Easy Fried Rice

Got leftover rice? This easy fried rice recipe is the best way to use it up! I mix it with veggies and eggs in this delicious Chinese-inspired dish.

I make this easy fried rice recipe whenever I have leftover rice in the fridge. If you ask me, this Chinese inspired-dish is the best way to use it up. When the dried-out rice is cooked in a hot skillet, it takes on a delicious lightly crispy texture. Mixed with veggies, scrambled eggs, and seasonings like soy sauce and sesame oil, the humble rice becomes an incredibly flavorful side dish or quick meal. I’m sharing my basic vegetable fried rice recipe at the bottom of this post, but don’t feel like you have to follow it to the letter. One…

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Easy Veggie Stir Fry

This easy stir fry recipe features colorful veggies in a delicious sweet and savory sauce. Ready in 20 minutes, it's a quick, healthy, and flavorful meal!

This easy stir fry recipe is the ultimate weeknight dinner. It’s quick, flavorful, and healthy too, packed with colorful vegetables like broccoli, carrots, and peppers. Add your favorite protein and serve it over rice for a satisfying 20-minute meal! Years ago, when I first started cooking for myself, I made a veggie stir fry nearly every night. It was the easiest (and cheapest) thing I knew how to make, so I put it on repeat. Fast forward to now, and stir fry is still a staple in my weeknight rotation…but it’s gotten a lot tastier. I’ve perfected my sweet and…

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A Beautiful Spring Appetizer Board

Hosting a spring gathering? This gorgeous board would be the perfect appetizer. It's filled with fresh veggies, hard boiled eggs, and whipped feta.

Jack’s parents are visiting for Mother’s Day this weekend. After the rush of the last few weeks—we launched Simple Feel Good Food! Our son Ollie turned 2!—I’m hoping to keep the cooking simple. A spring appetizer board like this one will definitely make an appearance sometime over the weekend. I love these types of platters because they look gorgeous (check out those pretty spring radishes!), they offer lots of contrasting textures and flavors, and they’re surprisingly easy to put together. Bonus: you can prep all the components in advance! If you need an appetizer idea for a gathering this season, I highly…

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Pasta Primavera

This pasta primavera recipe is light, fresh, and simple to make. Packed with colorful veggies, it's the perfect easy dinner for spring or summer night.

I love to make this pasta primavera recipe after a trip to the farmers market in early summer. I come home with bags full of produce. Some contain spring veggies like asparagus and peas that will only be available for a few more weeks. Others hold summer finds like zucchini, squash, and cherry tomatoes whose season is just starting. The moment when all these spring and summer vegetables collide is so brief that I feel like I have to celebrate it. So, I cook a pot of pasta, sauté the veggies, and toss them together to make this pasta primavera…

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Spring Quinoa with Asparagus, Peas & Pickled Onion

This spring quinoa recipe is super fresh and satisfying! Packed with tender herbs and green veggies, it's a perfect light dinner or make-ahead lunch.

This post is in partnership with Lundberg Family Farms. When I want to make a simple, yet satisfying, dinner or lunch, quinoa is one of the first ingredients I turn to. I always have a bag of Lundberg’s organic quinoa on hand – it cooks quickly, it’s rich in nutrients like fiber and protein, and it’s super versatile, too. At this point, I’ve used it in smoky veggie burgers, hearty stews, and salads galore. All that, and I’m still finding new ways to use it! This spring quinoa dish was one of my more recent experiments, and we liked it so…

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Watercress Salad

This watercress salad recipe is a light, fresh spring side dish. It's filled with crisp veggies, creamy avocado, and a bright champagne vinaigrette.

If you need a last-minute side dish for Mother’s Day, I think this watercress salad would be perfect. It’s exactly the kind of dish I like to serve at a special occasion meal. Light and refreshing, it provides a welcome contrast to heartier fare like cinnamon rolls (at brunch) or a saucy, cheesy lasagna (at dinner). And while it’s simple to make, it’s a bit more unexpected than a regular green salad. The watercress gives it a peppery bite, which I tame with sweet, juicy orange segments and a bright champagne vinaigrette. Mozzarella and avocado add creamy richness, and toasted…

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Baked Eggs

These oven baked eggs are an easy, delicious breakfast or brunch. Serve them with garnishes like fresh herbs and veggies to take them over the top!

How cute are these baked eggs?! Lately, Jack and I have been making them for breakfast and the occasional dinner, and with Easter coming up this weekend, I thought it would be the perfect time to share the recipe with all of you. These baked eggs have runny yolks and just-set whites, and they’re SO simple to make in the oven. Sprinkled with toppings like fresh herbs, peas, and sautéed asparagus, they look elegant and inviting, and they taste delicious. They’d be a lovely main course for a holiday brunch, but you could easily pull them off for a regular…

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Creamy Asparagus Soup

This lightly creamy asparagus soup is bright with lemon and packed with herbs and veggies. It's the perfect fresh meal for a cool spring night.

On rainy spring afternoons, I hole up in the kitchen and make this asparagus soup recipe. It’s my spring substitute for the butternut squash soup I love making in the fall. When it’s too wet to be outside, I find it soothing and meditative to simmer a pot of asparagus soup on the stove and listen to the rain pattering on the roof. To me, it’s the perfect spring soup. Fresh basil makes it aromatic and refreshing, peas lend it a subtle sweetness, and blended potato makes it lightly creamy without any heavy cream. Serve it as a starter with…

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Asparagus Salad

Nothing says, "Spring!" like this asparagus salad recipe. It's light and refreshing, made with crisp veggies, feta, and a creamy avocado dressing.

spring / salads

Each year, I make this asparagus salad recipe to celebrate the arrival of spring…which, in Chicago, is usually later than you’d think. See, in all the years that we’ve lived here, it’s snowed on Jack’s April birthday. So when we have the odd warm day in March or early April, I don’t get my hopes up. “Winter isn’t over yet,” I tell myself, “Don’t get used to this.” But this year, Jack’s birthday arrived…and it didn’t snow. It was still a little chilly, but the air smelled clean and fresh, and tulips and daffodils bloomed around the neighborhood. Dare I…

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Bright Spring Salad

I'll be making this spring salad recipe all season long! Simple, bright, and delicious, it's the perfect way to showcase the season's best produce.

spring / salads

When the weather warms up in the spring, there’s nothing I crave more than this spring salad. Light, bright, and packed with spring’s best produce, it’s a perfect example of why eating seasonally is so exciting. This spring salad recipe is almost entirely veggies, but because each one is at its snappiest, sweetest, or softest right now, you don’t have to do much to turn them into a tasty dish. Toss them with a zesty dressing, sprinkle on a little cheese, and add a handful of nuts for crunch. With just a few minutes of effort, you’ll have made a…

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Tagliatelle with Asparagus & Peas

I could eat this tagliatelle pasta recipe every night in spring! Filled with tender veggies, herbs, and chewy pasta ribbons, it's fresh and fun to eat.

spring / pasta

This tagliatelle recipe is ideal for this time of year, when spears of asparagus are slim and tender and cool days are still mixed in with the warm ones. The chewy tagliatelle pasta ribbons and a light cashew cream sauce make it hearty and comforting, while spring veggies, lemon, and an abundance of herbs make it super fresh and bright. We usually make this recipe with dried tagliatelle pasta, and the wide, al dente egg noodles are fantastic with the tangy sauce and tender veggies. But lately, Jack and I have been on a bit of a homemade pasta kick,…

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