
When you need a cool, creamy dessert ASAP, check your freezer for a tub of Cool Whip. You’ll find the recipe details for the sweets in this graphic. Want more cool ideas? Check out our best no-bake desserts.

When you need a cool, creamy dessert ASAP, check your freezer for a tub of Cool Whip. You’ll find the recipe details for the sweets in this graphic. Want more cool ideas? Check out our best no-bake desserts.
A collection of authentic Italian family recipes from the Season 4 winner of MasterChef!
Most of Italian chef Luca Manfe’s early memories, especially of family holidays, revolve around food. Passed down from his nonnas, these recipes reflect the warm, rustic flavors of Friuli, Italy: rich frico, risotto, and savory polenta. Also showcased are the lighter bites that pair perfectly with a glass of wine: crostini with ricotta and honey, or a tramezzini, the Italian version of English high-tea sandwiches. Standout desserts include the tiramisu he made with his mother when he was eight years old and his now-famous basil panna cotta that helped win him the title of MasterChef.
“I love to teach,” says Manfe, “I’ll show you the fundamentals of fantastic Italian food, including homemade stock (I swear, it’s easy), pasta from scratch, and more. My Italian Kitchen is packed with the food that I love and that you and your family will love too.”
By Ann Walczak
Published on October 29, 2024
I’m not sure what the original snack food was, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s potato chips. Thin, crispy, salty to the max, and good on their own or as a vehicle for dips, there’s really no limit to their enjoyment. Pour them into a giant bowl for party sharing, toss them next to (or even in) a sandwich for lunch, or wedge a bag into the center console of your car to keep commute crankiness at bay.
Now, you might be thinking (as I admittedly did when starting this assignment), how different can potato chip brands really be? Don’t they all use pretty much the same ingredients? They sure do. Though there are some discrepancies in types of oils and in kettle-cooked vs. fried or flat vs. ridges, it’s not like we can dive deep into flavor notes here. How the chip tastes is still paramount, but this ranking will lean much more heavily on things like texture, crunch, and what the eating experience is like, re: snackability.
For this test, I sampled chips as plain as they could get. No added flavors, no ridges, no nothing, except the potatoes themselves and however heavy a dash of salt the brand deemed appropriate. Let’s dig in.
Though we’re always the first to shout from the rooftops about wildly impressive recipes that are sure to wow guests or loved ones, making it seem like all we do is have constant elaborate dinner parties or romantic date nights, in reality… not so much. Really, most weeknights we turn to easy, healthy dinners that come together quickly and for low effort. If they don’t cost an arm and a leg, even better! We firmly believe saving money doesn’t have to mean giving up flavor or convenience. Check out our list of 72 quick and healthy meals that won’t break the bank for easy weeknight dinner inspiration.
When it comes to healthier meals, we LOVE a veggie for pasta ingredient swap. Cauliflower and zucchini are forever faves, but we’re branching out into other veggies too, like spaghetti squash and butternut squash. We swear, you’ll barely miss the pasta (and can enjoy multiple servings, no problem).
We’re a big fan of the ease of Mexican-inspired tacos, quesadillas, and tostadas for simple weeknight meals. You can fill them with pretty much anything—like we did in our fish taco bowls, our black bean tostadas, or our taco salads—and every member of your household can add as few or as many toppings as they like.
Another great option? Grain bowls and bakes. All you need is a great sauce, like our herby green goddess, our salsa verde, or our tahini sauce; some rice (brown, white, or cauliflower all work), quinoa, or even noodles; some protein; and any combination of vegetables. Add some crunchy nuts or seeds and you’ll have a solid, satisfying dinner. Bonus: They’re GREAT for cleaning leftover ingredients out of your fridge. Check out our warm tahini ramen noodles, our goddess bowls, our cheesy salsa chicken & cauliflower rice skillet, or our one-pan chicken & quinoa for variations, then get creative and make them your own.
By: Kristie Collado
Kristie has been the digital programming manager at Food Network for over six years. She’s a trained pastry chef who has been creating food content for more than fifteen years.
Even though there are so many reasons to meal prep (save time, save money, eat better — the list goes on and on) we know that the thought of planning and cooking so much food all at once can be overwhelming. The good news? It’s so worth it. And, there are plenty of ways to make it easier! Learn a handful of pro meal prep tips, master a couple of shortcuts that make prep easier and gather up the right recipes and, before you know it, you’ll be settled into a routine that allows you to turn one simple ingredient into a myriad of delicious dishes. (Don’t believe us? Just check out our ideas for prepping chicken!) Whether you take a structured approach and plan out concrete meals or lean towards an ingredient-prep strategy that allows you some flexibility throughout the week, we’re confident you’ll be glad you took the time to plan ahead. All of the recipes in this roundup will come in handy but start with this versatile sesame chicken. You can just as easily toss it into a salad for lunch as you can a stir-fry for dinner.

When it comes to prepping for the week ahead, we love cooking off lots of veggies so we can reach for them instead of something less healthy in the scramble of making a weeknight meal. Blanching a vegetable in boiling water and then plunging it in an ice bath is great when you’re making just one kind. But for a large-scale production, our go-to method is steaming. You can use the same water for multiple batches, steaming one vegetable after the next. The result: a rainbow of perfectly cooked vegetables at the ready for grain bowls, pastas, salads, frittatas and more.