.

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20 Make-Ahead Lunches to Get You Through the Work Week — Recipes from The Kitchn

The key to avoiding another sad desk lunch at the office is simple: Embrace make-ahead recipes. Find a smart recipe that you can make in bulk and will enjoy eating all week. There’s no reason for you to order takeout or hit the vending machine when you set yourself up for success with simple, delicious recipes.

From a kale and quinoa salad with dates, to chickpea and cheddar quesadillas, you’ll be brown baggin’ it in style at the office all week long. Monday has nothing on these on these make-ahead lunch options.

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5 Budget Grocery Shopping Tips from Military Moms — Shopping

Military spouses face a lot of unique challenges. Frequent relocating, long-distance relationships, and extended periods of time separated from a partner can be extraordinarily difficult, especially while trying to raise children and manage a household, often on a tight budget. Keeping a house running smoothly and everybody fed under those circumstances requires a ton of planning, forethought, and self-control. And not to generalize or anything, but that means military moms tend to be excellent at grocery shopping.

In the interest of finding out how some of the top experts shop for groceries and stick to a budget, we reached out to five military moms for their best grocery budgeting tips. Here’s what they recommend.

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5 Things to Know About Cleaning with Vinegar — Cleaning Tips from Kitchn

It’s natural! It zaps stains! It’s cheap! There’s a lot to love about vinegar as a cleaning product. However, it’s not the perfect remedy for every cleaning job — or every cleaning person (oh, the stink!). Learn how to make it work for you, from Becky Rapinchuk, author of The Organically Clean Home and founder of the blog, Clean Mama.

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Next Week’s Meal Plan: 5 Easy Recipes to Start a Meal Plan — Next Week’s Meal Plan

Despite my best intentions and my love of meal planning, I do occasionally fall off the meal planning wagon. Even though I share my weekly meal plan here, sometimes things don’t go according to plan and we end up eating a lot of takeout and groceries are left uneaten.

This week I’m really and truly getting myself back on track, which is especially timely because Kitchn just kicked off a month-long series on the subject called Meal Plan Club. I’m using my favorite meal planning template to simplify things and ensure I can easily get back to basic meal planning.

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10 Surprising Grocery Store Finds That Are Whole30-Approved — 30 Days of Whole30

Whole30 isn’t a diet or a judgmental labeling of foods as “good and bad.” It’s actually a simple reset that has helped many of our readers cook more and figure out the foods that make them feel their best. Read more about our coverage here.

I will admit: Once you’ve got a handle on the guidelines of the Whole30 — yes to fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, eggs, and nuts; no to grains, legumes, dairy, sugar, preservatives, alcohol, and foods impersonating other foods (no cauliflower pizza crust, no egg-and-banana pancakes) — there are not a whole lot of Whole30-approved surprises. It’s exciting to me that scallops are okay (seafood), and I find it sad that chickpeas are out (legumes), but neither is a shock.

And yet there are foods — even, sometimes, conveniently packaged, easily accessible grocery store foods — that do in fact make the Whole30 cut, despite all odds to the contrary. These 10 grocery finds will make a month of Whole30 a little simpler.

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