Category Lunch ideas

I still remember the first time I made garlic butter chicken bites. It was on a Tuesday night, after one of those days when nothing seems to go smoothly—the kind of day when you forget to defrost the chicken, the…

When I think of comfort food, mashed potatoes are always the first dish that comes to mind. I still remember the very first Thanksgiving I hosted in my tiny apartment years ago. I had carefully planned the turkey, the pies,…

I first stumbled into the world of taco pie on a cold weeknight years ago, when I was staring down a nearly empty fridge and a family of hungry faces waiting for dinner. I had some ground beef, a can…

I first fell in love with sweet potato casserole at a small church potluck many years ago. I remember walking through the long line of crockpots and casserole dishes, balancing a paper plate that already had more food than it…

I first learned about potato croquettes on a chilly autumn evening in my grandmother’s kitchen. She never called them “croquettes”—to her, they were simply “fried potato patties,” made from whatever mashed potatoes were left from Sunday supper. I remember watching…

I still remember the first time I cooked salmon at home, and it wasn’t pretty. I was newly married, trying to impress my husband with what I thought would be a restaurant-worthy dinner. I bought a couple of salmon fillets—my…

There are certain recipes that carry me back to specific chapters of my life, and chicken Alfredo is one of them. I can still remember the first time I tried to make it in my tiny first apartment kitchen, with…

There are certain dishes that make their way into your kitchen almost by accident and then never leave. For me, honey chicken was one of those happy accidents. I still remember the first time I tried it—standing in my tiny…

When I think of ground beef tacos, I don’t think of fancy plating or perfectly measured spice packets—I think of a Tuesday night in my first apartment, with a skillet that was slightly warped, a bag of tortillas from the…

I still remember the first time I made steak tacos for a crowd. It wasn’t a special holiday or a fancy dinner party—just a warm Saturday afternoon when my brother showed up with a pound of skirt steak, two limes,…