I develop recipes for a living, but I’m still challenged by weeknight meals. Like, most days of the week. The good news is: Food publications (like this one!) are always working on quick, easy recipes, so you can make bean chili or chuck-roast bolognese in under an hour.
But it’s not the cooking part that takes the most time, right?
It’s the book-skimming, magazine-flipping, blog-hopping research to pick which recipes you’re going to make. It’s going to the grocery store and finding out that they don’t have fennel and going to another grocery store and finding out that they don’t have fennel. Cue: me in the supermarket, shaking my fist in the air, shouting to the universe, “There has to be a better way!”
That’s why, this December, we teamed up with our friends at Plated, the meal kit service that loves cooking just as much as we do. Plated gets that good recipes are nonnegotiable. They also get that busy weeknights happen (especially in holiday-y months like December). No matter how chaotic things get, we should still get to unwind the best way we know how: stirring something bubbling away on the stove, glass of wine in hand.
So, we sorted through the site for some of our favorite recipes (I need not tell you how hard this was for us), then worked with Plated to make them meal kit–friendly. In other words: halfway to dinner, delivered right to your door, ready to go when you are.
This means that I can make our co-founder Merrill Stubb’s Pasta al Forno With Pumpkin and Prosciutto after that extra-busy work day when I really want need pasta. And for dessert? My favorite childhood cookie just got Thursday night–friendly. Because Thursdays deserve cookies, too.
Head here to learn more about our partnership with Plated and here to order your favorite Food52 recipes.
What are your tricks for easier weeknight dinners? Tell us in the comments!
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