You already called out Ali Slagle but I can't help myself. Her recipes basically always have the ideal effort to outcome ratio. Her cookbook I Dream Of Dinner is our workhorse, we never get tired of it.
A friend was interested in this cookbook too so I made a list of our favorite recipes for them. If you end up checking it here are our favs (we are mostly vegetarian):
Pg 82 smoky white beans and cauliflower
Pg 103 French onion white bean bake
Pg 107 harissa chickpeas w feta
Pg 150 mushroom orzotto
Pg 154 skillet broccoli spaghetti
Pg 225 harissa creamed cauliflower
Pg 233 blistered peppers w mozzarella and croutons
Yum! It's not a Substack, but I LOVE the cookbook called "Feed These People" by Jen Hatmaker. She is hilarious, and a mom of 5ish kids, so she focuses on relatable, quick, delicious meals. We made the queso, hummus, and pulled pork recipes for Super Bowl!
We do sushi rice bowls almost weekly. Make a pot of sushi rice, season it when it's cooked and hot. While that's cooking, gather up toppings and everyone makes their own bowl.
Sushi rice seasoning: 4T rice vinegar, 2T sugar, 1t salt per 1.5 cups of rice
Toppings can be anything! If I'm tired we will make this completely no cook (aside from the rice but it is cooking itself in a rice pot). Our favorites are: smoked salmon, avocado, pickled vegetables, sashimi, frozen meatballs, seasoned gim packs, soft boiled eggs.
Have ponzu, furikake, and chili crisp on the side.
If you have the energy to cook and have ground meat kicking around, you can sauté that and season with sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, and acid for a topping. My 11 year old loves this. I will portion out his serving than wilt some greens in the rest for the adults.
We've been on a big no recipe meal kick. Less ingredients, don't have to look at something while juggling two little kids, and comes together rather quickly. One favorite is sweet potato bowls. Everyone gets a baked sweet potato and puts their own toppings on it (buffalo chicken, spinach, scallion, carrot, pumpkin seed, oranges (mandarin oranges are good here), bacon,
wheat berries or farro, provolone, balsamic vinaigrette).
Gotta put in a shout out to Caroline Chambers' substack: What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking. https://whattocook.substack.com Our simplest go to family dinners are things like this chopped salad https://smittenkitchen.com/2014/06/nancys-chopped-salad/ and what we call "sushi bowls" which is just rice prepped in the rice cooker, shrimp from the freezer sautéed simply, then cut up veggies like avocado, carrot and cucumber. Add soy sauce, ponzu, sesame seeds, nori, rice wine vinegar or other toppings that you like. Both of these types of dishes allow customization based on kid pickiness or other dietary stuff.
Came here to see if anyone had already recommended What to Cook! It’s so so good and makes up probably 97% of our weekly meals. As someone who used to be really into big, elevated cooking projects and now has a 2 year old (lol) the recipes always make me feel accomplished for cooking something good but are also always EASY.
I like Caro Chambers a lot! I’ve been trying to cut down on screen time (yes I know currently on a screen now) and have been trying to avoid looking at screens while prepping dinner so I got the Caro Chambers cookbook. It’s excellent. That plus the Ali Sagle cookbook feed us lots of easy weeknight meals.
This one is easy. I just serve it with plain rice. I think what I enjoy the most about her recipes is she gives so many substitutions and it makes it easy to use it as a guideline and do my own thing. (I'm terrible at following recipes, lol). https://whattocook.substack.com/p/30-minute-honey-gochujang-glazed
If that's your preferred cooking style, you might also like Mark Bittman's old column, The Minimalist. He basically provided a bunch of templates (rather than specific recipes) that people can customize as they see fit. It hasn't been published in years, but I believe the NYT Cooking section has everything in the archives if you want to check it out.
Ali Slagle is a genius!!! Love Ali Slagle’s book and also love Dinner by Melissa Clark. Super fast and fresh. A recent fave in our house, recipe wise is Miso Glazed Fish by Martha Rose Shulman on NYT app!
You already called out Ali Slagle but I can't help myself. Her recipes basically always have the ideal effort to outcome ratio. Her cookbook I Dream Of Dinner is our workhorse, we never get tired of it.
Ooh, I didn't know she had a cookbook! I will check it out!
A friend was interested in this cookbook too so I made a list of our favorite recipes for them. If you end up checking it here are our favs (we are mostly vegetarian):
Pg 82 smoky white beans and cauliflower
Pg 103 French onion white bean bake
Pg 107 harissa chickpeas w feta
Pg 150 mushroom orzotto
Pg 154 skillet broccoli spaghetti
Pg 225 harissa creamed cauliflower
Pg 233 blistered peppers w mozzarella and croutons
Pg 350 white bean scampi stew
Pg 366 one pot coconut rice and shrimp
Just made her singed rice dish with spinach and dill and crisped feta from the book tonight! A keeper!
A great option! https://smittenkitchen.com/2017/10/quick-pasta-and-chickpeas-pasta-e-ceci/
Ooh, I've always been curious about this one! Will add it to my list!
Thanks for all of these and especially the recommendation to The Dinner Ritual. Love her confluence of food and spirituality.
Yum! It's not a Substack, but I LOVE the cookbook called "Feed These People" by Jen Hatmaker. She is hilarious, and a mom of 5ish kids, so she focuses on relatable, quick, delicious meals. We made the queso, hummus, and pulled pork recipes for Super Bowl!
https://shop.jenhatmaker.com/products/ftp-book?srsltid=AfmBOoqAZM97-Oo2P6ZSB0ngY_q54hKH9vRT4zKMolDHONyBaSR3lKs3
Oh nice! Thanks for sharing!
We do sushi rice bowls almost weekly. Make a pot of sushi rice, season it when it's cooked and hot. While that's cooking, gather up toppings and everyone makes their own bowl.
Sushi rice seasoning: 4T rice vinegar, 2T sugar, 1t salt per 1.5 cups of rice
Toppings can be anything! If I'm tired we will make this completely no cook (aside from the rice but it is cooking itself in a rice pot). Our favorites are: smoked salmon, avocado, pickled vegetables, sashimi, frozen meatballs, seasoned gim packs, soft boiled eggs.
Have ponzu, furikake, and chili crisp on the side.
If you have the energy to cook and have ground meat kicking around, you can sauté that and season with sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, and acid for a topping. My 11 year old loves this. I will portion out his serving than wilt some greens in the rest for the adults.
We've been on a big no recipe meal kick. Less ingredients, don't have to look at something while juggling two little kids, and comes together rather quickly. One favorite is sweet potato bowls. Everyone gets a baked sweet potato and puts their own toppings on it (buffalo chicken, spinach, scallion, carrot, pumpkin seed, oranges (mandarin oranges are good here), bacon,
wheat berries or farro, provolone, balsamic vinaigrette).
Gotta put in a shout out to Caroline Chambers' substack: What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking. https://whattocook.substack.com Our simplest go to family dinners are things like this chopped salad https://smittenkitchen.com/2014/06/nancys-chopped-salad/ and what we call "sushi bowls" which is just rice prepped in the rice cooker, shrimp from the freezer sautéed simply, then cut up veggies like avocado, carrot and cucumber. Add soy sauce, ponzu, sesame seeds, nori, rice wine vinegar or other toppings that you like. Both of these types of dishes allow customization based on kid pickiness or other dietary stuff.
Came here to see if anyone had already recommended What to Cook! It’s so so good and makes up probably 97% of our weekly meals. As someone who used to be really into big, elevated cooking projects and now has a 2 year old (lol) the recipes always make me feel accomplished for cooking something good but are also always EASY.
Do you have any recipes from What to Cook that you particularly love?
I like Caro Chambers a lot! I’ve been trying to cut down on screen time (yes I know currently on a screen now) and have been trying to avoid looking at screens while prepping dinner so I got the Caro Chambers cookbook. It’s excellent. That plus the Ali Sagle cookbook feed us lots of easy weeknight meals.
This one is easy. I just serve it with plain rice. I think what I enjoy the most about her recipes is she gives so many substitutions and it makes it easy to use it as a guideline and do my own thing. (I'm terrible at following recipes, lol). https://whattocook.substack.com/p/30-minute-honey-gochujang-glazed
If that's your preferred cooking style, you might also like Mark Bittman's old column, The Minimalist. He basically provided a bunch of templates (rather than specific recipes) that people can customize as they see fit. It hasn't been published in years, but I believe the NYT Cooking section has everything in the archives if you want to check it out.
Yes I loved The Minimalist!
The sushi bowls sound delicious! And Smitten Kitchen truly has the very best recipes!
Ali Slagle is a genius!!! Love Ali Slagle’s book and also love Dinner by Melissa Clark. Super fast and fresh. A recent fave in our house, recipe wise is Miso Glazed Fish by Martha Rose Shulman on NYT app!
Yes! Melissa Clark's Dinner has so many gems.
Thanks so much for sharing, Lindsey!! Xoxo
Love Ali Slagle! Her Brussels and Gnocchi on NYT Cooking is a fave. Also recommend Caroline
Chambers substack What To Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking.