Food Diary

There are truly a million ways to do carbs at breakfast.  I know because I’ve tried most, if not all of them.  I mean… there are at least a hundred thousand ways to pancake alone.  We’re thankful, especially on the weekend.  My latest morning carb craving has been English Muffins and as a baker, I’m more than happy to buy them at the store and skip all the work of resting, rising, pan frying and baking the little suckers. Continue reading Cheddar Scallion English Muffin Bread at Joy the Baker.

Roasted black beans are the best easy healthy snack! Crunchy and spiced with cumin and garlic, they’re plant based…and hard to stop eating. You know crispy roasted chickpeas? These crunchy salty bits have become popular as a healthy snack, and they’re now sold packaged at stores and airports alike. So why not try the same idea with black beans? Meet our new very favorite snack: roasted black beans! Make up a big batch and you will fall in love with this irresistible crunchy plant-based snack. Alex and I can’t stop eating them…and neither can our 3 year old Larson. The might not be the most photogentic snack (just what are those?), but they’re absolutely delicious. Crispy roasted black beans: an easy healthy snack! Why make crispy roasted black beans? So many reasons. Isn’t it hard to find easy and healthy snacks? Alex and I often opt for roasted salted nuts and dried fruit, but sometimes that gets a little boring. (Truth.) We are big salty snack people over here, so salty snacks that a

Here’s the best simple guacamole with the perfect flavor! Creamy, savory and perfectly balanced, you’ll hear a chorus of “Wow’s” every time you serve it. Guacamole is like potato salad and coleslaw: everyone has their family favorite recipe. And this simple guacamole is ours. It’s a home run every time! When we serve it, a chorus of “Wow’s” fill the room. (Really. Not hyperbole!) What makes it so great? It’s classic and has the perfect balanced flavor: perfectly savory, creamy, and tangy. Serve it up with tortilla chips and your guests — and you — won’t be able to stop eating it. What’s in the best simple guacamole? Alex created this easy guacamole recipe and man is it good! One of our favorite Mexican restaurants in town closed (sadly), and they had the best guacamole on the planet. This one reminds me of theirs! It’s just the right balance of flavors. Here’s what you need for this simple guacamole: 3 ripe avocados: The avocados must give when you squeeze them. If they’re firm, don’t

This easy chili baked potato recipe works for weeknights or family dinners for a crowd! This trick lets you cook the potatoes in half the time. What’s for dinner? Yes, it’s a struggle for all of us! Alex and I have found it’s especially difficult when feeding a crowd. But here’s a solution that’s a perfect dinner for a crowd: chili baked potatoes! Bake up some potatoes, top them with chili and all the fixin’s, and it’s an easy dinner everyone can enjoy. Chili is a hearty match for fluffy potatoes, and really: who doesn’t love a baked potato bar with all those fun toppings? This recipe is gluten-free and vegan, so it fits a variety of diets around the table. Here’s how we make them: with our trick for baking the potatoes quickly! How to make chili baked potatoes Chili baked potatoes is a truly easy concept: make chili, bake potatoes, serve! It’s a great option for entertaining, like a big family dinner. Alex and I served this to a group of 12 people for a dinner party, and it went over

These easy mini frittatas are just what you need for a quick nutritious breakfast or lunch! Filled with pecans and veggies, make them ahead to grab and go. This post was created in partnership with the American Pecan Council. All opinions are our own.  Looking for nutritious breakfast or lunch ideas? Aren’t we all. Many readers have been asking us for quick nutritious recipes for busy mornings and office desk lunches. So Alex and I put our heads together and came up with a new trick: mini frittatas! Basically a muffin made of egg, they’re easy to meal prep and grab as you’re headed out the door. Refrigerate or freeze ’em, and you can eat off them all week. The best part: they’re so tasty! They’re filled with colorful veggies and crunchy pecans for added protein and nutrients. Why make mini frittatas? So many reasons. What’s so great about these pecan mini frittatas? Alex and I had never made them before, but they’re now part of our easy breakfast and lunch recipe staples! They’d also w

I can’t resist a salty sweet snack, especially one that combines peanut butter and chocolate. These Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Blondies are a delicious and easy treat that will satisfy your salty-sweet tooth, too. The Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Blondies are made with a buttery peanut butter dough that is loaded with dark chocolate chunks and topped with a generous sprinkle of sea salt to bring out the nutty flavor of the peanut butter in every bite. I usually bake blondies in a square or rectangular baking pan, just as I do for most brownie recipes, but this blondie recipe is baked in a muffin pan instead. The muffin pan produces perfectly round blondies that all have the same ratio of slightly crispy edge to chewy center. It also means that each blondie comes in its own wrapper, making it easy to transport and share them! The dough comes together in just a couple of minutes and is made with melted butter, peanut butter and both brown and white sugars. It is rich

Hello dear friends!  Happy Sunday!  Happy Mardi Gras!  We’re in full celebration this weekend. My house is full of friends and cakes.  There are beads everywhere. It’s hard to imagine a few years back when I didn’t celebrate like this every February.  This year’s Mardi Gras looks are mostly variations of lace gloves and cowboy boots – a mood.   I wish you well this fine day.  I hope there’s an extra bit of sparkle and celebration in your day.  Find it!   The offering this week is below.  As always, take only what you need.   •  1970’s Mardi Gras . Continue reading Let It Be Sunday, 259! at Joy the Baker.

Want to impress your guests with a party platter full of colorful vegan blinis. Here is how you do our blinis with two different toppings.

Here’s a monthly Mediterranean diet meal plan! It’s got lots of recipes and inspiration, planning ideas, and a meal planning calendar download. Need healthy food to cook this month? We’ve got answers. Here at A Couple Cooks, Alex and I have spent years honing our method for how to eat healthy meals every day , not just here and there. We made it our MO, wrote a cookbook called Pretty Simple Cooking , and have devoted our careers to helping connect people to healthy recipes. But how to do you do it…every day? Here’s our new 28 day Mediterranean diet meal plan, designed to do exactly that! The goal of this plan is to help you make a sustainable practice of cooking and eating healthy food at home. In the process, we hope you’ll become inspired and find a handful of recipes you’ll make again and again. (If you like: Subscribe to our newsletter  for new weekly recipes.) Is this Mediterranean diet meal plan right for you? This Mediterranean diet meal plan is right for you if you eat a v

This arugula beet salad is the perfect easy side dish! It features vibrant beets, toasted walnuts, and a zingy citrus vinaigrette dressing. Here’s a green salad idea that’s flavorful and versatile: arugula beet salad! It features jewel-toned roasted beets with baby arugula, all covered in a zingy citrus vinaigrette. Add thin-sliced shallots and toasted walnuts, and it tastes sophisticated with minimal effort. Shhh: here’s our secret! Alex and I made this with those precooked beets you can find in many stores these days. Usually we roast our own…but it saved a massive amount of time. Either way: this salad needs to be part of your side dish repertoire! What’s in this arugula beet salad? This arugula beet salad recipe is an exercise in essentialism . What is absolutely essential to a beet salad, and what can we live without to keep it simple? Alex and I played around with a few variables for this salad, and came up with classic flavor combinations that taste incredible . Beets, citr

Hello sweet friends!  This week marks the meat of Mardi Gras – the real good stuff. Parades every night. Long lunches that somehow turn into dinner. Parking strategies. Late night snack strategies.  Comfy sparkle shoes to walk from one side of town to the other. Friends that leave their houses open for long parade nights. Jambalaya in a crock pot. King cake truly everywhere we go.   Mardi Gras is a game of strategy to maximize the absolute best time. Continue reading Pull-Apart Biscuit King Cake at Joy the Baker.

Crepes are a wonderful way to start out your day. The ultra-thin pancakes are a breakfast favorite of mine, even though they are versatile enough to be served as a savory dish or a sweet dessert . For breakfast, I like to spread them with jam or wrap them around sausages and drizzle them with maple syrup. No matter how I’m serving them, I usually opt for my favorite crepe batter recipe: Food Processor Crepes. This crepe batter only takes 2 minutes to prepare in the food processor and makes wonderfully tender crepes that are perfect for just about any preparation. The recipe is very simple and requires just four main ingredients: flour, milk, eggs and salt. These are kitchen staples that you probably have on hand right now! To make the batter, just combine everything in the food processor and whizz for two minutes, until very smooth. This can be done with a whisk, but the food processor is the quickest and easiest way to ensure that you will have no lumps in your batter. Once the ba

This broccoli potato soup is intensely creamy, satisfying, and 100% plant based! It’s an easy healthy soup that everyone loves. Hold onto your hats! Here’s a creamy broccoli potato soup that will blow your mind. (We hope.) It’s impossibly creamy, whole food plant based ( WFPB ), and it tastes like the coziest bowl of comfort. And it’s 100% made of veggies! How’s that for amazing? This easy and healthy soup is vegan and gluten-free, so it works for a variety of diets. But it tastes like an elevated version of broccoli cheese soup from a can (you know the one). Here are all the secrets to making this crowd-pleaser…everyone will ask for the recipe. What’s in this broccoli potato soup? This a vegan broccoli soup, but it looks legit cheesy, doesn’t it? This recipe was born out of an idea to make the dairy-filled version. But then I sat back and thought about how my stomach would feel after eating a rich, creamy soup. Is there broccoli potato soup that’s creamy and plant based ? Oh yes,