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This is from Kendall!

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Quinoa holds strong as one of our favorite ingredients for the healthy cook: a quick-cooking, gluten-free whole grain that's also a good ...

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This is from Mandy and Mel!

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SOUP IS JUST A BELLY SWEATER.

In a large pot over medium heat, add the oil, garlic, ginger, and red curry paste and cook them all together for 2 minutes to wake up all that flavor in the curry paste.

Add the broth, coconut milk, and soy sauce. Bring it all to a boil then fold in the noodles, spinach, tofu, and lime juice. Simmer that all up until the spinach has wilted, about 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and taste to see if it's where you like it. Serve it up with all the topping and get down on some good shit.

* There are plenty of great recipes for homemade shit out there so dig up one of those if you have the time. Rushing? Store bought is legit. You'll find it near the coconut milk and rice noodles, not on the spice aisle.

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SOUP IS JUST A BELLY SWEATER. In a large pot over medium heat, add the oil, garlic, ginger, and red curry paste and cook them all together for 2 minutes to wake up all that flavor in the curry paste. Add the broth, coconut milk, and soy sauce.

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This is from Mandy and Mel!

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Don't use Halloween as an excuse to count a big ass bag of mediocre candy as a snack. You know damn well that shit is just going to fuck with your stomach. Instead calm your cravings with this coconut caramel dip.

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Don't use Halloween as an excuse to count a big ass bag of mediocre candy as a snack. You know damn well that shit is just going to fuck with your stomach. Instead calm your cravings with this coconut caramel dip.

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From Beth! This is amazing, the goat cheese really makes it! Happy quar

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1½ pounds eggplant, unpeeled, sliced lengthwise ¼ inch thick

¾ pound zucchini, unpeeled, sliced lengthwise ¼ inch thick

⅔ cup good olive oil

1 tablespoon dried oregano

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)

10 ounces lasagna noodles, such as De Cecco

16 ounces fresh whole-milk ricotta

8 ounces creamy garlic and herb goat cheese, at room temperature

2 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup chopped fresh basil leaves, lightly packed

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided

4½ cups good bottled marinara sauce, such as Rao's (40 ounces)

1 pound lightly salted fresh mozzarella, very thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Arrange the eggplant and zucchini in single layers on 3 sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Brush them generously with the olive oil on both sides, using all of the oil. Sprinkle with the oregano (I crush it in my hands), 1 tablespoon salt, and 1½ teaspoons pepper. Roast for 25 minutes, sprinkle the garlic evenly on the vegetables, and roast for another 5 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked through. Remove from the oven and lower the temperature to 350 degrees.

Meanwhile, fill a very large bowl with the hottest tap water and add enough boiling water to bring the temperature to 140 degrees. One at a time, place the noodles in the water and soak them for 15 -minutes, swirling occasionally so they don't stick together. Drain and slide the noodles around again.

Combine the ricotta, goat cheese, eggs, basil, ½ cup of the Parmesan, 1½ teaspoons salt, and ¾ teaspoon pepper in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed.

Spread 1 cup of the marinara in a 9 × 13 × 2-inch baking dish. Arrange a third of the vegetables on top, then a layer of the noodles (cut to fit), a third of the mozzarella, and a third of the ricotta mixture in large dollops between the mozzarella. Repeat twice, starting with the marinara. Spread the last 1½ cups of marinara on top and sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup of Parmesan. Place the dish on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake for 60 to 70 minutes, until the lasagna is browned and bubbly. Allow to rest for 10 minutes and serve hot.

Copyright 2014, Make It Ahead by Ina Garten, Clarkson Potter/Publishers, All Rights Reserved

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Roasted Vegetable Lasagna | Barefoot Contessa

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1½ pounds eggplant, unpeeled, sliced lengthwise ¼ inch thick ¾ pound zucchini, unpeeled, sliced lengthwise ¼ inch thick ⅔ cup good olive oil 1 tablespoon dried oregano Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves) 10 ounces lasagna noodles, such as De Cecco 16 ounces

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This is a favorite!!! I add more carrots and onions, and I throw thawed Petite peas after it has baked, rather then when it goes into bake! I also have used less chicken and mushroom soup and added more broth to make it more soupy!

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There is something about chicken pot pie that just makes you want to go home. I have vivid memories of my mom making chicken pot pie with a fire roaring in our living room and watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with my brother and sister. It is a symbol of winter and warmth and all of the cozy things we love about this season!

My friend Allie introduced me to this recipe which is famously called Chicken Pudding (a healthier version of chicken pot pie from her mom's recipe box). It is a FAN FAVORITE amongst our friends. Every time we get together for dinner, we hope this is on the menu. It is super easy to prepare ahead of time, reheats well and is so satisfying but without the extra calories from the pastry dough (although, Dave loves when I bake biscuits to serve on the side).

What you'll need:

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 white onion, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1 15oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 28oz can cream of chicken soup
salt + pepper to taste
chicken stock (just in case it gets dry)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through. Let cool, shred and set aside in a mixing bowl. In a sauté pan, heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and cook the onions for 5 minutes. Add the carrots and celery and cook until everything is soft. Season with salt and pepper. Add the veggie mixture to the mixing bowl with the chicken. Add the frozen peas. Add both soups and combine until everything is evenly coated. Season with salt and pepper (we like a lot of pepper!). Transfer the mixture to a casserole dish and bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes, just until heated through. It should come out bubbling hot! Serve with a biscuit and jam or with a side salad. We also like to add a little hot sauce. Enjoy!

*If you feel like the dish is getting too dry in the oven, you can add a little chicken stock and mix to moisten.

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Skinny Chicken Pot Pie Recipe - Sequins & Stripes

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There is something about chicken pot pie that just makes you want to go home. I have vivid memories of my mom making chicken pot pie with a fire roaring in our living room and watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with my brother and sister.

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This is from Kara! https://fakeginger.com/pistachio-thumbprint-cookies/

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It's Christmas cookie season!

How excited are you?!

And how was Thanksgiving?!

My kids were out of town and since I very rarely get a night without kids and I'm also always whining about the lack of poke in our tiny city, BF drove us 45 minutes Wednesday night so we could have a Thanksgiving sushi burrito and poke bowl. He had to work real Thanksgiving and I was happy not to cook a single thing this year.

And then I never left the house the rest of the weekend except to pick my kids up yesterday.

It was perfect.

And the best part about Thanksgiving is that now that it's over, we can spend the next month talking about nothing but Christmas cookies!

And fudge!

And Oreo truffles!

I have a couple cookies that I make every single year (these cranberry orange cookies and these no bake almond bark drop cookies) and then I just like to 57 other kinds that I've never made before.

I started an Evernote list for this year's cookies last December. Before Christmas was even here.

Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies!

Anyway.

I love a pistachio cookie at Christmas time.

I mean, what's more festive than a green cookie?! My kids took one look at these Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies and called them Grinch cookies and now I feel like I really missed an opportunity with some red heart sprinkles.

And these have both vanilla and almond extracts so they're reminiscent of Blue Bell's Pistachio Almond Ice Cream which is one of my absolute favorite things in the world.

The pistachio flavor and green color come from an instant pudding mix which gives cookies the absolute best texture. They're soft but not chewy. And they're made with powdered sugar so they have that melt-in-your-mouth texture that I just can't resist.

They're rolled in chopped pecans for a crunch and then filled with a vanilla filling.

From there you just drizzle with melted chocolate and let everything set!

If you're one of those organized people that makes cookies in advance, you could either make the dough and freeze it or go ahead and bake them and freeze them - but I don't think I would fill or glaze them. Wait to do that fresh.

Things you may need for this recipe:

Want more holiday cookie recipes?
Cranberry Orange Cookies Red Velvet Thumbprint Cookies Almond Bark Drop Cookies

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Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies - pistachio cookies with vanilla filling and a chocolate drizzle! The perfect Christmas cookie! It's Christmas cookie season! How excited are you?! And how was Thanksgiving?!

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https://hostthetoast.com/best-chewy-cafe-style-chocolate-chip-cookies/

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Do you use salted or unsalted butter?
Thank you

Hey!
Yes I did use parchment paper and I baked them for about 10-11min. At 325
I also don't know why they are not spreading out very much, and they are not very soft and gooey looking as your pictures.
Your pictures look amazing and so yummy!

I put them in the middle of the oven. Next time I'll try using a little less flour because the dough was a little crumbly and maybe a tiny bit of milk to see if that will make a difference.
Thanks for your help

No I don't think I packed the four down I just scooped it and then scraped it off with the back of a butter knife. My dough was not sticky at all it was more on the dryer side then sticky.... I followed the recipe to a tee.
How do I make them more sticky? Im not sure what to do

You want to let it cool as per the instructions- this will probably take about 5 minutes. You want your butter to be close to room temperature. It won't entirely solidify again, but it does get a little bit thicker.

I don't say to beat the butter until light and fluffy in the recipe. The butter WILL get lighter and fluff up a little, because, as I mentioned, it thickens up when you let it cool to room temperature (and it is mixed with the sugars), but the instructions simply say to beat the butter and sugar together for 1 minute =) You'll be good if you do that!

Hope that helped!

Hi Emma!

If you can store them in an airtight container, that's much preferable, but I've left them out overnight and they've been still chewy the next day. I don't know how long they store for because they never last that long! However, either way they will last longer if you refrigerate/freeze them in airtight containers.

I got 20 palm-sized cookies out of this batch. However, I recommend you definitely do a test run to see for yourself before doing your Christmas presents, just because there are a variety of factors that can be slightly different between my kitchen/technique and yours that might give you slightly different results. (I always recommend this for any recipes, but especially baking recipes.)

I don't even think my oven has a fan, haha. No, no fans were on when I made mine!

I hope you and all of your gift-getters enjoy them, Emma!!! =)

I followed your recipe to the T
My 8yo niece and I love, love, love this version of CCC's!
I will be sharing this recipe with every one. Just NOT the cookies (;

Thank you for sharing!!!!!
Warmest regards, Madeline and Valarie

thanks for the weights. i'm canadian living in the uk, and i'm finding the weight system so much easier-not to mention fewer dishes to wash. 🙂

but twice i've triedmaking this with north american measures with good quality ingredients carefully measured , and both times it has not worked at all.
the cookies taste good, and they are chewy, but they flatten right out-within a couple minutes of hitting the oven. i've made 'bumpy' cookies before, and the dough has been a lot firmer than this one.

possibly the british flour is different from american, i'm wondering if all of us having problems with this are outside north america? that might explain it?

This is legitimately the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever tried, and I've tried A LOT of recipes. I have an oven from hell (I usually have to cut the suggested baking time down by 15% for every recipe I try), so your tip on baking one or two cookies to test was a godsend - mine were perfect by at least 8 minutes. Any longer than that and they would not have been as chewy and perfect. Props to you, girl. You're my new favorite person.

Hi Hazel! How long did you refrigerate the dough? The dough should be pretty sticky before refrigerating, but it should stiffen up a lot after 30 mins to an hour. If it was extremely wet/sticky/soft, then the issue may have been too much moisture (perhaps if you used extra large eggs instead of large, or didn't let your butter cool first before mixing) or not using enough dry ingredients (not packing down the brown sugar, using too little flour). Do you think any of these could have been the case?

Oh goodness I forgot to check back! Thank you for replying, and hope you had a good Christmas!
I refrigerated it for 30 minutes. It felt a lot like cupcake batter before refrigeration, and afterward it was still sticky (albeit a little firmer), and as I rolled the dough into balls it just got softer and softer.

I actually reduced the sugar levels by quite a bit because my family is not a fan of overly sweet cookies! Could this be the case? I normally reduce sugar levels (using 75% instead of the total amount stated) and I don't make any other changes, but recipes turn out fine. Could this be the issue though? If I want to reduce the sugar, should I add more flour instead?

Thank you very much for all your help! Happy New Year in advance! (:

I made these last week and they were a hit! Thanks so much for sharing!!

I wanted to get your advice on a couple of possible adjustments:
- do you think I could use this recipe to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies? If so, any suggestions on the necessary adjustments?
- would this recipe work if I subbed coconut oil for butter?

Thanks again and Happy Holidays!

Hi Aimee! You can do it without a hand mixer, because you don't really have to cream together the butter and sugar for these, although it will be a bit of a pain in the butt (or more realistically, a pain in the hand, arm, and shoulder)! =(

There are some pretty inexpensive hand mixers out there, and while they don't work quite as well as the higher priced ones, they will get the job done and are decent options for people who are new to baking until they decide to upgrade. Or, if you want a moderately priced one that you can keep forever, I have used this one and it works really, really well. Ultimately, what you purchase depends on how long you'd like to keep it and how much use you think you'll get out of it, but I definitely recommend keeping an eye out for one either way, because they take SO MUCH stress off of your back/neck/arms while baking!

These cookies rock - best recipe ever.

Tried making them in a bar cookie (lazy, snowed in...)
EXCEPTIONAL! We can't stop eating them.
Even worse, we eat half a bar at a time like it's our last visit to the pan. It never is.

Hi Angela! I'm sorry to hear that yours didn't turn out.

The recipe is correct, they should be baked at 325- I have to go back through and see where I said 350, it may be a typo or it may be that I was recommending for that specific person to try baking at a higher temp based on an issue they were having. I can imagine saying that if someone had a problem with the dough not spreading, similarly to yours. Sorry for the confusion!

1/4 cup is approximately walnut-sized, but perhaps because walnuts vary slightly in size, golf ball sized might be a better descriptor. I believe there is about a half centimeter difference there on average. You can of course make yours smaller or bigger, but you have to monitor your oven time accordingly.

The sugar can make a huge, huge difference! Try putting a slice of bread in your brown sugar bag and sealing it up for a few days. That should help it soften up again =)

When you get the sugar part sorted out, please remember to do a test batch of two cookies. If you have issues with them not spreading, perhaps your house being cold is affecting the oven temp and you need to actually try setting it a bit higher. Perhaps the dough is too cold. Etc. Unfortunately, with baking, the steps are environment specific. You're going to wind up needing to make small adjustments if you live at different altitudes, in colder environments, in humid environments, and so on, but if you do a test batch of one or two cookies you should be able to see which tweaks will work for you =)

I wish I could help more! I hope that at least gets you started in the right direction. Please let me know how it turns out next time!

.

I made the dough last night, but could not bake them cookies and left the dough in the fridge overnight, the dough is quite hard, but I am assuming that is due to the cold temperature. How long should I wait until I try to use it for baking?

Also after I made the cookie dough and after I waited 25min, I added more sugar to the dough because I forgot to put in some of the granulated sugar at the beginning. Is there anything I can do at this point to ensure the flavor remains?

Finally, the dough yesterday after an hour following the remixing of the sugar was very soft and tender and was hard to shape because the dough when pulled apart would pull apart in an elongating fashion becoming stringy.

Thank You, the recipe looks good and I will try it again in the future, and also recommend to some friends!

I made these cookies and one word : PERFECTION. Chewy, soft and loaded. Even though I let the dough rest overnight in the fridge and then let the dough soften up a bit for an hour at room temp prior to baking.

I read a few comments where reader's had their cookies puffed up. The reason for the puffing is that if you skip breaking the rolled dough into half and then smushing it together and just bake as it is, it will puff up.
However, if you roll your dough into 1/4 cup balls then, tear the balls in half and smush the two halves together again, with the lumpy, torn sides faced upwards; the cookie doesn't puff.
I was lazy for half of the batch and just rolled it into balls, which resulted in puffed up cookies of the same batch!

I do have a query, a few of my friends are vegan, and desperately want to try this cookie. What can I replace the eggs with? I can replace butter with artisan vegan butter and Trader Joe's vegan chocolate chips, but the eggs? Any ideas?
Thanks!

I had a serious craving for chocolate chip cookies and randomly searched for a recipe on Google and thought I'd give yours a try. What a good decision! They are absolutely delicious! I just ate a few too much and will probably have to skip dinner 😉
oh and I substituted the butter with coconut oil 1:1, so my cookies are pretty flat, but they taste amazing.

thanks, I will definitely make those again!

Hi there, I loved these cookies so much. I made cookie dough for christmas cookie exchanges. I remembered how great how they were and whipped up a batch today for the hosts of our around the block party. I linked your recipe in my blog http://www.marylandfamilyadventures.com (no judging, I am new to the blogging thing :-). Hopefully more people can enjoy them!

Not a native English speaker here and I need some clarification on this step:

"Scoop ¼ cup of cookie dough at a time and roll into balls. Then, tear the balls in half by pulling gently on both sides. Smush the two halves together again, but this time have the lumpy, torn sides face upward."

Does it mean I have to combine them together again by crushing them together (would that make the dough flat)? Or should I just combine them and make sure that the top has the lumps and the bottom doesnt?

Thank you in advance!

Hi there,

These cookies look amazing but can I be a huge pain and ask for the flour measurements in grams/ounces? I am a 'by weight' baker and always fail miserably when I try to measure by cups. If you could I would soooooo appreciate it because these honestly look like what I've been dreaming of making for a good decade now.

Thank you sooo much in advance!

Best,
Tonia

I make these all the time and they are such a hit that people beg me to make more ! I send them to your page so they can make them, too (: I do have one question: how long does the dough last in the fridge? I want to be able to make these only a few cookies at a time,, but don't know if I can freeze/ refiridgerate them.

Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe! No exaggeration- when I make these, I send some to my husband's work and they always ask my husband when I'm going to make cookies again. Some people at my husband's old job still message him for the recipe!

Thanks!!

Sarah

I think a half cup of cocoa powder would be more than necessary, unless you want it to be super duper chocolatey like in this recipe: https://hostthetoast.com/death-by-chocolate-chunk-cookies/

If you want the recipe to be closer to the original, but chocolatey, I'd say go with 1/4 cup of cocoa powder and reduce the flour by 1/4 cup. You might have to tweak a bit for the right consistency and sweetness, so just taste your dough beforehand (and do a couple of test cookies for sure) to make sure you don't need more moisture, sugar, or of course, cocoa powder. Or you can just go all out and make the death by chocolate chunk cookies I linked above =)

Hello I made these yesterday followed the directions to the t except for the butter i used margarine. The didn't spread well and came out puffy or fluffy. Either way they are the best cookies i have had in forever great recipe. Thank you for sharing it.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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The Best Chewy Café-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies - Host The Toast

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Do you use salted or unsalted butter? Thank you Hey! Yes I did use parchment paper and I baked them for about 10-11min. At 325 I also don't know why they are not spreading out very much, and they are not very soft and gooey looking as your pictures.

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This is from Shari!
https://smittenkitchen.com/2020/02/perfect-vegetable-lasagna/

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Sweet potato salad with pepita dressing 

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Sweet potato salad with pepita dressing 

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So easy and so delish
https://smittenkitchen.com/2020/02/sweet-potato-salad-with-pepita-dressing/

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Recipes

Good morning and apologies in advance, as I'm again one of those loathsome (that if, if you were shivering somewhere) people who just returned from the beach, where we went on vacation last week because our kids were off from school and we didn't see why they should have all the fun. Around me were turquoise waves, glittering with sunlight, lapping gently at the silky white-sanded shore and there were no children having tantrums or whining because this was a magical place - and at some of those things are true. However, as will always happen on vacation, while we had some enviable tacos and aguachiles, I was only a few days in when I started to fiercely miss home-cooked food, most especially this salad I'd made the week before.

Listen, sometimes I challenge myself to run distances further than I wish to (that would be: any), sometimes I challenge myself to go to bed at a decent hour for a week and see if it makes me a nicer person (shockingly, yes) and sometimes I challenge myself to do things like this, which is to take something I'm pretty sure I don't like - sweet potato salads - and create one that I would. Creamy dressings and/or any parallels to summer cookout potato salads were rejected. So were cubes. I wanted it warm or room temperature and I liked the idea of using some Southwestern-ish flavors but not to the point that it basically tasted like these sweet potato tacos in salad form. And I wanted crunch, interest, and acidity, without having a bunch of extra hurdles to get them. The results surprised me. I'd expected, at most, to make it once or twice to iron the kinks out of the recipe; I thought the kids might like it, but I hadn't expected to be sitting by the beach in Mexico kinda wishing someone would bring me some a full week later.

A few more details: I cut the potatoes into 1/4-inch half-moons so they were leafy but not so thin that they'd fall apart. While they roast in the oven, you do a few simple things: drain and rinse a can of black beans, chop some scallions and cilantro, halve a couple limes and an avocado and then we're going to make a warm but deconstructed dressing. I love using pepitas but they can be a little flat-tasting from the container, whether raw or already toasted. Warming them in olive oil gets them extra-crisp and perfumes the oil with a deeply nutty flavor. Add some chile flakes for heat and then, when the potatoes are ready, we're going to scatter everything on in layers, building the salad right on that sheet pan, because why dirty another dish? Finish it with salt, pepper, and lime juice and scoop it right onto your plate. I'd intended to add some cotija for a salty kick but was too busy eating it as-is to get it out of the fridge, meaning that it's also vegan. And while I'd also intended this to be a warm salad, I found the leftovers spectacular from the fridge, no need to reheat them. I hope you love it as much as I did.

Previously

One year ago: Cauliflower and Tomato Masala with Peas
Two years ago: Quick, Essential Stovetop Mac-and-Cheese
Three years ago: Tomato-Glazed Meatloaves with Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes and Pomegranate Grapefruit Paloma
Four years ago: Belgian Brownie Cakelets, Broccoli Melts, and White Russian
Five years ago: Perfect Corn Muffins and Spaghetti Pangrattato with Crispy Fried Eggs
Six years ago: Stuck-Pot Rice with Lentils and Yogurt and Dijon and Cognac Beef Stew and Morning Bread Pudding with Salted Caramel
Seven years ago: Blood Orange Margaritas
Eight years ago: Double Coconut Muffins and Fried Egg Sandwich with Bacon and Blue Cheese
Nine years ago: Green Bean Salad with Pickled Red Onions and Fried Almonds and Spaghetti with Lemon and Olive Oil
Ten years ago: Walnut Jam Cake, Ginger Fried Rice and Chocolate Souffle Cupcakes with Mint Cream
Eleven years ago: Whole Lemon Tart, Alex's Mom's Stuffed Cabbage and Toasted Coconut Shortbread
Twelve years ago: Pasta Puttanesca and Pear and Almond Tart
Thirteen years ago: Fusilli with Baked Tomato Sauce and Aloo Gobi.

Sweet Potato Salad with Warm Pepita Dressing

I looked for longer, thinner sweet potatoes here, so the slices weren't too big. If you'd like more heat, paper-thin slices of a hot pepper such as a jalapeno or serrano would be a great addition here.

2 pounds (about 4 medium) sweet potatoes

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds), raw or roasted

1 teaspoon mild (Aleppo-style) or hot red pepper flakes, or less to taste

2 limes

1 15-ounce can black beans

1 large avocado

1 big handful fresh cilantro

4 thin scallions

1 cup crumbled cotija (optional)

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut potatoes in half lengthwise, and then into 1/4-inch half-moon slices. Coat a large baking sheet with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Scatter sweet potatoes over and toss them with another 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, and many grinds of black pepper. Spread them evenly in pan; they won't fit in one single layer at this point and that's fine as they shrink as they roast. Roast for 20 minutes, until browned underneath, then flip potatoes and roast another 15 minutes, until all of the pieces are tender and have brown spots.

While potatoes roast, combine pepitas with 3 tablespoons olive oil in a small skillet and warm over medium heat. Let pepitas sizzle in oil for 1 to 2 minutes but keep a close eye on them; raw ones may be able to handle more time but already toasted ones will need less to get one shade darker. Remove from heat, season with salt to taste plus red pepper flakes. Set aside until potatoes are ready.

Drain and rinse your black beans. Halve avocado and remove the pit. Leave halves in their skin and cut avocado into thin slices, not cutting through the skin. Roughly chop cilantro, thinly slice scallions (white and green), and halve your limes, cutting one further into wedges. Squeeze one lime wedge over avocado to keep it from browning.

When potatoes are ready, immediately spoon pepitas and oil over potatoes, and squeeze the juice of your limes halves over. Scatter tray with black beans. Use a spoon to remove avocado slices in sections and fan them out over the tray. Sprinkle pan with cilantro and scallions, plus cotija if you're using it (recipe will, of course, no longer be vegan). Season well with additional salt and pepper.

Scoop sections of potatoes and their toppings onto plates, serve with extra lime wedges, and eat right away. Leftovers keep nicely for a few days in the fridge; I didn't rewarm them.

See more: Avocado, Beans, Lunch, Potatoes, Salad, Side Dish, Vegan, Vegetarian

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Recipes Good morning and apologies in advance, as I'm again one of those loathsome (that if, if you were shivering somewhere) people who just returned from the beach, where we went on vacation last week because our kids were off from school and we didn't see why they should have all the fun.

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DELICIOUS! I would put a little less oil in next time.

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4 cups cooked rice (preferably leftover and slightly dry)

5 scallions, white and dark green parts separated, thinly sliced

2 large carrots, peeled and grated using the large holes on a box grater

3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed

2 garlic cloves, finely grated

1 tablespoon finely grated ginger

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sesame oil

3 large eggs, beaten to blend

3/4 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed

Toasted sesame seeds and sriracha, for serving

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Baking the rice on a sheet pan guarantees more of the crispy, crunchy bits that make fried rice the perfect food. For this recipe, the older and drier the rice the better. If you must start with freshly cooked grains, spread them out on a sheet pan to dry out in the refrigerator first.