Sometimes the trickiest thing with meal prep can simply be deciding what to cook. You want to avoid making the same exact thing every single week, but you also want to keep things stress-free. I’ve found that the best way to keep meal prep food varied and interesting is by getting inspiration from other meal preppers and home cooks.

So I asked 10 seasoned home cooks to share their favorite meal prep recipes, plus smart tips on how they put them to work during the week. Here’s what they had to say.

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Are you looking to reduce your sodium? The reality is that most of us take in far too much, thanks mainly to processed and fast foods, not a heavy hand with the saltshaker. The very latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans call for eating less than 2,300 milligrams — or, one teaspoon of table salt — each day. If you’re on a low-sodium diet, your intake should be even lower.

The very easiest way to cut sodium is to avoid what the American Heart Association terms the salty six: bread, pizza, sandwiches, cold/cured meats, soup, and burritos/tacos. These popular, convenient, readily available foods have sky-high sodium (one cup of canned soup, for instance, could have half your daily allotment of sodium, for instance).

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Not all of us live near a Trader Joe’s (or find ourselves willing to brave the crowds and stand in line for who knows how long). And while Trader Joe’s says it will never add an e-commerce option to its site, it’s worth pointing out that you can buy some classic Trader Joe’s items on Amazon — with Prime shipping, no less!

Just be warned: The prices are often higher this way than in stores. (These products are usually sold through a third-party vendor and shipped through Amazon.) But you could end up saving your gas money (and your sanity), so it’s really up to you to weigh your options.

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We know: You already make pretty good lasagna. But what if you could make it wildly better? We’re talking the difference here between lasagna and ah-mazing lasagna. Now you’re listening?

We’ve come up with a list of five things you need in order to make this happen. Some items on the list are little gadgets that’ll make a big difference, while others are straight-up tips. Try some of these out and let us know how it goes.

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There’s nothing like a good deal. Whether you randomly stumbled upon a major sale or have been meticulously tracking the price of that dream buy for months, it feels good to save money on the things you love. At Kitchn, we know you don’t have all day to find the best deals, so we’re doing the legwork for you.

From cute aprons to discounted Vitamix blenders, here are this week’s best kitchen deals.

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Early fall days and the arrival of apple season have a knack for conjuring up the desire for oat-topped crisps and apple pie. And those are, of course, always nice, but what I really want — and more importantly, what I’ll actually get around to making — are truly easy apple-filled recipes I can make any day of the week.

If your goal is to get your fill of apples every which way, these are the 10 recipes you want within arm’s reach. They’re easy as can be, so you can make them over and over again all season long.

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It’s go time, goth kids! Every year Pinterest’s Pinfrights Report tracks the year’s top trending and most popular Halloween ideas on the site to find out what are the coolest Halloween trends for the year, and this year’s favorites are an adorable mash-up of creepy-cute snacks and drinks that are as fun for grown-ups as they are for kids.

According to Pinterest, these are the top Halloween food ideas for 2018.

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If I don’t pry myself away from the baking sheet, I could eat a whole tray of roasted butternut squash straight out of the oven. It’s not only my favorite fall vegetable — it’s my favorite vegetable, period. That’s because when roasted, cubes of butternut squash takes on a deliciously sweet flavor with super-crispy edges and a tender, creamy center.

If you start with a whole butternut squash, these tasty little cubes come at a price. First, you have to peel the awkward-shaped veg without slicing your finger on the peeler or having the slippery squash roll off the cutting board. Then you have to seed it and attempt to chop it into equal-sized pieces so that they cook evenly. Only then can you move forward with roasting.

But we’ve got a shortcut, so you can be noshing on squash in just 25 minutes. Here’s how to do it.

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You know how once you’ve finally gone and done something, you look back in hindsight and kick yourself for not doing it sooner? That’s how I feel now that I finally own a Vitamix blender.

I’d coveted a Vitamix for as long as I can remember, but never thought I could justify the expense. I mainly used my blender to make morning smoothies, so I spent years buying cheap model after cheap model (in the $50 range), thinking they were good enough to carry out such a basic task.

But for all the poorly blended smoothies I drank with huge chunks of kale and ice in them, and for all the blenders I had to retire after only a year, I could’ve just bought a Vitamix and saved money and avoided sad smoothies from the start.

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