You’re in the thick of winter’s chilly embrace. After a long day, all you want is to enjoy a warm, satisfying meal. You desire to curl up under a blanket and spend quality time with loved ones. You’re craving something simply scrumptious. However, you’re not in the mood for time-consuming activities like seasoning, marinating, chopping, mincing, pureeing, or frying. These are activities you might normally enjoy on the weekends. Your goal: a warm, comfy, easy night at home.

Well, you’re in luck because we’ve rounded up 25 of the tastiest easy-to-make winter dishes. We made sure to include soul-nourishing dishes from an array of culinary traditions. Whether you’re craving spicy aromatic Indian, traditional Italian, mouthwatering Mexican, or classic American, we have recipes for each. Each one is sure to hit the spot on your cozy winter night in.

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Casseroles have long been the savior of weeknight dinners, the champion of do-ahead dishes, the perfect way to stretch leftovers deliciously into a second meal, sometimes even more satisfying than the first. They are staunchly comforting, easy enough for both kids and harried parents to pull off, and even the fussiest of gourmands will cop to loving a classic casserole or two. And if they claim they don’t, just say the words cassoulet or tian Provençale and their denials will go silent. But simple-to-prepare doesn’t mean without pitfalls. Here are a dozen of the places you can go wrong with your casserole cookery.

1. Choosing the wrong baking dish.

Casserole dishes need, first and foremost, to be ovenproof. Glass, ceramic, cast iron, enameled — whatever you choose be sure you know it is designed to go into the oven. There’s nothing worse than assembling a perfect casserole in that lovely piece of pottery you bought at the art fair and have it crack in half mid-bake.

2. Using the wrong size dish.

Once you have ascertained that your dish is oven safe, make sure it is the right size for what you want it to contain. Recipes should specify size and shape (an oval 10-inch dish will contain less volume than a rectangle), and depth. Casserole dishes should be filled no more than three-quarters of the height of the dish to prevent overflow when cooking. And it is always a good idea to place the casserole dish on a sheet pan to catch spatters, or to place a sheet pan on the rack just below. You don’t win on convenience with a casserole if you then have to clean your oven!

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