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.
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.”
One of the things I obsessively collect in my cooking life — aside, apparently, from container lids with no bases and jars of mustard seeds because every time a recipe requires it I presume I’m out because of that one time in 2010 I was — is recipes with very short ingredient lists. It’s not revolutionary to learn that, say, a salad can be made with just lettuce, oil, and vinegar or to find tomato bread, or basil pesto on these lists, but Marcella Hazan’s 3-ingredient tomato sauce is indeed something pretty revelatory, especially when you’re short on time to go to the store or merely patience to cook. So is this Minimalist Barbecue Sauce, Bacon Corn Hash, this summer squash pizza topping that could convert anyone to zucchini, and if does not, this Quick Zucchini Sauté will, the omelet that’s basically Spain’s national dish (and mine), and let us never forget all of the magical things that happen when you let fresh raspberries, brown sugar, and sour cream blister under a broiler, or roast a sweet potato until it almost candies itself inside. It’s not fully populated (I keep finding things I’ve missed and taking liberties when the 6th ingredient is butter or olive oil) but I finally got to pulling together a few of my favorites in this collection this summer. Life is busy; it’s here to help.
Despite all of this, I am a deeply contradictory person. While I assure you that these recipes don’t require any more ingredients than listed to fulfill their delicious destinies, if you were to try to tell me about a recipe with a set number of ingredients, I’d immediately bristle at the limitation. “What was the 6th one? Maybe I have it! I really don’t mind taking it out!”
You know that saying “everything but the kitchen sink?” While we totally get what it means (Target sells everything but the kitchen sink!), we can’t help but laugh at a possible other meaning: “I updated everything but the kitchen sink.” Because kitchen sinks are expensive! You can easily spend four figures — or close to it! — on a sink! Luckily you don’t have to.
We’ve rounded up 10 of the coolest sinks out there that’ll only cost you $500 or less.
It’s still another week until fall officially begins, but most of us are already sweating through a blanket scarf, staring at the trees trying to wish their leaves orange, and wondering how to add an Instagram story when both hands are wrapped around a Pumpkin Spice Latte.
Getting dinner on the table during the week can be a feat even in the best of times. Making that happen when you’re juggling a busy schedule can feel almost impossible. To avoid ordering takeout, eating a bowl of cereal, or grazing through the pantry, I lean on a roster of reliably quick and easy recipes.
From a one-pot taco soup to brown butter Parmesan pasta, these 22 recipes are just what you need in your back pocket when you want a satisfying dinner but are short on time and energy.
How do you create a food budget that works? I mean, you could just buy what you want and let the chips fall where they may. You could buy only what you need, but sometimes, uh, you really need a gallon of high-end ice cream.
As boring as it sounds, having a food budget — a distinct allowance for grocery shopping — really is important. In fact, it’s key to living within your means and achieving your financial goals. Without a food budget, it’s very easy to let spending get out of control without a lot to show for it.
Here is my food budget 101 — start from scratch to achieve a budget that really works for you.
When I was a child I thought Disney was the happiest place on Earth, but now that I’m an adult, I’m pretty sure it’s Costco. Disney has Space Mountain, but Costco has avocados that stay ripe twice as long, and really good Prosecco for just $6.99 a bottle. There’s no contest.
The only problem is that for a place that really wants to sell us everything from hot dogs to diamonds, Costco’s arcane policy of only accepting certain credit cards has not always made it easy to actually pay for them. But now checking out has gotten a lot easier, because Costco has started accepting mobile payments at all of its U.S. stores.
Meal prepping lunch for the week can really be a game-changer. It rids you of mornings digging around your fridge for something to pack and helps you curb your expensive takeout salad habit. We’re big believers in it and try to make a point to prep lunch each weekend. Here are some of our favorite recipes to get the job done.
The best lunches are the ones that are the simplest to pull off. They make use of leftover veggies in the crisper, humble pantry basics, and meal prep staples, which not only makes them easy but also keeps our weekly food budgets in check. These are the lunches that do just that, and come together in 15 minutes or less. If it sounds too good to be true, I assure you it’s not.