Healthy Living

You only need two ingredients.

Give a warm welcome to your new favorite weeknight side dish. Stir-frying a big bag of spinach has become one of my favorite ways to get greens on the plate, and a few slices of garlic in the mix makes the spinach feel all grown up. To prepare, you’ll only need five ingredients, high heat, and a wok, and stir-frying spinach should only takes two-minutes. Even in the world of fast stir-fries, spinach is a speedy dish.

These oven-dried tomatoes are nothing like their sun-dried cousins.

Ratatouille, the classic French vegetable stew, is a perfect candidate for this hands-off cooking method.

The slow cooker is what brought homemade chicken stock into my everyday life. It’s just so easy! Throw everything — chicken bones, carrots, celery, onions, and maybe a bay leaf if you have one — into the slow cooker and let it do its thing. Hours later, you have beautiful, golden stock that’s guaranteed to be better than anything you can buy at the store. Here’s what to do.

Even people who think they don't like beets will fall in love with this vibrant pesto.

Skip the protein bar and eat one of these.

While I sometimes bring previously hot leftovers from dinner to work, these dishes don’t always taste amazing when reheated in the microwave. The answer, of course, is to bring a lunch that doesn’t need reheating in the first place. And happily for us all, there’s a slew of options for delicious cold lunches I can put together the night before. Always remember, your cold lunches don’t need to mean boring sandwiches or measly salads. You deserve better than that.

If you’re short on time in the morning, there’s nothing quite as fast or as tasty as a fruit smoothie. But smoothies do seem to have one drawback: Are they ever as filling as a proper breakfast? The answer is yes — they can be! It’s all a matter of adding the right ingredients for a smoothie that’s equal parts convenient, delicious, and satisfying.

This rich, creamy pasta sauce was the result of an experiment. We wanted to make a creamy, mushroom-y pasta topping with no cream. We’re trying to watch our diet a little better, and while we were eating pasta there was no need to indulge in cream, right? Instead, the bulk of this sauce is white wine, broth, and mushrooms. We don’t use a lot of wild mushrooms – they are expensive, and just a few will do here to give flavor. The result?

Are you looking for a little boost this time of year? If you’re looking for a tea that calms your nerves and lifts your mood, have this lemon balm tea. It’s made with a blend of herbs including oatstraw, rose hips, lavender, orange peel, and lemon balm, a cheery plant with a long history of raising our spirits. Sipping this tea will surely brighten those dreary days.

These will fuel you through the day.

You may have these wholesome ingredients in your kitchen right now.

Now you can have all the kettle corn you want from the comfort of your couch.

Best of both worlds.

Polenta is one of my very favorite breakfasts. I love the creamy, nutty taste of golden cornmeal in my bowl; it makes a lovely alternative to oatmeal or cold cereal. And it is even easier to whip up a bowl for breakfast than I realized, too. I used to just eat dinner leftovers for breakfast, but then I discovered that I can make a bowl of polenta in the microwave in five minutes.This will make one bowl of polenta, plenty for one person.

Keep things wholesome even if you're running out the door.

Breakfast is the easiest meal of the day to load up on probiotic foods.

Microwave popcorn has changed my snacking habits forever. No, I’m not talking about the plastic-wrapped packages of microwave popcorn from the store — although I will thank them for the inspiration. I’m talking about a more DIY version using a scoop of kernels and a plain brown paper lunch bag. It’s so easy and fast that it has now become the only way I make popcorn. Any paper bag will do, but I like to use brown paper lunch bags.

Watch the video to learn how to bake tofu at home.

I love bacon. There’s no replacement that quite equals the taste of the real thing (trust me, I grew up in a turkey bacon household). And I’d give anything to eat it again. But 10 years ago, my kidneys failed, and to stay alive and healthy, I started a very low-sodium diet. Which, in turn, meant saying goodbye to bacon. Luckily, though, that’s not where the story ends.

Even before I’d been to the Northstar Cafe in Columbus, Ohio, I’d heard about their veggie burgers. “They are unlike any other veggie burger you’ve ever had,” I was promised by both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. I’ll give you one guess what I ordered when I finally made it to the restaurant myself! This burger definitely lived up to expectations.

These bites will get you through the 3 p.m. slump.

Have you heard of fire cider? The first time I encountered this traditional folk recipe, I have to admit I was terrified. Horseradish, garlic, onion, ginger, hot peppers, and spices infused in apple cider vinegar? To drink? It took me years before I tried it, but you can be braver than me. It’s worth it! Plus you can use fire cider in so many ways — from cold cure to cooking to cocktails. Hot, pungent, sour, and sweet, fire cider is certainly not for the faint of heart.

Because the kids are hungry ... again.

This method is foolproof.

She's a pro at turning vegetables into comfort food.

It's everything I want to eat right now.

Fill your plate with color.

This easy vegan number won't wilt like more fragile salads.

Mix-and-match fillings means you'll be making it all fall and winter long.

A week's worth of low-cal meals that won't leave you hungry.

You can make cooking spaghetti squash easier and faster with an Instant Pot.

Forget the crunchy or mushy stuff that you may have suffered through in the past — we've got our method locked down.

A quick and easy alternative to your morning eggs.

This thick and silky French stew of eggplant, zucchini, sweet peppers, and ripe summer tomatoes will use up your extra vegetables in one fell swoop.

It happens every year at this time and you know it. Whatever your normal — and hopefully healthy — eating pattern is, you lose it. Normally I have a very balanced dieteggnogroast beef Take Tuesday night for example: I went into a dinner party situation wanting to eat light and not drink alcohol. Two blinks of the eye later I found a margarita in one hand and a goat cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped date in the other. Pretty soon there were pork loin sandwiches and chile rellenos.

Yes, there's a not-so-secret ingredient.

One of the rare times you actually want to be basic!

It’s a glorious summer day when your lunch involves a Nicoise salad and a glass of rosé. Although, truthfully, it would be glorious with just the salad alone. And the only thing that could possibly make it better is if I were actually eating it in France. Maybe next summer. Nicoise salad is sneaky. It’s the kind of meal that feels so classy and refined, but when you make it at home, it becomes an easy summer dinner to have any night of the week.

These are not just any soft and creamy scrambled eggs; these are the softest and the creamiest scrambled eggs of all time. These are the scrambled eggs that seal the deal on marriage proposals and earn you special brownie points every Mother’s Day brunch. These scrambled eggs put all others to shame. Want to know the secret to these swoony scrambled eggs? Here’s everything you need to make them for yourself.

How often do you cook wild rice? Maybe once a year to make a pilaf of some sort? Or perhaps as an addition to your Thanksgiving stuffing? Maybe you don’t cook it at all? But you should! This chewy, nutty-tasting grain definitely deserves a spot at the table year-round. It’s time to shake up your side dishes — here’s how to make a pot of perfectly cooked wild rice to have with dinner tonight.

Is it too good to be true?

It's easier than you think.

Yes, you can cook salmon in the slow cooker — and you should!

Almost more than any other kitchen gadget, this one is all about making one thing in your life easier.

Twenty bars, five ingredients, and a fraction of the price.

Yes, it's possible.

Grilled watermelon sounded strange to me at first too, but the grill caramelizes the melon's sweetness and gives it a subtle, smoky flavor.

No husking required!

In the grand pantheon of roasted vegetables, I feel that broccoli is king. Reviled by picky toddlers and neglected by snacking party-goers, here is a vegetable that is absolutely redeemed by the power of a hot oven. The tough stems turn tender, the tree-like tops turn crispy, and the color goes from dull and boring to a brilliant, appetizing emerald green. All hail King Broccoli.

From homemade to store-bought.

When we first discovered microwave potato chips four years ago, it was nothing short of a revelation. Even now, the fact that a short spin in the microwave can transform slices of potato into crispy (truly crispy!) chips without needing a drop of oil still seems like magic. Here’s how to make them. The key to these microwaved chips is slicing them very thinly. Between 1/8-inch and 1/16-inch is ideal, and this is easiest and most quickly done on a mandoline slicer.

Pretty pink ginger (and the color is all-natural)!

Have you ever sipped a shrub? Not the bush out in your front lawn, but a fruit syrup, preserved with vinegar and mixed with water or alcohol to make a tangy, refreshing beverage. An old-fashioned favorite, shrubs have steadily made a comeback in the last several years — especially on cocktail menus — but they aren’t solely the province of mixologists.

News flash, everybody: Summer is hot. I always seem to forget how hot it gets here in California, until it happens. The temperature starts to creep into the high 90s and I start to panic. It’s that how many layers of clothes can I remove in this social situation and still remain decent? sort of panic. I’ve come up with a solution to cool things down: How about we make some slushies? They’re easy to whip up in a blender, made with real fruit, and best of all, ice cold.