30 Easy Summer Desserts

Satisfy your sweet tooth with these easy summer desserts! They include fuss-free ice cream recipes, no-bake treats, fruit pies, crisps, and more.

Bring on the summer desserts! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for frozen treats like ice cream and popsicles. I’m ready for no-bake sweets that hit the spot on days when it’s too hot to use the oven. And I’m especially ready for summer desserts that showcase the season’s best fruit. Cherry pie? Peach crisp? Blueberry cobbler? Yes, please! You’ll find 30 of my favorite easy summer desserts below. Some are perfect for packing up for picnics. Others are designed to help you cool off on hot days, and still others are celebration-worthy centerpieces like pies, cakes, and tarts. I love…

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45 Easy Summer Dinner Ideas

Tired of the same old recipe rotation? Change things up with these easy summer dinner ideas! They include grilling recipes, quick pastas, and more.

If you’re looking for new summer dinner ideas, you’re in the right place! Below, you’ll find 45 of my best summer dinner recipes. They include easy weeknight pastas, fresh summer salads, quick grilled meals, and more. These recipes are the meals I make on repeat throughout the summer. I love them because they’re packed with the best produce the season has to offer—tomatoes, sweet corn, peppers, basil, and more. Using these fresh ingredients is a simple way to add bold flavor to summer meals. I’ll be cooking with them as often as I can this season, and I hope you…

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Pico De Gallo

Learn how to make pico de gallo! This easy recipe uses simple, fresh ingredients. Enjoy it as a dip with tortilla chips or on any Mexican dish.

Learn how to make pico de gallo! I’m sharing my classic pico de gallo recipe below, plus tips to give it the best flavor. If you’re new to making salsa, pico de gallo is a great place to start. It gives you a lot of bang for your buck, because even though it’s zesty and flavorful, it’s SO easy. You don’t need any special equipment—just a cutting board and a good knife—and the ingredient list is short and sweet. Try this fresh salsa once, and I think it’ll become a staple in your kitchen. How to Make Pico de Gallo…

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Mint Julep

Learn how to make a mint julep with this easy recipe! The traditional drink of the Kentucky Derby, this bourbon cocktail is aromatic and refreshing.

Have you ever tried a mint julep? If you like fresh mint (like me) or bourbon (like Jack), then you absolutely should. A mint julep is made with four simple ingredients: bourbon, simple syrup, crushed ice, and fresh mint. It’s the traditional drink of the Kentucky Derby, and it might be as important a tradition as the horse race itself. The Kentucky Derby’s website claims that fans consume 125,000 mint juleps at the Churchill Downs racetrack over the race weekend each year! That said, it doesn’t have to be Derby Day for you to enjoy a mint julep. This ice…

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50 Best Easter Side Dishes

These Easter side dishes include our best recipes for potatoes, spring salads, seasonal veggies, and more. Choose some to complete your holiday meal!

Which Easter side dishes should I make this year? I don’t take this question lightly, because the side dishes are always my favorite part of Easter dinner. No offense to ham or lamb, but I think the side dishes are what make the meal memorable. Seasonal vegetables like carrots and asparagus add a pop of color to the table. Hearty potato recipes keep guests coming back for more. And spring salads like my strawberry salad or carrot salad offer bright, fresh flavor. With Easter right around the corner, I’m busy picking out which side dishes to make for my family’s holiday…

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Chana Masala

This chana masala recipe is an easy, healthy one-pot meal! Warm spices, fresh ginger, and cilantro add rich flavor to the satisfying chickpea curry.

This chana masala recipe is about to become the star of your weeknight dinner rotation. It calls for pantry ingredients. It cooks in one pot. And though it comes together in just over 30 minutes, most of the cooking time is hands off, so you can tackle the (minimal) cleanup as it simmers. Best of all, this easy chana masala is healthy, flavorful, and super satisfying. About Chana Masala Chana masala is a chickpea curry. Its name translates literally to spiced chickpeas, “chana” meaning chickpeas and “masala” meaning spice. Variations of the dish, such as Punjabi chole masala, are popular throughout…

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Lentil Soup

Meet the BEST lentil soup recipe! Made with dried lentils, fresh vegetables, flavorful spices, and hearty greens, it's simple, nourishing, and delicious.

This lentil soup recipe might surprise you. Sure, it’s simple. But that doesn’t mean it’s bland or boring. This lentil soup is packed with hearty greens, tender vegetables, and fiber- and protein-rich lentils. Fresh herbs and spices fill it with complex flavor, and a splash of vinegar adds a delicious tangy kick. It’s not just my best lentil soup recipe—it’s one of my best recipes, period. It’s been a staple in my rotation for years. I love that it’s easy to make with mostly pantry ingredients and that it’s nourishing, warming, and satisfying. If you ask me, it’s the perfect healthy…

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Gingerbread Cookies

Our best gingerbread cookie recipe! These festive treats are soft and warmly spiced, with a rich molasses flavor. Perfect for spreading holiday cheer!

What could be more festive than gingerbread cookies?! With Christmas just a few weeks away, I’m ready to turn up the holiday cheer around here, and making this gingerbread cookie recipe seems like a great place to start. For one, it makes the house smell amazing, filling it with the comforting aroma of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. It’s also a blast to make–rolling out the dough, cutting out gingerbread people, baking them, and decorating them once they cool. But more important than all of that, these gingerbread cookies are delicious! They’re soft, warmly spiced, and richly flavored with molasses and…

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Roasted Brussels Sprouts

This crispy roasted Brussels sprouts recipe is my favorite healthy side dish! A delicious lemon Parmesan dressing makes it bright, zingy & addictive.

How do you feel about Brussels sprouts? Do you love them, or hate them? Over the last few years, I feel like they’ve been getting more and more popular, and I couldn’t be happier about it! Brussels sprouts are some of my favorite fall veggies – they’re fresh and healthy, but still hearty, and they pair well with all sorts of seasonings. But, in my opinion, the key to loving Brussels sprouts is preparing them the right way. No one’s clamoring for more boiled or steamed sprouts – they’re often bitter, and they have an unappealing mushy texture. So if…

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Pumpkin Bread

If you love pumpkin, you HAVE to try this easy pumpkin bread recipe! Moist, warmly spiced, and filled with pumpkin flavor, it's the perfect fall treat.

Once I tried this pumpkin bread recipe, I finally understood what all the fall pumpkin hype was about. To be honest, I didn’t get it for a long time. Why go crazy for pumpkin when apples, sweet potatoes, and hundreds of amazing types of squash (spaghetti, delicata, acorn, and butternut, to name a few) are in peak season too? Enter: this pumpkin bread recipe. Super moist, warmly spiced, and filled with delicious pumpkin flavor, it totally won me over to team pumpkin. I typically crave pumpkin bread at two times of day: in the morning for breakfast or in the…

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Falafel

Packed with fresh herbs and spices, this crispy baked falafel recipe is bursting with flavor. Stuff it into a pita wrap with all the fixings, and enjoy!

I’ll never forget the first time I tried falafel. Stuffed into pita bread with fresh herbs, crisp veggies, and a big slather of hummus, it was crispy, rich, and bursting with earthy, aromatic flavor. I devoured the entire wrap in minutes, amazed at the medley of tastes and textures dancing across my tongue. Falafel has been one of my favorite foods ever since. I still order it out to eat whenever I get the chance, but these days, I more often make this homemade falafel recipe. What Is Falafel? I’m getting ahead of myself. What is falafel, anyway? In case…

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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.