Everyday cooking

Everyday cooking

It may sound weird, and it's definitely unconventional, but Ree Drummond's method for boiling an omelet in a bag is actually genius. You need to try this if you're among those of us who try to flip an omelet and quickly change the meal plan to scrambled eggs every time. On her Food Network show, " The Pioneer Woman," Drummond demonstrated how she makes an omelet by adding all the ingredients for the previously complicated egg dish to a boil-safe bag and cooking a tasty dish in minutes. After enjoying this dish, there are no messy pans to scrub because you can simply toss the bag in the trash.

Ever since I've hit upon my perfect overnight oats recipe, I can't stop riffing on flavors. With the change of seasons, of course I had to create a pumpkin spin. These pumpkin overnight oats are super cozy, require only 5 minutes of prep, and are easy for busy mornings! I love that this recipe serves two perfectly, making it great for meal prep. The creamy pumpkin adds a creamy texture, offset by maple syrup and warm spices.

Basil stems, like the stalks of most soft herbs, are entirely edible. While they may be too tough to blend into a smooth pesto sauce or to used as garnish, they still have some of that sweet, peppery basil flavor that can be infused into the syrup. Moreover, turning basil stems into a herby and flavorful syrup is easier than it sounds. Just whip out a pot, add some water, sugar, and, of course, the basil stems, and reduce it into a syrup.

I won't pretend that these are the height of Italian fashion, but style is eternal as is the childish joy of a bright yellow frozen lemon. You could, of course, buy in lemon sorbet instead, and use the flesh from the lemon shells for cocktails or lemonade (and/or freeze the juice for future use), but this really is such an easy make-ahead dessert that I urge you to give it a go.

Today, I love cooking up a batch as a healthy side dish or as part of a grain bowl. This farro with mushrooms is bursting with flavor from the savory mushrooms, garlic, and fresh thyme and oregano. Add a spritz of fresh lemon juice and some grated Parmesan cheese and it's a side dish everyone raves about! Want more with mushrooms? Try Mushroom Soup, Sauteed Mushrooms and Onions, Portobello Burger and more.

Once you've taken care to cut the outer peel from a fresh pineapple, you might just find some brown spots from the leftover peel, which are commonly referred to as "eyes." Albeit unsightly and unpleasant in taste and texture, the simplest way to remove these eyes while reducing food waste is with the use of a spoon. This is the quickest and easiest method that will leave the most fruit intact.

Baking usually comes in recipe-precise ingredients and multi-step efforts, with hours upon hours of labor brought together by the oven heat. It's rarely something you throw together and be done in a flash. Unless, of course, you are making apple turnovers, and you already have the three bare essentials. Sheets of puff pastry, applesauce, and a glaze, plus just a bit of preparation and hands-off cooking, and voilà, a golden batch of fall desserts ready in no time.

While everybody's preferences differ, a good chia pudding is neither too runny or too clumpy. Instead, it should be creamy and thick enough to resemble, well, a pudding. To achieve this, you'll want to transfer your pudding to an airtight container in the fridge and wait for at least one to two hours before eating it. If you want the pudding to have a really thick, velvety, and almost tapioca pudding-like consistency, consider leaving the mixture in the fridge overnight.

There is something so simple but so delicious about a parcel of fish. Like unwrapping an edible present, the smell hits you before anything else, which in this case is fennel, thyme and lemon. It is a delicate way to cook fish, so the sauce needs to have some character, and basil, olives and lemon with a slick of olive oil make a beautiful, late-summer seasoning.

These apple cinnamon overnight oats are a delicious whole grain healthy breakfast! This easy make-ahead recipe combines sweet tart apples, warm cinnamon, and chewy oats for the perfect morning meal. I've been making overnight oats for years, but this apple cinnamon version has quickly become my family's obsession! The sweet tart chunks of apple add delicious texture, while the cinnamon heightens the cozy flavors. My son immediately asked me to make another batch!

If you typically reach for butter when whipping up your favorite baked goods, it might be time to switch things up. A glug of olive oil can be a transformative addition to a wide range of home-baked classics, adding moisture, richness, and a hint of fruity sharpness. In sweet treats like cakes, brownies, and cookies, olive oil can be used as a replacement for more traditional forms of fat, and it's sure to yield that same irresistibly tender texture.

We've all been there. You get a flash of inspiration or a sudden late-night craving for something comforting with a creamy sauce. But a quick assessment of the fridge reveals you're missing a key ingredient: heavy cream. It might not be something you always have on hand just in case. The good news is that you can assemble a good substitute for heavy cream from a couple of more common ingredients.

A spoon of salsa can completely change a meal. From fiery tacos and cheesy enchiladas to burrito bowls and seared meats, a little goes a long way in terms of elevating flavor. This is especially true with fire-roasted salsa, which adds a distinct smokiness and new depth to dishes. However, a blend of peppers like serrano and jalapeños are often added to fire-roasted salsa that can increase its spice levels.

Many of us likely rinse our broccoli by holding its flowering crown under running water in our sinks, like we're holding a bouquet. That's considered the top of this veggie, after all. However, you actually want to hold broccoli upside down. The running water should hit the stem and make its way into all of the nooks and crannies of the head.

You can use these two pantry staples - vanilla extract and baking soda - either alone or together for an even bigger burst of freshness at a fraction of the cost, without even leaving the house to purchase a new bottle. The vanilla extract and baking soda make a simple DIY air freshener that will have you saying goodbye to the spray cans and hello to a sweet new way of sprucing things up.

Here's a fun new favorite recipe that started as a simple request from family: pumpkin oatmeal muffins! The other day my aunt Cheryl called asking if I had a pumpkin oatmeal muffin recipe on this website. I didn't, so we ended up creating this recipe together, combining elements from my popular healthy banana muffins and healthy oatmeal muffins. Everything goes right into the blender and there's no all-purpose flour: so they're naturally gluten-free, too.

It's sweet and savory. The corn gives this recipe a delicious natural sweetness. To balance it, I add celery, Old Bay seasoning, onion, garlic, thyme, and smoked paprika. I love this sweet and savory combination of ingredients!

If you let your coconut sit in the freezer overnight, it will be much easier to open up the shell. Simply hit the frozen coconut with the dull side of a cleaver a few times, and it will crack in half. Then, after you scrape out the frozen coconut water, the shell can be easily popped off the coconut meat.

Ever hastily salted a bubbling stew with Morton salt and accidentally poured in an avalanche of the white stuff? Then you may be pleased to know that there's a hack for solving that first-world problem. In fact, you may have been opening Morton salt containers wrong your entire life if you've simply been lifting the metal spout and cooking up a storm. There's actually an additional step that can turn that big container of salt into a shaker: removing the cardboard tag inside.

If you want every bite to actually taste like a good BLT, there's one bacon prep step you can't skip: Draining off the extra grease. Forget that, and the whole thing starts falling apart. This might be obvious to some people, but if you're not cooking a lot, it's not always the first thing you think about. Bacon grease left sitting there is going to soak into the bread, make it heavy, soggy, and overly greasy.

The joy of eating strawberries extends beyond their sweet and tart taste; one of their best qualities is just how effortlessly snackable they are. All you need to do is give one a simple wash and pluck out its stem before munching on it. As it turns out, however, there is merit to giving strawberries some extra prep. It may seem unnecessary to peel a strawberry, but there's a reason why you should - it improves the flavor and texture of the fruit.

Why you'll love this oatmeal: Tastes like fall: The combination of apples, maple syrup and cinnamon tastes like fall in a bowl! Fiber-filled: Rolled oats and apples together have approximately 8 grams of fiber in them, making this an ideal breakfast recipe. Vegan + gluten-free: Many oats at the grocery store are gluten free, and as long as you use dairy-free milk, this recipe is also vegan-friendly.

I couldn't decide whether I wanted to make stuffed peppers or stuffed zucchini. So, I added zucchini to my stuffed peppers!