25 Super Fun Baking Recipes

Have an afternoon at home? Bake! With breads, cakes, muffins, and more, these 25 easy baking recipes include something for everyone.

There’s no more joyful way to spend an afternoon than baking. I do most of the cooking in our house, but baking recipes are the ones that bring Jack and me together. He might stretch a batch of pizza dough while I prep the toppings, or we’ll work together to make a jumbo tray of cinnamon rolls to devour the next morning. If you have kids, easy baking recipes are a great way to get them into the kitchen. Let them stir together brownies and lick the spoon or decorate a batch of cookies with bright sprinkles and frosting. The process…

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Citrus Salad with Fennel & Avocado

This citrus salad will brighten up any winter day! It's refreshing, light, and filled with flavor from fennel, fresh mint, avocado, and more.

If a tomato salad is the best part of summer, a citrus salad is surely its winter counterpart. When tender greens and bursty berries are still months away, citrus season is at its peak. Good tomatoes may be scarce, but satsumas, grapefruit, oranges, and mandarins are sweet and acidic, juicy, and vibrant. So if I’m in the mood for something fresh, light, and bright in the winter months, a citrus salad is the first thing I turn to. This recipe is my favorite citrus salad yet! It uses a mix of fruit to show off the season’s best, and it’s…

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Gluten Free Pancakes

These gluten-free pancakes are our favorite weekend breakfast. Made with oat & almond flour, they're light, fluffy, and filled with warm vanilla flavor.

In the last few weeks, making this recipe for gluten-free pancakes has become our Saturday morning routine. Jack beats the egg whites into soft peaks while I whisk together the batter. Then, he gently folds in the egg whites, and I stand over the hot stove, flipping pancakes until we’ve used up every last drop of batter in the bowl. I typically do the cooking in our house, but these gluten-free pancakes are one of the few recipes we actually make together. This couldn’t be more fitting, as they come from Aran Goyoaga’s new book Cannelle et Vanille. A true…

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Classic Mimosa Recipe

Learn how to make mimosas at home with this simple recipe! These easy 2-ingredient cocktails are guaranteed to be the star of your next brunch.

If I’m hosting a special occasion brunch, you can bet that mimosas will be on the menu. Light, fresh, and festive, they’re perfect for celebrating everything from Mother’s Day to Christmas. With citrus in peak season and New Year’s right around the corner, I thought now would be a great time to share my classic mimosa recipe. Whether you make it for a New Year’s brunch, any holiday gathering, or a lazy weekend morning, I hope you enjoy it. Cheers, friends! How to Make Mimosas Making a mimosa couldn’t be simpler, as it only requires 2 basic ingredients: chilled sparkling…

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Creamy Potato Soup

We can't get enough of this easy potato soup recipe. Filled with good-for-you ingredients, it's ultra creamy and comforting, but it's nourishing, too!

We’re obsessed with this potato soup recipe! It’s luscious, creamy, and filled with bold, smoky, tangy flavor. If you have any leftovers, it tastes even better on the second day, but in our house, a pot of this soup never lasts long. In my book, this soup is perfect for the holiday season. The weather outside is frightful, so comfort food is what I’m craving. But in between all the cookies and holiday appetizers, I want to sneak in as many healthy meals as I can. That’s where this potato soup recipe comes in. Creamy and flavorful, it’ll satisfy any…

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Spinach Artichoke Dip

This baked spinach artichoke dip is a guaranteed party hit! It's deliciously creamy and cheesy, but shhh! A secret veggie ingredient is hiding inside it.

If you want to impress guests at your next holiday party, make this spinach artichoke dip! It’s creamy, cheesy, and rich with briny artichoke flavor. In fact, it’s so good that every time we make it, Jack and I devour it standing at the kitchen counter. We can’t get enough! But I’ll let you in on a secret: this spinach artichoke dip is made of mostly veggies. Sure, it’s loaded with the essentials – spinach and artichokes – but it also contains a surprising veggie ingredient: cauliflower! Instead of using cream cheese, sour cream, or mayonnaise to make this dip’s…

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Pomegranate Rice Salad

This rice salad recipe will brighten up any fall or winter meal! Studded with pomegranates, pistachios, and herbs, it's a stunning, fresh holiday side dish.

How pretty is this rice salad? If you’re looking for an easy holiday side dish that doesn’t skimp on flavor, this recipe is just the thing for you. It’s simple, you can prep it ahead of time, and it’s richly flavorful. A spiced citrus dressing coats the hearty rice, nuts add crunch, and herbs give it fresh, aromatic flavor. Last but not least, a sprinkle of pomegranate arils takes it over the top! Today, we’re partnering with POM Wonderful because Jack and I love pomegranates! He likes to snack on them and I like to use them in salads, dips,…

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Vegan Stuffing

This vegan stuffing recipe is my favorite Thanksgiving side dish! Onions, celery, and sautéed mushrooms fill it with delicious savory flavor.

This vegan stuffing recipe is a plant-based version of my mom’s classic stuffing recipe. Her stuffing has been my favorite part of Thanksgiving ever since I was a kid. She never makes it from a box, but uses fresh bread, lots of butter, onions, and celery instead. It’s richly flavorful, soft in the middle, and crisp on top, and it’s always the first dish I reach for at Thanksgiving dinner. In this vegan stuffing recipe, I keep the celery, onions, and crusty bread, but I use a generous amount of olive oil instead of butter, which adds robust flavor. Then,…

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Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Made with Yukon gold potatoes and lots of roasted garlic, these garlic mashed potatoes are creamy, rich, and flavorful. An easy, delicious side dish!

The first time I made these garlic mashed potatoes, I didn’t know what my husband Jack would think of them. See, Jack grew up eating his Uncle Billy’s mashed potatoes, and he still reminisces about them. They were creamy, fluffy, and rich with (lots of) melted butter and (lots of) sour cream.  These garlic mashed potatoes aren’t exactly like Uncle Billy’s. Instead of dairy, olive oil and starchy potato cooking water give them an amazing creamy texture, and roasted garlic fills them with rich, nutty depth of flavor. When I tried them, I thought they were delicious, but Jack’s opinion would…

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Butternut Squash Soup

Served piping hot with a hunk of crusty bread, this creamy, nourishing butternut squash soup recipe is fall comfort food at its best.

My favorite fall tradition is making butternut squash soup on Sunday afternoons. On a brisk day, there’s nothing more soothing than chopping and simmering vegetables over a warm stove. As you cook, the kitchen fills with the cozy scent of sage, rosemary, and butternut squash, and when you’re finished, steaming bowls of butternut squash soup (that will last all week!) reward you for your work. In the past, my go-to butternut squash soup recipe has included coconut milk and curry spices, but this fall, I found myself craving one that was a bit more traditional. When I say traditional, I…

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Eggplant Parmesan

This baked eggplant Parmesan recipe will become one of your family favorites! Crispy eggplant is layered with herbs, tomato sauce, and cheese.

Growing up, my mom’s eggplant Parmesan recipe was one of my favorite things to eat. My family ate dinner together every night, and my mom always cooked it from scratch. Tomato sauce never came from a jar, and cheese was never pre-shredded because convenience foods like that were simply not worth the extra expense. Dinnertime was a sound routine for all of us… unless it was summer. Then, my sister and I had more important matters at hand. We had to keep lookout for the ice cream man, hold swing set jumping contests, and run relays in our jelly shoes.…

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A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.