Recipes
Easy Chili
Look no further for the ultimate, easy chili recipe. You may think you know how to make chili, but our homemade chili recipe is a gamechanger. With just a push of a button, your weekday dinner is taken care of as the chili cooks away in the slow-cooker. Add chili to your next barbeque to top grilled sausages for an upgraded version of chili dogs. You can easily substitute ground turkey instead of beef for a lighter option and the rest of the ingredients should already be stocked away in your pantry. To top the hot, spicy chili, add shredded Cheddar cheese and corn chips for extra flavor and texture. To go beyond our favorite classic recipe, find more chili recipes here.
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Warm Cinnamon Apples
This simple spiced apples recipe is perfect for so many applications. The tender, brown sugar-sweetened fruit slices are great served at breakfast, make for a warm and tasty side dish (especially for kiddos), are the ideal flavor complement spooned over pork chops or a pork loin, and are an amazing seasonal addition to a bowl of vanilla ice cream. If you can't find McIntosh apples, substitute another baking apple such as Rome or Gala; or to change things up, try a crisp, tart green apple such as Granny Smith.
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Easy Homemade Cream-of-Anything Soup
When it comes to food alchemy, cream of mushroom soup is one of the strongest multitaskers around. But if you’re looking for something healthier than the canned version, it’s super simple to make yourself. Mildly savory and creamy, with a hint of chicken flavor, this subtle soup is a great building block for other flavors and dishes. It’s velvety when it’s hot, and as it cools, it thickens, making it the ultimate binding agent for casseroles.
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Best Damn Chicken Pot Pie
The name says it all—this pot pie is damn delicious! This crowd-winning chicken pot pie recipe comes from Julie Grimes’s $10 Dinners: Delicious Meals for a Family of 4 that Don't Break the Bank; grab a copy today for more budget-friendly recipes that taste like a million bucks.
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Crockpot Funeral Potatoes
Our take on Crock Pot Funeral Potatoes couldn’t be easier—you simply make it and walk away for a few hours. It’s a classic, rib-sticking, cheesy sour cream potato dish that sure to please, or at least satisfy, a crowd. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could any condensed “Cream Of” soup, as well as any 12-ounce combination of melting cheeses. We used Ore Ida potatoes and Campbell’s soup, but you can adjust to incorporate your preferred brands. These potatoes make a great side for a heartier meat dish, like roast beef or ham. Wash them down with iced tea.
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Quick and Easy Green Beans
Here's a fast, efficient way to cook green beans (and other vegetables), eliminating the fuss of bringing a large pot of water to a boil or draining the veggies. (Cost for 4: $1.12)
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Creamy White Chicken Chili
This Creamy White Chicken Chili is super easy to make—seriously, it only takes 30 minutes, and it’s manageable for beginner cooks. To make it even easier, you could even use a rotisserie chicken. It’s rich, packed with beans, vegetables, and chicken, and isn’t too spicy, but you can always add hot sauce or sliced fresh jalapeños to up the heat factory. Building flavor in one pot is the best way to make a soup or chili, and fortunately this chicken chili starts off extracting flavor and juice from the chicken. The result is a great layering of flavors: Even though this chili is decadent and creamy, there’s plenty of greens and bite from the poblanos, green onions, avocado, and cilantro. For added brightness, top with sliced red onions or radishes, or a dollop of Greek yogurt or sour cream. Turn it into a comforting, filling meal with some tortilla chips, corn bread, salad, and lots of fresh toppings.
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THICK Chocolate Chip Cookies
The key to making big, thick bakery-style chocolate chip cookies isn’t in secret ingredients or tricky techniques—it’s actually just a matter of shifting the ratios of your ingredients a bit. These dense, thick, decadent cookies have less sugar and more baking powder than your standard chocolate chip cookies, which helps inhibit the cookies’ spreading during baking. While we think that preparing this recipe as six gigantic cookies is sort of an essential part of the experience, you could make twelve smaller cookies if you prefer; you will simply need to adjust your bake times accordingly. For more helpful cookie baking tips, check out our guide to making the perfect batch.
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Twice Baked Potato Casserole
Our Twice Baked Potato Casserole has all the “twice-baked potato” vibes you’re looking for. In other words, it’s everything you want your twice-baked potato to be. All the ingredients are super easy to find. We recommend using russet potatoes here since they’re starchy, making them the perfect baking potatoes. You can assemble this up to one day ahead if needed, and then bake right before serving. It makes a great side for a steak, but can easily be a standalone meal. Try topping it with fresh or pickled jalapeños for some added spice, or chopped tomatoes for some contrast.
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Easy One-Bowl Apple Cake
This easy apple cake requires only one mixing bowl and a handful of basic ingredients, but bakes up into a delightfully dense, moist cake you’ll want to make again and again. This cake leans more on the side of rich and gooey than light and fluffy, so it’s a natural partner to a scoop of ice cream. We suggest using gala, Fugi, or honeycrisp apples as they’ll hold up well in the cake and lend a pleasant apple flavor—you could even use a mix of all three! Keep in mind, this cake bakes up dark in color (baking in a dark pan will enhance this) due in part to the brown sugar and the amount of cinnamon in the batter. Check in after 25-30 minutes in the oven; if your cake’s edges are browning quickly, go ahead and loosely cover the pan with aluminum foil for the remainder of the cake’s bake time.
Recipes
Spaghetti Squash Casserole
Our Spaghetti Squash Casserole has all the goodness of a cheesy pasta bake, and the absence of pasta makes room for lots of nutrients. The beef, marinara sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan keep that classic casserole taste intact, while the squash “noodles” hold up nicely and don’t water out. The flavors keep this family-friendly, but it’s especially great for anyone trying to avoid gluten.
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Easy Pickled Beets
Just six ingredients go into this easy sweet-and-sour pickled beets side dish. Use a mix of red and golden beets, if you like. Pickled beets can stay in your pantry for months so make extra to have on hand. They add a great tang and color to a fresh cole slaw, bright flavor and color to a cheese board and earthy notes to a spinach salad. The pickling liquid is a great base for other vegetables you will have depending on the season such as cucumbers, carrots and onions.
