Summer 2026 is winding down — let’s celebrate before it’s over! We’ve compiled five of this summer’s biggest hits into a four-day meal plan to take advantage of the season’s produce before we’re all ready to move on from it.

We have a perfect summer salad for lunches, plus four dinners filled with corn, eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, and herbs. Like in all of our really simple meal plans, we’re sharing tips for how to cook through this lineup of recipes as efficiently as possible. We’ve also compiled a PDF that includes a grocery list organized by aisle and all of these recipes together in one place. Print it off and cook your way through!

These recipes yield four to six servings. If you’re not up for cooking four dinners in a row — or if you are feeding one or two people — feel free to omit a dinner or two. Maybe one of the pastas? The grocery list is color-coded so that you can easily cut ingredients you don’t need (just copy and paste it into a new Google doc to make edits). And if you want to swap out a protein, make a recipe gluten- or dairy-free, or swap out an ingredient, check the original recipe posts linked below for all the notes and substitutions.

Have you watched the What To Cook show yet?! Every single one of these recipes has an episode to go along with it, in which I demo the meal from start to finish. Once you’ve cooked all of these dinners, report back on your favorite(s)!

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LUNCH PREP: BBQ chicken and peach chop

• Do less: The recipe we ran here in the newsletter early this summer (linked just above) is a souped-up, “extra extra” version of the BBQ chicken and peach chop in Make It Fast. Since we’re embarking on a week full of cooking, we’re going to revert to the lighter-lift version! So for that, we are going to:

  • Use a store-bought rotisserie chicken instead of marinating and grilling chicken breasts.

  • Skip doubling the dressing (since we won’t need a marinade).

  • Use canned or frozen corn instead of fresh.

  • Skip grilling the peaches.

• Store the components separately: This salad has mixed greens as its base, which won’t hold up well dressed in the fridge. So we are going to prep the components at the start of the week, but wait to assemble them until lunchtime each day (or in the morning, if you’re packing it up to take with you to work).

• To prep this salad at the beginning of the week:

  • Make the dressing and store it in a jar in the fridge.

  • Chop the meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken and store it in an airtight container in the fridge.

  • Drain and rinse the corn and black beans — they can be stored together in an airtight container in the fridge.

  • Shred the cheddar cheese and store it in the fridge.

  • Thinly slice the scallions — you can throw those into the container of mixed greens!

• To assemble the salad each day: To a bed of mixed greens and sliced scallions, add chopped chicken, corn and beans, shredded cheese, 1/2 a chopped peach, 1/4 of a diced avocado, and some crushed tortilla chips. Add dressing, toss, and enjoy! If you’re packing it for work, keep the dressing separate until you’re ready to eat.

• Watch it! Here’s the episode of the What To Cook show in which I cook this salad — tune in to watch me make the fancy grilled version.

DINNER DAY #1: melty zucchini pasta with goat cheese and parm

• Grate your Parm all at once: You will use grated Parm three times this week. While you’re cooking tonight, we highly recommend using your blender to grate the whole 8-ounce block of Parm to pull from throughout the week. To do that, cut the rind off (store it in the freezer to use in a soup this fall!), cut the cheese into big chunks, and throw them in a blender. Pulse until it reaches a grated consistency. Use what you need tonight, and store the rest in an airtight container in the fridge.

• Prep ahead: If you want, you can go ahead and prep some of tomorrow night’s veg while you’re already in chopping mode. For that, you can: Cut 1 medium zucchini in half vertically, then into 1/4-inch-thick half moons. Cut the kernels off 4 (shucked) ears of corn. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge.

• Watch me cook this recipe here.

DINNER DAY #2: summer shrimp panzanella

• Thaw the shrimp: If you’re using frozen shrimp, move it from the freezer to the fridge in the morning so it can thaw throughout the day.

• Watch me cook this recipe here.

DINNER DAY #3: sheet-pan crispy polenta, eggplant, tomatoes, sausage, and burrata

• Prep ahead: To skip dirtying your knife and cutting board again tomorrow night, prep these elements now while your dinner’s in the oven: Mince 1 large shallot and 4 garlic cloves. Store them in the fridge in an airtight container.

• Watch me cook this recipe here.

DINNER DAY #4: calabrian chili cherry tomato alla vodka

• Love your leftovers: Leftover sausage or shrimp would be great in this, should you have any that need to be used up!

• Watch me cook this recipe here.

Here’s the whole plan in one Google doc and PDF. Included is a grocery list, all of the notes shown above, and the individual recipes tweaked to coordinate with the meal plan.

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Get ready to cook one of my favorite dinners of all time!

My go-to sushi order is a spicy tuna crunch roll, and this build-a-bowl dinner takes those flavors, deconstructs them, and adds peaches to the mix for an insanely delicious summer (or any season!) dinner that comes together quicker than it would take to wait for a delivery order.

The base of these bowls is sticky sushi rice and seared tuna. Before we sear the tuna (AKA cook it in a very hot skillet to give it a nice golden-brown crust), we’ll marinate it in a sweet and tangy marinade of soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, honey or sugar, fresh ginger and garlic, and sriracha.

If you have 30 extra (hands off!!) minutes, I highly recommend marinating the tuna in the fridge for half an hour before cooking dinner. If you don’t have that extra time, no problem, just let it marinate at room temperature while you cook the rice and prep the toppings. (FYI, I do not recommend marinating it for longer than 30 minutes in the fridge; the texture of the tuna can get weird!)

For toppings, you’ll prep cucumber, avocado, protein-packed edamame, store-bought pickled ginger, and PEACHES, which — though certainly not traditional to my favorite sushi roll — adds a lovely sweet and juicy bite. You’ll also whip up some sesame crunchies and sriracha mayo! Yummm.

You’ll cook nonstop for 30 minutes and wind up with an absolutely gorgeous meal!

The center of your tuna will still be raw, so it’s important to get sushi-grade tuna steaks here. “Sushi-grade” isn’t an official safety standard regulated by the FDA — it’s more of a marketing phrase implying that the tuna is high-quality and fresh enough to consume raw.

Your best bet for finding great tuna steaks will be at a fishmonger, as in a specialty fish shop, or at a grocery store with a great fresh seafood selection. Ask the fishmonger what they recommend! Ahi or yellowfin are ideal.

Or, you can cook your tuna through instead of leaving it rare in the center.

If you hate tuna or don’t have access to fresh sushi-grade tuna steaks, make salmon sushi bowls instead! Marinate 1 1/2 pounds of salmon for 30 minutes then put it on a rimmed baking sheet skin-side down (if it has skin) and bake it for 15 to 18 minutes, until the salmon is cooked through and easily flakes when you prod at it with a fork. Or use big peeled shrimp! Marinate them, then sear for 1 to 2 minutes per side.

You could also swap in tofu. Press a block of extra-firm tofu between paper towels or dish towels for at least 10 minutes to drain out excess water. Cut it into 1/2-inch-thick planks, marinate them as written, coat lightly in cornstarch, then pan fry them in a light layer of cooking oil for about 3 to 4 minutes per side.

Or use chicken! It won’t really be a “sushi” bowl, but it’ll be delish.

If you’re wary of searing tuna, watch me demo it in this week’s episode of What To Cook the show!

Spicy (or not) salmon tempura crunch bowls are one of the most popular WTC recipes of all time and are similar in vibe to this dinner. I also have a sriracha shrimp sushi bowl that’s in this same vein, and if you love sesame-crusted tuna, cook this!

Serves 4

Cook time: 30 minutes (plus an optional extra 30 minutes for marinating the tuna)

Tools:

• A wide baking pan, bowl, or zip-top bag

• Microplane

• Medium pot (or rice pot)

• Chef’s knife

• Cutting board

• Large skillet (preferable cast iron)

Ingredients:

Tuna & Sesame Crunch topping:

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Watch this episode to learn how I get my kids to eat oatmeal, how to perfectly sear tuna, what the delicious secret ingredient is, and much, much more.

Tomorrow I’ll be back in your inbox with the recipe itself, including all the notes and substitutions you expect here at WTC.

Not a paid subscriber? Upgrade now to get this sushi-night-at-home recipe along with a new recipe every single Saturday morning — plus access to a HUGE archive with hundreds of complete-meal dinner recipes — for just $50 a year, aka less than an Uber Eats bill for ONE sushi night delivery.

Hello from my second home: the Denver airport! I live in a small town with a small airport (shoutout MRY) so pretty much every flight I take connects through the good ole Denver airport. I have logged a lot of miles trekking between terminal A and B over the past two weeks!

Last night I wrapped up the heftiest part of my book tour with the most beautiful event with the Little Professor in Birmingham, Alabama. My cousin Marlea chauffeured me around the Southeast — we had so much fun with our moms and tons of long lost cousins in Nashville, and with the Little Prof ladies and in Birmingham last night. The Chloe hotel in Nashville was a fab boutique hotel experience with delicious food, and I got to hang with a group of Butter Pants there after the event! (Was it you?? Please come forth so I can thank you for paying for our dinner — or pay you back if it was a mistake because I ordered dinner while drinking a GOW with you!!?).

The most special part of this tour has been watching an online community come to life. I've watched friendships form in sign lines, I've seen old friends reunite, I've been hugged by camp friends who I haven't seen in 20+ years, I’ve seen co-workers discover a shared love of What To Cook while grabbing their books, and mothers and daughters drive hours across state lines to spend the evening celebrating What To Cook and this incredible alchemy of people who do not feel like cooking but do it anyway! Run-on sentence because I am exhausted and grateful and in awe of this incredible corner of the internet that has become a pillar of real life in your kitchens and in your preschool drop-off lines and in your meal trains and in your family dinners and in your group chats. My cup runneth over. Thank you for the love you have shown me and What To Cook and each other!

I’ve been a buyer and seller on The RealReal for years and years. They make it so easy to consign clothing and accessories I’m no longer wearing — they handle all of the shipping and logistics that can make me procrastinate on tasks like this (for example, they send prepaid labels and offer free in-home pickup!). I consigned a bunch of pieces last summer when we were moving, and then sold another wave before this book tour. I was able to use money I made from that toward new looks for tour (I found a Veronica Beard blazer, a pair of Aeyde flats, and a really cool pair of Khaite heels at insanely good prices!). Are you a TRR shopper? If so, what’s the last great find you had? Here are my current hearts! If you’re new to The RealReal, they’re offering first-time consignors $100 in site credit! Click here to start consigning.

1. I can tell it’s back-to-school week for many of you based solely on the number of DMs I’ve gotten this week requesting a link to my car meatballs, AKA the breakfast meatballs that my kids scarf down in the car on the way to school. So it’s time to resurface the meatballs! Find the recipe for them at the bottom of this post.

2. When I’m at home, I usually wear some version of jeans and a tee shirt or sweater everyday, à la Steve Jobs, so it’s been fun to add some spice to my wardrobe for book tour! I’ve saved all of the outfits I’ve worn on tour here. A special thank you to Eloise of Thirty-One Jane, who came to my friend ’ house in Charlotte with a rack full of beautiful clothes for me to try on and shop from. The Doen team also thoughtfully sent a number of outfits that I've been wearing over and over again (all saved here). Doen is so sustainably minded I know they won't mind me mentioning that I also saved a LOT of Doen pieces I love to this The RealReal roundup — so be sure to search for Doen on TRR, too!

3. Last week in San Francisco, , one of Substack’s founders, asked me how I think about balance, and WTCer filmed, edited, and sent me this video of my response completely unprompted. (Thank you, Colette, wow, women rule.) I’m not saying this is the perfect solution, but it’s what’s working for me and my family right now. I’d love to know what “balance” looks like for you from day to day between family, work, life admin, “me time,” community. How do you fit it all into your days, weeks, life?
   

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4. I read Siren Says by Jennifer Herrera while traveling last week and loooved it. Think romantasy meets family drama but instead of a fae or vampire fantasy world, we are in this mystical, magical world where people have powers that are related to nature. It has witchy family elements and feels very Practical Magic (which, as an aside, I cannot wait to see the sequel to — it comes out September 12!). If Siren Says sounds up your alley, keep reading, we’re giving away some copies of it below!

5. I have VERY COOL news. What do I do during weeks when I really don’t feel like cooking?! I order HelloFresh to make it REALLY easy for me. We’ve used HF on and off since 2020 and just a hint... they might be making it FAST with a few new recipes that are launching soon!

Every week, we dig into the What To Cook archives to see what we were cooking this time in years past — the recipes worth bringing back into your rotation. Here’s this week’s lineup!

1. spicy cherry tomato and garlic pasta, 2025

swung by WTC this time last year to share this spicy tiny tomato pasta! WTCer HRT is this recipe’s number one fan and said this is the comments: “One of the most underrated WTC recipes. If you have not tried this, it is a must. Just skip the extra work on the basil and buy pre-washed/chopped basil you can simply throw in. So easy and delicious! Has been in our meal plan rotation for the last 2 months. My husband said it beats store bought tomato sauce every night of the week!”

2. chilled tomato soup, 2024

This soup is a delicious cousin to both gazpacho and salmorejo! Pack it up in jars and serve it straight from the cooler for the easiest, fanciest lunch on the go.

3. sunshine curry with cilantro-lime rice, 2023

This curry is an ode to late summer. It has all the vegetables we’re trying to take advantage of while we still can — cherry tomatoes, squash, zucchini, bell pepper, corn — and the cilantro-lime rice really just puts it over the top. It’s dairy-free, can be gluten-free, and is easy to modify to make vegetarian, too!

4. one-skillet roasted chicken and peaches, 2022

Magic happens when the chicken and rice cook together here — the schmaltz from the chicken drips down into the pesto rice (yes, PESTO RICE!), making it rich, savory, and full of flavor. Juicy peaches add sweet brightness, and the whole thing comes together in one skillet with minimal cleanup.

5. chicken panzanella, 2021

This chicken panzanella is a fresh, flavor-packed summer dinner that combines roasted chicken, crusty bread, juicy tomatoes, basil, tangy goat cheese, and balsamic vinegar. As the warm bread soaks up the chicken juices and the goat cheese turns soft and creamy, everything comes together into an easy, satisfying meal that’s perfect served on its own or over a bed of peppery arugula.

It’s been a minute since we had a nice book chat here — what are y’all reading right now? Are you still into beach/summer reads, or have we moved onto more cozy fall books? Comment on this post (with book recs or anything!) and you’ll be entered to win a copy of my new favorite read, Siren Says by Jennifer Herrera. We’ll choose 10 winners at random next Tuesday, so comment before then to enter!1

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Makes 20-ish meatballs

Cook time: 20 minutes (5 minutes of prep, 15 minutes cook time)

Tools:

• Large bowl

• Rimmed sheet pan

Ingredients:

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Kelsey Cody is a friend I met by way of Instagram. She cooked every. single. recipe. from What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking book number one in the span of seven months. She’s a professional photographer and took pictures of every meal. She’s also the mom of two girls, who were both under 2 years old when she challenged herself to cook her way through the whole cookbook!

I got to meet her last week on the Make It Fast tour. She drove an hour to be there and I asked her to come backstage to give me a hug as soon as she arrived.

I am 1) so honored that she chose my book to cook through, and 2) so impressed!!! That is a LOT of home cooking. Kelsey has shared some fun and inspiring takeaways from her experience with me, and, today, we’re passing them along to you, too!

But first: Many of you have asked me for a checklist of all the recipes in Make It Fast so that you can check them off as you cook, and it’s ready to share!

We actually have three options to choose from: one organized by mood, one organized by cook time, and one organized by protein. Pick whichever aligns best with how you decide what to cook for dinner, print it off, and keep track as you cook recipes from the book.

I’ve heard from some of you that you like to use your own color code as you check off the recipes. For example, you check it with green if it’s a meal your whole family loved, pink if it’s a dinner you’d cook again for just the grown ups, blue if you’d cook it for guests, etc. Brilliant!

If you cook your way through the whole thing like Kelsey did, please let me know!

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make it fast recipe checklist by mood

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make it fast recipe checklist by time

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make it fast recipe checklist by protein

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quick ad break from a brand we love!

I love my Thrive Market subscription all the time, but especially during the back-to-school season — and especially this year when back-to-school has coincided with being on book tour. I’ve kept our snack drawer stocked with healthy snacks (free from more than 1,000 ingredients!) all month thanks to the Thrive Market app. A few easy taps and I know my boys will have all the meat sticks, cheddar bunnies, applesauce, and chips that their ravenous post-school day stomachs can handle. A membership costs $5 a month and ends up paying for itself with all the sales they run (they just wrapped a huge end-of-summer sale, but have a bunch of items on sale every week). Click here to join Thrive Market today and get $20 off your first three orders plus a free gift!

WTC: Kelsey! Hi! First, tell us a bit about yourself.

KC: Hi! I’m Kels, a 36-year-old mom of two from Maple Valley, Washington (about an hour south of Seattle). I have two daughters, Quinn is 3 and Haven is 16 months old. My husband, Kyle, and I have been married for almost 13 years. I started my business in 2010 as a wedding and portrait photographer, but since having babies, I’ve transitioned to mainly photographing families.

I have a fear of undercooked chicken so my most used kitchen item is my meat thermometer. The first time I had tuna from a can (that I remember) was when I made Tuna Melts from WTC1. I’m a big reader, and audiobooks have changed my reading life since having kids. I would cook elaborate meals every day if I didn’t have to do dishes, but since I don’t live in a magical castle with singing dishes, I love a quick and easy recipe that doesn’t make my kitchen look like it exploded!

WTC: What’s your background with cooking?

KC: I’m an only child and come from a family that loves food. Our house was always open for friends to come for dinner, and so I grew up watching my parents host and loving it myself. The Food Network was on all the time, and I even dressed up as Emeril for Halloween in the 4th grade. The only thing on my Christmas list when I was 10 was a Kitchen Aid Mixer. I LOVED cooking and thought I would one day be a chef. I might not be a chef, but my love for cooking started when I was young!

WTC: How, when, and why did you decide to cook through the book?! Was the movie Julie & Julia an inspiration for it?

KC: I was three months postpartum with my second baby. I had two under 2 and was just a little… frazzled? I wanted to do something that made me feel like me. I had purchased the ingredients for the lamb & hummus bowls, and while I was thinking about dinner, I just decided that I’d cook through the book. It was a quick decision. I told my husband, posted it on Instagram, and the rest is history.

And yes! Julie & Julia is my comfort movie. When I’m not feeling well or am having a rough day, it’s the movie I put on. I have watched it over and over since it came out and had always wanted to cook through a cookbook. I actually did it once before in 2021, and had wanted to do it again for a while.

WTC: How long did it take you to cook through WTC the book #1?

KC: Seven months! I started in July and finished with the last recipe on Valentine’s Day! I saved the shrimp tacos and lemon cake for a little family Valentine’s Day celebration. I gave myself the deadline to do it in a year, but once I started I didn’t want to stop — the recipes were too good!

WTC: Did you cook through it from front to back, or did you jump around based on mood?

KC: Definitely jumped around! I tried to choose recipes based on what was in season or if something sounded good. Also, if there were ingredients that were used in multiple recipes, I’d try to cook them in the same week to save on grocery cost.

WTC: Are you more comfortable cooking certain types of dishes or proteins now than you were before cooking through the book?

KC: Yes! My husband and dad both cook incredible steaks, so that wasn’t something I had a lot of experience with myself. There are a few steak recipes in WTC and I was so intimidated to cook and serve them — the last thing I wanted to do was to overcook a ribeye. But I followed the directions and they were SO good.

WTC: What were your girls’ favorite meals? Did you modify recipes for them at all?

KC: We found out quickly that my baby LOVES seafood and my toddler does not mind some heat/spice! The seared ahi was a favorite and I’ve made it multiple times since then — my whole family requests it! I don’t think there were any meals that they hated. They are pretty easy to please, and if something wasn’t their favorite, they will always inhale 18 pounds of berries from the fridge or some butter noodles.

WTC: How did you feel when you finished? I think I would feel SO accomplished.

KC: Oh my goodness, yes! Especially in the postpartum season I was in — I felt like so many things were out of my control and this was something that made me feel proud of myself. Also, it really is true that food is love. Cooking, spending time in the kitchen, creating something with my hands, and feeding my family were all things that brought me joy in a hard season.

WTC: Any other lessons learned or takeaways from the experience?

KC: The main thing I love about cooking through a cookbook is that it challenges me to try things I normally wouldn’t — ingredients I’ve never used, preparations that might feel intimidating, flavor combos I’ve never tried. It’s incredible how many of our favorite recipes are things that I might not have chosen at first glance. I think my biggest takeaway is to not judge a recipe before I’ve tried it!

WTC: Have you cooked any recipes from Make It Fast yet?!

KC: So far I’ve cooked 17! They are rocking my world. I had been in a cooking rut for months… not anymore!

Thank you, Kelsey! Don’t forget to download the Make It Fast checklists so you can keep track of meals you’ve cooked and loved.

And if you haven’t already…

get make it fast!

All the food photos above were taken by Kelsey!

It’s PEAK TOMATO TIME, and we can’t let it wrap without a new summer tomato pasta!

I wrote this recipe way back in May and have been craving and cooking this pasta all summer long. And now that we’ve entered Sungold season, I’m excited to cook it again using those super-sweet bright-orange beauties.

Last time we made pasta alla vodka, it was the dead of winter, so we leaned very heavily into tomato paste. In today’s recipe, since tiny tomatoes are at peak harvest, we’re bringing them into the fold, too. You can use cherry, grape, or Sungold tomatoes, whatever looks best at the grocery store or market, or whatever’s growing in your backyard. You can also use big heirloom tomatoes if that’s what you’ve got — just squeeze the watery “guts” out before you chop them up.

We’ll add the classic vodka sauce elements — vodka and heavy cream — then finish things off with a hit of Calabrian chili (or red pepper flakes, if you can’t find it).

Every single one of my kids loves this pasta! Because the sauce simmers, the alcohol largely cooks out of it, so I personally am not concerned by it. But if you want to omit the vodka, you can swap it out for 2 tablespoons of water plus 2 tablespoons of a light-colored vinegar like apple cider or white wine vinegar. And/or lemon zest!

When I plan to serve this meal to my boys, I do go lighter on the Calabrian chili paste because it adds a nice bit of heat. You can omit it entirely, or cut it back to a teaspoon. OR, you can cook this vodka sauce as written and just pull some of the plain cooked noodles out for them to top with butter or jarred marinara or Parmesan cheese or whatever else they like on their noodles!

As always, you’ll find lots of additional notes beneath the recipe, like how to stretch this meal and/or bulk it up with some meat, how to freeze it, etc.

I cook this pasta from start to finish in the latest episode of the What To Cook show. Watch it here and let me know if you learned anything from the episode!

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Here’s my very first tiny tomato pasta recipe that’s simple, classic, and delicious. If you’re a new owner of Make It Fast, you may have noticed it made its way into the book! Find it on page 78. Sunshine pasta is another option you should cook before tomato season ends. You’ll give fresh summer tomatoes a sunbath — it really is a fun one! And finally, if you’re cooking this recipe months in the future (or if you live in the southern hemisphere!) and there aren’t perfectly ripe tomatoes all around you, make this more classic pasta alla vodka, in which we harness the power of tomato paste instead of fresh tomatoes.

Serves 6

Cook time: 25 minutes

Tools:

• Large pot

• Chef’s knife

• Cutting board

• Large saucepan or Dutch oven (it needs to be big enough to fit the sauce and a pound of pasta)

• Box grater, microplane, or blender to grate your Parm

Ingredients:

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I have excellent news: we are indeed publishing this recipe during Sungold season. So if you can track them down at your farmers’ market or grocery store, I highly recommend it. Do any of y’all grow Sungolds in your home garden? Give us your tips, if so!

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I set out to cook this pasta in 20 minutes. Watch to see if I can beat the clock!

A full written recipe for this Calabrian chili cherry tomato alla vodka will land in your inbox tomorrow morning along with all the usual notes and substitutions we provide here at WTC.

If you aren’t a paid subscriber yet, upgrade now so that you get it!

Here are the salt pucks I’m obsessed with. And the recipe I mentioned from Make It Fast is on page 235! It’s the slow-braised skillet lasagna and it is gooood.

Also…

Hi all — we’re back with a new-and-improved version of last week’s recipe: the one-pan green chile chicken and corn rice bake.

While the original recipe worked for our entire testing team and many of you, it didn’t work for many others. I really pride myself on my recipes being foolproof, and I missed the mark with this one. We have been working hard all week to retest and rewrite it to be more across-the-board successful for everyone, and are sharing the revised recipe here.

To avoid confusion going forward, we are unpublishing the original recipe. We do not want there to be two one-pan green chile chicken and corn rice bakes floating around the archives, or for people to get tripped up by outdated advice/conversations in the old version’s comments section. If you cook and access your WTC recipes by email, go ahead and delete the one we sent last Saturday so that you don’t accidentally cook the outdated version!

This is the first recipe in the 5 1/2 year history of What To Cook that we’ve had to republish. If you’re curious, this new version has a few changes — it has a higher cook temp and shorter cook time, and we’re uniformly using a sheet pan as our lid rather than suggesting a lid or foil. We believe that the low cook temp in the original recipe (325°F) allowed too much room for error (not human error! just that slight differences in oven temp, baking dish thickness/material, and even altitude could impact everyone’s outcome differently). Our whole testing team used ceramic dishes, which can conduct heat differently than glass. Here, we have bumped the temperature up to make it more universally successful and more forgiving of slight differences between ovens and kitchen tools. We re-wrote the recipe, have tested it with both glass and ceramic baking dishes, and feel confident re-publishing.

I am so sorry about this. In an attempt to beg forgiveness for the trouble it caused some of you, here’s one of my good mood food plans (valued at $30).

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How are you?! I have had so much fun meeting so many Insiders across the country this week! In Charlotte, WTC Insider Rhode worked with her daughter, who was the bookseller for the event, to help me get all of the books signed! It was so much fun to get to chat with her.

Last night my husband, George, joined me for my book tour stop in Sea…

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Hello from a delayed flight in Portland, OR! I had an absolutely delightful day yesterday in Portland — I enjoyed a crispy pork crepe from the Bing Mi food cart thanks to one of your recommendations, a fantastic iced latte from Courier, and shopping at Frances May, Halo Shoes (I got a reallly cool bag on major sale!), and Kissing Booth vintage.

My event at Powell's Books last night was so wonderful — this was my seventh event of book tour and the first one that actually took place inside of a bookstore! They have a wonderful space on the third floor where they host events. We sold it out and 275 Portlandian butter pants flooded the space with their big smiles and encouraging cheers.

and of The Modern Proper hosted and they are a DELIGHT. Follow their Substack, if you don't already! They are hilarious, cool, so stylish, so fabulous. They did an incredible job and I was pinching myself that these women who I've looked up to in the food space for so long were willing to spend their night hosting an event for ME! My gratitude cup overfloweth for all of the support that my team, all of the local book sellers and event venues, and all of YOU have shown this book.

I cannot tell you how much fun it’s been to meet — or reunite! — with so many of you. Hearing stories about your favorite meals, about your babies, and about the businesses you’ve created is truly the most fun part of my job. I’m so thankful to every single person who has taken time out of their busy life to come celebrate this new book. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now I’m off to Seattle! George and I will be on stage tonight at the Maydenbauer Theatre at 7 p.m. PT yapping about WHO KNOWS WHAT. I’m sure I’ll get a few “Jesus, Carolines” out of him before the night is through muahaha.

I also have a fun update to share about tonight’s event: It’s going to be live streamed here on Substack! And WTC Insiders, I’ll email you all a playback of it tomorrow morning.

Today’s So Into That is sponsored by Sophie James Wine! Sophie James supplied their organic, zero sugar, California-grown wines for my Make It Fast launch party the other week, and it was a number of my friends’ first times tasting it. They too fell in love, both with the taste and with the fact that they felt far better than usual the next morning, after enjoying a few glasses the night before. Sophie James operates as a direct-to-consumer wine club, so to get seasonal shipments of their delicious wines, you need to join the club! They’re back on a waitlist but will be opening new spots this Friday. Click here to enter to win a one-year membership to their wine club, including four complimentary shipments (in the spring, summer, fall, and during the holiday season). THREE What To Cookers will win! Giveaway runs now through September 1, and we’ll announce the winners in So Into That on September 9. Good luck!

1. My book editor, Amanda, agent, Sarah, and I went out to an INSANE meal in D.C. — Albi. We did the tasting menu and it was so unbelievably special!

2. M. Judson Booksellers in Greenville, SC, is one of the best bookstore vibes I’ve ever experienced. Their employee Creed was so amazing with Mattis while I signed books before the event. They were all just fabulous, but the bookstore itself is in a gorgeous historic building on Main Street and just embodies what an indie woman-owned bookstore can be and why it’s so important that we all buy books locally instead of just from Amazon!!! Indie bookstores are so important to the heartbeat of a town!

3. Speaking of which, it’s not open yet but the Long Story Books team in Atlanta went above and beyond for my event with them. They made custom tea towels for the event, filled my green room with my favorite snacks, and gave me a huge gift bag of their incredible merch. How good is this crewneck?! (From : I don’t see that crewneck online right now, but I think I need the crop tee version! Also, this is my new favorite vending machine.)

Let’s pause to crowdsource a list of amazing indie bookstores! Comment here with your favorite bookstore(s) to shop at locally!

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4. moderated my event in DC and was telling me about the upcoming House in NYC. Be sure to follow them for updates on programming — it’s going to be incredible.

4. If you’re still trying to decide whether to buy Make It Fast (!!!), Good Taste, Katie Couric’s newsletter, shared the sheet-pan summery lemon oregano chicken and squash this week. That’s a great one to test drive! And if you have the book, it’s on page 94. Also if you have the book: head to the WTC chat — lots of you are sharing pics of the meals you’ve been cooking from it! Good inspo there for what to cook next.

5. I’ve owned a lot of portable charger thingies that have broken within a few months. I asked my techie friend what the best one is before my book tour and he pointed me here. It’s been saving me on tour as I live between hotels and airports!

7. I’ve brought this bandana wrap on a million airplane rides at this point. Sometimes I wear it as a shawl. Sometimes I wear it as a scarf. But during every single flight, I use it as a blanket. I absolutely love it, and I get compliments on it everywhere I go.

Every week, we dig into the What To Cook archives to see what we were cooking this time in years past — the recipes worth bringing back into your rotation. Here’s this week’s lineup, which, by the way, has a great range of proteins and would make an excellent meal plan for next week.

1. saucy ground beef teriyaki bowls, 2025

Nicole Keshishian Modic of kalejunkie brought us these saucy, delicious, vegetable-filled beef teriyaki bowls on week five of my maternity leave with Tav, and you guys were obsessed. Amanda Z. said: “We loved this! And y’all weren’t lying, the leftovers were fab. Will probably double next time so I’ll have more for lunch.” Lots of reports of it being a huge hit with your kids, too!

2. one-skillet broccoli cheddar chicken pot pie, 2024

If you’re over summer and are trying to will cooler temperatures into existence, might I suggest this chicken pot pie? It’s the ultimate comfort food, plus the one skillet situation means there isn’t a pile of dishes to deal with after you’re all nice and cozy and content from the dream team of flaky pie crust and creamy broccoli cheddar chicken filling.

3. sorta pasta alla norma, 2023

Have a lot of eggplant from the farmers’ market or your CSA box or garden? Cook this! It’s a quicker, one-pot take on the Sicilian classic — the eggplant gets jammy and tender, then mingles with sausage (very untraditional, very delicious), marinara, and pearl couscous (or orzo!) for a rich and filling late-summer supper.

4. slow-roasted ribs with herby crunch potatoes, 2022

These fall-off-the-bone oven-roasted BBQ ribs are surprisingly easy to make, requiring just 15 minutes of hands-on prep before the oven does the rest. Served with crispy roasted potatoes tossed in fresh herbs, lemon, and Dijon for a bright, crunchy twist, it’s a comforting dinner that’s perfect for both weeknights and weekend gatherings.

5. healthy sloppy joes, 2021

If you haven’t cooked this WTC classic yet, you must! It’s a lightened-up take on classic sloppy Joes, with lean ground turkey, onions, bell peppers, and a tangy-sweet homemade sauce. It’s ready in just 30 minutes and is perfect for a back-to-school week dinner or workday lunch meal prep.

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Last week we asked you all to share a milestone / thing in your life worth celebrating and, man, if you could use a midweek pick-me-up, you’ve got to click here and read the full list of comments. Promotions, weddings, kids making sports teams, thriving home gardens, new jobs, new puppies, new babies, another school year starting for everyone — teachers, parents, and students alike! — and so much more.

Using a random number generator, we selected three commenters to win the cute artichoke and tomato cocottes from Staub, and are excited to share the winners and what they’re celebrating right now.

• From Rachel: I am one year out from my surgery for thyroid cancer. It has been a big and busy year filled with gratitude and appreciating the small stuff that can get lost in the shuffle.

• From Katharine: Completing three big milestones at work thanks to the support of my husband and family!

• From Carolyn: My TK students started school today-marking my 14th year teaching :)

read them all!! ☀️

We use affiliate links when sharing product recs, which means WTC may earn a small commission off of purchases you make through those links. This does not cost you anything extra and is a way to support the production of and team behind What To Cook. Sponsorships are another way we partner with brands that we authentically love and can personally vouch for.

In this week’s episode of the What To Cook show, I’m demoing my new one-pan green chile chicken and corn rice bake that will land in your inbox tomorrow morning!

This dinner showcases the spirit of the “Walk Away” chapter in my new book What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking: Make It Fast (OUT NOW and on sale, if ya haven’t heard!!). The recipes in it all require very little hands-on prep time, then have a longer cook time, letting you walk away from the kitchen and go do something else entirely. There are recipes that simmer, braise, roast, bake, and slow-cook for anywhere from an hour to, in some cases, four hours, and you don’t need to babysit a single one!

In this walk-away-style recipe, we are popping rice, corn, chicken, diced green chiles, salsa verde, stock, shallots, and seasonings into the oven and return an hour later to find a cozy and delicious chicken, corn, and rice feast. Bonus points that your house will smell incredible while it cooks!

Once you cook it (again, the full recipe’s coming tomorrow!), report back! I want to hear how you spent your hands-off time while dinner was in the oven!!! Did you read a book? Watch a show? Go for a walk? Pick some weeds? Break up fights between your kids?!

Give us recs if you’re reading or watching something good right now!

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Links to a few things I mention in the episode:

• Melty zucchini pasta

• Tiny tomato pasta

• 15-minute peanut noods

• If you like the sound of “cook once, eat multiple times,” here 5 cook-once, eat-twice ideas

• And here’s how to make lime pickled red onion!

The Friday before I flew out for the Make It Fast book tour (see ya SOON, D.C.!!!!), I hosted a dinner party for 38 of my dearest local friends, colleagues, and family who I couldn’t have written this book without the support of.

It was held just a few miles from my house at the beautiful Earthbound Farm Stand, with the Santa Lucia mountains as our backdrop. I asked to cater the dinner and, guys, she’s as amazing, funny, and talented in real life as she appears on the internet. You must follow her on Instagram and Substack (she writes ) immediately if you don’t already! She stayed at my house while she was in Carmel and my whole family fell in love with her.

Sara and I built a menu around recipes from the book — the flank steak with elote salsa, lemon oregano chicken, golden turmeric rice (find them on pages 52, 94, and 191, respectively!), plus the toasty pistachio salad from page 68 but with cherries instead of salmon to make it a seasonal side rather than a dinner salad.

For hors d’eouvres, Sara made grilled halloumi and date skewers and an incredible rainbow hummus spread, and then at the table, we brought out dinner rolls with salted maple whipped butter and pepperoncini kelp ranch butter, served in the cutest artichoke and tomato dishes I’ve ever seen (from Staub!). We finished the meal off with a Straus soft serve Sundae bar complete with all the fixins’ we could think of! Oreo crumble, Cheez It crumble, chocolate hard shell, macerated berries, whipped cream… it was so, so good.

We served it all on gorgeous serving platters and coupes from my friends at East Fork, we consumed copious amounts of Sophie James wine, and George and I stood up and said a few words at the start of the meal during the salad course.

It was a dreamy, perfect night, and it made me remember just how important it is to celebrate milestones — and the people who help you reach them!

A few more details from the night!

• I was really intentional with seating. I put the guys on the outskirts and the girls in the middle (sorry, it’s just more fun that way!!) and tried to bake in connections between people who didn’t already know each other. For example, I sat three girls who didn’t all know one another but who each grew up in Chicago in neighboring seats, knowing that they’d have some common ground. I also situated two filmmakers by each other, and sat my most extraverted, chatty pal next to my friend , who didn’t know anyone else there going into the night.

• We stuck the place cards into quince fruit!

• I used these light blue linen tablecloths with matching napkins and these placemats.

• We incorporated a few different shades of East Fork dishes — light blue for some of the side coupes and a darker blue for the dinner plates. We also set out a mix of blue, white, and olive serving platters.

• And for bread baskets, we used East Fork’s large coupes lined with cloth napkins that we draped over to keep the bread warm.

• Earthbound arranged flowers picked from their flower fields and they were STUNNING. If you’re local, FYI that the farm stand always has the most beautiful bouquets for sale!

• For music, we piped in this playlist.

• And here’s the dress I wore!

Today’s email is also supported by Staub! If you’ve been a WTCer for a while, you know that I love Staub’s enameled cast-iron Dutch ovens. They’re made with quality materials by artisans in France, have excellent heat retention, and are just plain pretty, so when I’m making a one-pot dish, I can just plop the Dutch oven right on the table and let people go at it.

They also have cute, CUTE ceramic collectibles like the tomato and artichoke “cocottes” that Sara filled with butters for the dinner party. They were truly the biggest hit, everyone was freaking out over the butter situation.

To spread the Make It Fast pub week love, we’re going to send one tomato and one artichoke cocotte to THREE WTCers who comment on this post! We’ll also send them to three WTC Insiders chosen at random!

I would LOVE to hear about a milestone or accomplishment or anything worth celebrating in your life right now, so we can all cheer you on, too!

Leave a comment

To enter1, comment on this post between now and Tuesday, August 18th. If you’re an Insider, you’re already entered! We’ll choose six winners at random next Wednesday and alert them by DM.

Every week, we dig into the What To Cook archives to see what we were cooking this time in years past — the recipes worth bringing back into your rotation. Here’s this week’s lineup:

1. greek-style sheet-pan gnocchi, 2025

On the third week of my maternity leave last summer, my friend brought us this delightful Mediterranean sheet-pan gnocchi. WTCer Alexa said this: “Coming back to say we have now made this 3x in the past week and about to take it to a friend that just had surgery. Such a great meal prep recipe and easy to customize (or pick through if you’re a child) to everyone’s tastes! It is GOOD!”

2. one-skillet chicken & gingery rice, 2024

“Cozy as hell” is how one reader described this one-pan dinner, and we couldn’t agree more. Chicken thighs roast over gingery, garlicky rice, then get drizzled with a creamy, peanut-y curry sauce that brings the whole thing together.

3. show off-y greek salad, 2023

Lettuce is the least exciting part of a Greek salad so here we just skip it and let peak summer produce shine with crisp cucumbers, juicy tomatoes, sweet peppers, olives, fresh herbs, and a tangy red wine vinaigrette! Paired with juicy yogurt-marinated grilled chicken, grilled sourdough, and a beautiful slab of feta, it’s an impressive yet EASY meal that’s perfect for both busy weeknights and more special summer meals.

4. summer tomato galette, 2022

This is a total crowd-pleaser that looks fancy but couldn’t be easier. We layer juicy tomatoes on a flaky crust (I teach you how to make your own but you can totally use store-bought) with just the right amount of cheese. It tastes great hot out of the oven or at room temp!

5. sheet-pan summer corn pizza, 2021

The ingredients are simple — the results are phenomenal. Mascarpone and mozzarella melt into roasted cherry tomatoes and sweet corn to create the creamiest, most delicious sheet-pan pizza summer has to offer!

PS, let’s recap a few recent giveaway winners, shall we?! Taylor Salvitti won the most recent Sophie James giveaway, woohoo! , , and won last week’s Make It Fast giveaway. And Noemi won the sheet pans a few weeks back!

Photos of the dinner party by Liz Birnbaum, Wolf Peach Creative & pic of the butters by Sara Tane. Video produced by American Awesome Assoc.

We use affiliate links when sharing product recs, which means WTC may earn a small commission off of purchases you make through those links. This does not cost you anything extra and is a way to support the production of and team behind What To Cook. Sponsorships are another way we partner with brands that we authentically love and can personally vouch for.

IT’S PUB DAY!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who preordered a copy of Make It Fast, who will be attending a book tour event, and/or has told a friend about this book (or this newsletter, which led to the cookbook!). Make It Fast wouldn’t exist without this community, and I am SO EXCITED for you to finally have this new collection of recipes.

A few of you have already gotten your books (actually a lot of you, lol — some stores mailed them out early?!) and seeing pics of these dishes in your own homes is surreal. It feels like just yesterday I was hugely pregnant with Tavish, turning in the first draft of this manuscript!

If you just got the book and are wondering where to start, I’d say… at the beginning!

Before we get to the first recipe, I break down the “notes” code on page 16, walking you through what the many, many notes that accompany each recipe mean, like “bulk it up” (how to make the meal more filling if you’re extra hungry or want to stretch it to feed more people) and “riff” (how to take the OG recipe and turn it into a fresh dinner). They’ll feel very familiar to you newsletter readers!!!

From there, I walk you through the pantry, fridge, and freezer staples that I recommend keeping in stock — with a properly stocked kitchen, you’ll only need to buy a few fresh ingredients for each recipe! I also share “17 things that will make cooking easier” on page 24, like how to hold your knife properly and three unspoken recipe-reading rules.

You can then flip to page 258, where you’ll find the recipes organized by mood — from “you cannot be bothered to chop a single thing” to “you’re feeling especially healthy” to “you have ground meat in the freezer.” Find a recipe that you have most (or maybe all?!) of the ingredients for already, and dive in!

Or, OK, if you just want me to tell you exactly what to cook for dinner tonight…

• If you have 15 minutes, cook the flank steak with elote salsa pictured above (page 52).

• If you have 30 minutes, cook the sheet pan summery lemon oregano chicken and squash (page 94)

• If you want a “walk away” low-and-slow-cooking dinner, cook the easiest-ever shredded beef five ways (page 222). I’d freeze some of it, make the crispy beef tacos the first night, and the garlic-soy beef bowls the second night. Weeks later, I’d thaw the frozen portion and make the pasta with meat sauce!

Please, please, PLEASE tell me which recipes you cook first!!! I cannot wait to hear which meals become staples in your house.

Leave a comment

If you haven’t already, you can officially…

BUY THE BOOK

It’s on sale a lot of places right now!

Thank you, thank you for all your support.

xx

Caro

Hi guys!! It’s the eve of Make It Fast’s pub day, and I want to celebrate by sharing one more recipe with you from the book. Not just any recipe — the cover star!

This morning I demoed it on Good Morning America. I also showed off the warm sesame noodles with bok choy and bell peppers from the book, then came back for GMA3 to share the corn and basil pasta salad with perfect baked chicken!

Here are some behind the scenes from the morning…

And here are the full segments from GMA1 and GMA3!

Keep scrolling for the lasagna vibes turkey zucchini skillet recipe! It’s from the 15-minute chapter and is a perfect reflection of the kinds of meals you can expect from this cookbook. Quick, easy, delicious complete-meal recipes accompanied by as many notes and substitution ideas as a print page can possibly hold.

ALSO! In case you haven’t heard… I’ve upped the preorder party giveaway ante!!!

If you preorder Make It Fast and upload your proof of purchase, you’ll be entered to win a trip for two to Carmel Valley! Flights, a two-night stay at Carmel Valley Ranch, and a dinner at my house cooked by me are all included!

I’ll also be giving away lots of great prizes from other brands I love during the preorder party on August 30!

If you haven’t preordered a copy of Make It Fast yet, you can do so here — today is the last day to preorder!

If you haven’t uploaded your proof of purchase yet, you can do so here! RSVPing to the preorder party = entering for a chance win this Carmel trip.

Remember that book tour event tickets count as a preorder! And if you’ve preordered more than one copy of the book, you can upload each receipt (or the same receipt more than once for each copy you bought) to be entered for the trip multiple times.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has preordered. I love you and appreciate you and can’t wait for you to cook these new recipes!!!

Serves 3

Cook time: 15 minutes

For years, one of my go-to dinners in the summer was zucchini lasagna, where zucchini is used in place of noodles. It’s delightful, but it’s also very labor-intensive, requiring you to slice the zucchini into long, thin planks, salt each individual plank, wipe each individual plank, and then layer the zucchini “noodles” with ricotta, sauce, and mozzarella. Now I have far too many children to be salting individual planks of zucchini — so I make this! It’s a dump-and-go skillet meal that has all of those favorite flavors in a way, way quicker and easier format.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium zucchini

• 1 cup fresh basil leaves

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 pound ground turkey

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1 (14.5-ounce) can tomato sauce

• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

• 4 ounces (½ cup) whole-milk ricotta cheese

• 4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese (1 cup)

• Red pepper flakes, for serving (optional)

Halve 3 medium zucchini lengthwise, then thinly slice them crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick half circles. Thinly slice 1 cup fresh basil leaves.

Warm 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add 1 pound ground turkey and cook, breaking it up into small crumbles with a wooden spoon. Add the zucchini, 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, and some black pepper. Turn up the heat to high and cook, stirring often, until the meat is totally cooked through (no longer pink) and the zucchini is tender, 6 to 8 minutes.

Turn down the heat to medium and stir in 1 (14.5-ounce) can tomato sauce, half the basil, 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, and another 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed — it should be very tasty by this point! Swirl in spoonfuls of a 1/2 cup of ricotta all over, then sprinkle 1 cup shredded mozzarella over the top. Turn down the heat to low, cover, and cook until the mozzarella has melted, 3 to 5 minutes.

Finish with the remaining basil and some red pepper flakes, if you like, before serving straight from the pot.

lasagna vibes turkey zucchini skillet

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• Swaps:

  • For a vegetarian lasagna, squeeze the moisture from a block of firm tofu, crumble the tofu into the skillet in place of turkey, and cook the rest of the recipe exactly as written.

  • Use ground Italian sausage instead of ground turkey for a richer dish.

  • Using cottage cheese instead of ricotta will give the dish a more delicate flavor.

• Riff: Make it a chicken Parm lasagna skillet by using ground chicken and adding 1/4 cup freshly grated Parm (1 ounce) when you add the mozzarella. Stir in 1 1/2 cups or so of leftover cooked pasta — any kind — to give it baked pasta vibes.

• Bulk it up:

  • Add a thinly sliced bell pepper or 8 ounces thinly sliced mushrooms when you add the zucchini.

  • On GMA we used a can of fire-roasted tomatoes in addition to the tomato sauce!

  • For some greens, stir in two big handfuls of spinach with the tomato sauce and cook until wilted.

  • Serve with garlic bread to stretch this to feed more people!

• Extra extra: To brown the cheese, throw the skillet under the broiler for a few minutes (watch it the entire time so you don’t burn it!) instead of cooking it, covered, on the stovetop.

Recipe reprinted with permission from What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking: Make it Fast by Caroline Chambers © 2026. Published by Union Square & Co., an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group. Photography by Erin Scott.

A few summers ago, our dear friends Gray and Tate invited us to their family’s house on Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota, and, whoa. It was one of those *immediately starts browsing Zillow because, wait, should we move here?* moments for us. One afternoon we got babysitters and the adults took the boat from the house into the town of Wayzata for lunch at The Grocer’s Table.

I still dream about their summer-in-your-mouth BBQ chicken salad with a BBQ vinaigrette. So much so that, years later, it’s still a regular in my summer grill-out rotation. And so much so that I put my take on it in my new cookbook (that’s out in THREE DAYS!) — and in a show!

Today’s salad brings to life a few of the notes included in the 15-minute BBQ chicken and peach chop recipe in Make It Fast.

In the book version, I call for “precooked chicken,” AKA rotisserie chicken, chicken breasts that you batch-grilled earlier in the week, cooked chicken from the hot bar at your grocery store, or store-bought grilled chicken like this.

In today’s version — inspired by the “Riff” note in the book — we have doubled our homemade BBQ vinaigrette and will use half of it as a marinade for chicken breasts that we’ll grill along with fresh corn and peaches. We’re also using the “Extra Extra” note, which is to marinate and lightly press the black beans in the vinaigrette to make them extra flavorful and delicious.

These little tweaks make this already amazing summer salad even better. This can be your *weekend-edition* BBQ chicken and peach chop, or the one you make when you want to pour yourself a big GOW and hang out by the grill for a bit, while the OG version is perfect for a busy weeknight when you just need to get dinner on the table ASAP. There’s no bad option here!

I cooked this BBQ chicken and peach chop in the latest episode of the What To Cook show!

I’d love to know when you typically watch the show — before you cook the recipe, or while you’re cooking it? Is there a certain step in this meal that was easier to follow once you saw me demo it? Did you drink a no-hangover marg while you cooked!?

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My summer chicken chop has a few of the same players as this recipe (chicken, corn, avocado), but otherwise, they have two totally distinct personalities. For a cook once, eat twice moment, you could grill a double batch of chicken breasts and eat half of them with the summer chop, and half of them with today’s recipe.

With what’s left in the bottle of BBQ sauce you’ll use here, you’ve gotta cook my BBQ chicken meatballs, broccoli, and blistered tomatoes with cheesy spinach rice. Or, if you’re in more of a taco mood, make these oven-baked crispy BBQ chicken tacos!

Serves 4

Cook time: 30 minutes active + 30 minutes to 4 hours for marinating the chicken

Tools:

• Large serving bowl

• Zip-top bag or shallow dish

• Chef’s knife

• Cutting board

• Whisk

• Grill or grill pan

• Tongs

• Meat thermometer

Ingredients:

BBQ vinaigrette:

Read more

And because it’s PUB WEEK (!!!!!), today’s recipe is from the 15-minute chapter of Make It Fast!

But I wanted to make it a little bit more show-off-y, so we’re leveling the recipe up in a few different ways, using the “Extra Extra” notes from the cookbook — AKA the tips that will teach you how to make the recipe a little extra!

In this BBQ chicken and peach chop, we’re going to double the dressing and use half of it as a marinade for our chicken. We’re then going to grill that chicken along with fresh corn on the cob and peaches. AND we’re going to let the black beans marinate in the salad dressing for a bit, infusing them with flavor.

The full recipe along with the inspo for this salad, how this version compares to the one in the book, and all the usual notes and substitutions will be in your inbox tomorrow.

Want in on the full recipe? Upgrade to a paid subscription now so that it lands in your inbox bright and early tomorrow!!!

I love this salad so much. The whole video crew LOVED THIS SALAD SO MUCH. We absolutely inhaled it!!!! I hope you’ll cook it this weekend and let me know if you love it, too!

Links and more info for a few things I chat about in the show:

• The Earthbound Farms greens I used

• I am literally obsessed with Cometeer. Yes, they sponsored this show. But y’all, IT’S SO GOOD. I have become an evangelist. I had 10 people over for breakfast the other day and instead of making a pot of coffee, I made each of them a cup of Cometeer so that we could discuss it. I drink a hot coffee every morning, and I make an iced half-caff latte every afternoon. It is the best, best, best — trust me, you must try it.

• Here’s my no-hangover marg recipe: Equal parts lime juice and tequila plus half part orange juice. For a single marg that breaks down to: 1/4 cup lime juice + 1/4 cup tequila + 2 or 3 tablespoons orange juice. Add ice and shake the heck out of it. It’s tart!!! Add simple syrup (I prefer it over agave) if you need it a little sweeter.

• Car/breakfast meatball recipe — find it near the bottom of that post

• BBQ chicken meatballs, broccoli, and tomatoes with cheesy rice

• Five ingredients I always have in my house: Canned beans, boneless, skinless chicken thighs, Duke’s mayonnaise, white cheddar cheese (ideally Unexpected Cheddar from TJ’s), and honey. What are yours?!

Tell me if you watched the episode! Did you learn anything? Favorite part? Mine is when Jess clearly thought the salad dressing was too tart LOL. I loved making this show and I want to keep doing it — let me know what you think! I’ll send someone who comments my favorite gigantic wooden salad bowl!

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Hi! Woah. I leave for the East Coast to start my Make It Fast (please for the love of ME, pre-order it!!!) book tour in less than 48 hours. My literary agent just called to check in on my mental state and I’ll tell you what I told her— I’m honestly feeling great. I haven’t started packing, but I’ve got a million outfit options strewn about my closet, and I’ll get there eventually. The flights are booked and the hotel reservations are made. It’s go time, baby.

I’m also thrilled to announce that I have officially entered phase 5 of the creative process:

With my last book, I was firmly still in phase #4 (“I suck”) until the book had actually been published and all of you started to cook from it and share your photos and reviews and love of the book. But with Make It Fast, I hosted a party and gave the book to my friends and family two weeks before pub day! I created an Illegal Bookclub and roped in my friends all across the country to share advanced copies of the book with their communities! And, comically, Indigo (the main Canadian seller of the book) accidentally sent all of the pre-orders like two weeks early, so all of the Canadian What To Cookers out there have had their books for a week now! And Canadians are so nice — they are sending so much positivity my way!

So there are a LOT of people out in the world, people who I love and trust, who have already seen it, and cooked from it, and told me how much they love it. Thus launching me into phase #5 (“this might be ok”) a few weeks earlier than my last book publishing cycle.

I guess, if I’m being honest, what I’m saying is that I require external validation to feel good about my work? Is that pathetic? I don’t think so. I think it’s a real, honest part of most (all?) people’s creative process. It feels really scary and vulnerable to launch a piece of work that you’ve worked so hard on out into the world. It feels a little bit like dropping your deeply feeling, sensitive, absolutely incredible child off at Kindergarten for the first day of school. Will he make friends? Will the teachers understand how creative and kind and cool he is? Will they be patient with him and let him finish his art project because he really doesn’t like when he doesn’t get to finish his art project? Will the world love him as much as I do?

This analogy is not random: I am dropping my deeply feeling sensitive child off at Kindergarten for his first day of school tomorrow, and the jitters and unease of that feel so akin to publishing a book.

By next Wednesday when I send this newsletter, Make It Fast will be in your kitchens, if you’ve pre-ordered (have I mentioned I’d really love it if you could pre-order?). I’ll have already been on Good Morning America two mornings in a row (bless them, what an invitation!), spoken with in front of an audience of you in Brooklyn, yapped with Dan Pelosi in Boston, chatted with in DC, and I’ll be en route to Charlotte where I’ll be in conversation with our very own .

I am excited, and I am nervous, and just like I’ve been telling my five-year-old, it’s OK to feel both of those things at once. And Phase 6 (“this is awesome”) is just around the corner for both of us.

There are lots of other book tour dates — check them all out here!

Today’s So Into That is sponsored by FP Movement. We’ve talked about our love for their Carpe Diem shorts many times before (a truly perfect athletic short at a very good price point!), but FP Movement has many more athleisure pieces we love. From : I’m on vacation at the beach this week and have been living in this dress and shorts combo when I’m not in a bathing suit. It’s so so comfy and easy to throw on for beach walks — it’ll also be great to wear on the sports sidelines when it’s 100 degrees outside. I’m a shortie (5’3”) and had to shorten the straps a tiny bit (worth the effort!). We also love these biker shorts with this boxy short sleeve and this oversized long sleeve!

1. Dr. Becky invited me to plan the menu for a REALLY special dinner celebrating Good Inside Baby on Monday in LA. I got to hang with and and and so many incredible, smart women who make motherhood safer, more fun, stronger, and more fashionable. The dilly feta salad with feta brined shrimp, flank steak with elote salad, and bbq chicken are all straight from the book! My menu concept was elegant California BBQ and I think we nailed it! PS If you’re in LA, Heirloom catered and they rule. PS because I know you all want to know, Becky is awesome IRL. She is a fellow insomniac romance book lover, she values her female friendships so highly and they come up in conversation all the time (this is always a green flag for me when I meet new people), and she’s just so incredibly smart, insightful, and cool. This is not sponsored but we’ve swapped codes for each other in the past and my Good Inside code still works — you can use code WHATTOCOOK to get 20% off a subscription to Good Inside if you could use a little parenting assist (like with how to get your deeply feeling kid to dread the first day of school less!).

2. I recently worked with Groundwork to hire a new team member (woohooooo, Meg!) and it was such an incredible experience that I wanted to share. Three in four U.S. workers are also caregivers, and as that caregiving work collides with mid-career years, most end up forced to choose between staying all in at real personal cost or stepping away entirely — becoming a hugely qualified, "off-market" talent pool that's actually eager to work, just on slightly different terms. Groundwork connects people like that with employers building smarter, more flexible teams. In my case, I knew I needed help in a certain space but had no idea how to define the role or find the right person. They sat down with me, helped flesh it out, wrote the job description, sourced candidates, and ran interviews, and took it all off my plate. And brought me the most INCREDIBLE CANDIDATES! Like lights out brilliant women. If you're a small business owner stuck in hiring limbo, or you're job hunting and sick of the LinkedIn black hole, Groundwork is worth a look.

   

3. From Molly: A go-to breakfast of mine this summer has been avocado toast inspired by some Caro made for our team last time I was in Carmel. Mashed avocado seasoned with salt and pepper, slathered on a thick slice of GOOD toasted sourdough, and topped with chili crisp, pickled red onions, flaky sea salt, and fresh cilantro. So good.

4. From Molly: I’ve been slathering on this body oil after time in the sun this week — it’s very luxurious feeling and makes my skin glowy! From Caro: Oh I love this too!!! It really does not make you feel oily at all, it absorbs so nicely.

My publishers are dropping a few more advance reader copies of Make It Fast in the mail to some of my media/Internet friends this week, and I told them to save some for WTCers!! We are going to mail three of you a copy of Make It Fast, along with a Butter Pants spatula and a Caraway kitchen timer!

To enter to win, comment on this post with the meal you cook most often when you absolutely do not feel like cooking.

Leave a comment

It doesn’t have to be from scratch! For example, mine has historically been frozen dumplings and peanut sauce, and Molly’s is pasta with Rao’s marinara and frozen meatballs. Comment between now and August 10 — we will randomly select three winners next Tuesday, August 11, and alert them by Substack DM!

Every week, we dig into the What To Cook archives to see what we were cooking this time in years past — the recipes worth bringing back into your rotation. Here’s this week’s lineup.

1. salmorejo, 2025

Oooh, this is such a good one. Traditional salmorejo! From ! If you have boatloads of ripe tomatoes that need to be used up, make this creamy chilled tomato soup. It gets its creaminess in part from blended artisanal bread, so if you have any leftover sourdough from this week’s summer shrimp panzanella, use it here!

2. skillet cheddar turkey burgers, 2024

Juicy, cheesy turkey burgers seared in a skillet and served with a tangy, punchy burger sauce — this recipe (which is an excerpt from What to Cook the book #1!) is just so good. Go classic with buns, or shake things up and make sliders for a party, meatballs for dipping, or crumbled patties in pita for lunch the next day.

3. turkey meatballs with corn butter rice, 2023

These juicy turkey meatballs are packed with flavor, but the real star of the show is the buttery corn-studded rice. It’s sweet, savory, summer perfection. While you’re cooking, double the meatballs and freeze half for later — future you will be thrilled.

4. healthy (or not as healthy…) corn chowder, 2022

Sweet corn gets blended into a creamy, cozy chowder that tastes like summer in a bowl. Keep it light with coconut milk, or go richer with heavy cream — both versions are equally delicious. Make it on a Sunday and thank yourself all week — it reheats beautifully and somehow tastes even better on day two.

5. sheet-pan crispy pork chops with fennel and peaches, 2021

These roasted peaches are iconic — soft, jammy, and caramelized at the edges. Add in sweet, roasty red onions and fennel, plus golden, crispy pork chops, and you’ve got an easy dinner that feels delightfully fancy. The method works just as well with chicken breasts or sausages if that’s what you’ve got.

We use affiliate links when sharing product recs, which means WTC may earn a small commission off of purchases you make through those links. This does not cost you anything extra and is a way to support the production of and team behind What To Cook. Sponsorships are another way we partner with brands that we authentically love and can personally vouch for.

If you’re a parent still enjoying your kids’ summer vacation to the fullest, I’m sorry to jump-scare you with the mention of back to school. But my kids do indeed go back to school this week! So, ready or not, back-to-school season is upon us.

We’re very fortunate to have universal free school lunches here in California, but the menu never changes and my older sons have gotten more… vocal… about wanting to bring a packed lunch from home certain days of the week. So toward the end of last school year, I (lovingly! begrudgingly!) started packing some school lunches.

A few weeks in, I got into a rhythm of purposefully making dinners that would leave leftovers I could pack in their lunch boxes and it was a very helpful unlock. For example: I’ll cook pizza chicken knowing that I’ll have pepperonis and mozzarella in the fridge for a Lunchables-style DIY pizza lunch. Or I’ll make tuna melts for dinner, then pack leftover tuna salad and hardboiled eggs in their lunch boxes (yes, Mattis and Cashel will eat tuna salad! If yours won’t touch it, you could take the same approach with chicken salad!). I also add in some fruit I know they’ll eat, a veg they like, and a little sweet bite.

To show you this leftovers-filled lunch box approach in action — and to take a week of meal planning off your plate! — we teamed up with PlanetBox, AKA the best lunch box makers out there, to create a five-day dinner and leftovers-filled lunch box meal plan.

We’ve mapped out five family dinners from the WTC archives that will leave you with five days worth of kid-friendly leftovers to pack in their lunch box. And we compiled a grocery list for you, too! You’ll find it all in the printable PDF below.

You can print out and cook through this meal plan from start to finish, or just use it for inspo. Once you start viewing lunch boxes through a dinner-leftovers lens it gets kinda fun, and feels easier than recreating new lunches day after day!

When I started packing lunches more often, I remembered a lot of you guys going crazy over PlanetBox in the comments section of WTC. I ordered a couple of their Rovers and, man, they live up to the hype! They’re stainless steel, so are durable and dishwasher safe, and have five compartments for a nice little snacky mix of food. They come with decorative magnets in fun designs and pre-loaded with two leakproof containers that you can fill with condiments, juicy fruits, etc.

Their team is also SO nice and creative. They approached us about teaming up on a back-to-school lunch box guide this year it was a big heck yes! We combined our skillsets (our team’s: cooking dinners and repurposing leftovers; their team’s: making, packing, and photographing lunch boxes), and created the ultimate meal plan for back-to-school season!

PlanetBox is currently running their biggest sale of the year, with up to 60% off site-wide, and 20% off all lunch boxes (it's the biggest sale they run on Rovers all year!). My boys use Rover Lunch boxes filled with a mix of their leakproof dippers and silicone pods, and the Adventurer Insulated Lunch Bags (with an ice pack). We also have and love the Day Tripper Snack Containers! Head here to download the free meal plan and shop the sale!

How much food a family eats in a day varies so widely based on the number, ages, and appetite levels of each kid. Even within same-sized families, there’s variability — a family of four with a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old needs a different amount of food than a family of four with a 14-year-old and 16-year-old.

We have written this meal plan with a family of three in mind: two adults and one kid with a full-portion-size appetite. Each recipe yields four servings, so, in theory, it will yield a family dinner plus enough leftovers for the kid’s lunch box.

Double recipes if needed based on how much YOUR family typically eats. If you have two little kids whose appetites combined equal one full serving, this will likely work as written! Alternatively, if you have older kids or more than two children, you may need to double them.

The PDF below has ALL the info — every dinner recipe in full, notes for how to transform the leftovers into a kid-friendly lunch box, and a grocery list for it all. Here are the meals included within it!

COMBO #1: lamb pita with minty dilly yogurt sauce + leftover lamb pita-dillas

The lunch box includes:

• Lamb and feta pita-dillas (like a quesadilla but made with leftover pita!)

• Watermelon salad

• Cucumber slices

• Leftover dilly minty yogurt sauce + cherry tomatoes

• A yogurt-dipped pretzel

COMBO #2: one-skillet pizza chicken + homemade pizza lunchable

The lunch box includes:

• Leftover pita bread

• Pepperonis, mozzarella slices, and (optional!) basil leaves for something green

• Tomato sauce

• Sliced olives (swap in another veg if they hate olives!)

• Fruit salad

• Mini cookie

COMBO #3: the perfect tuna melts + catch-of-the-day box

The lunch box includes:

• Leftover tuna salad

• Sourdough chunks

• Hard-boiled egg halves

• Leftover dilly minty yogurt sauce + cucumber slices

• Gummy fish snacks

COMBO #4: mob wife salad + kid-cuterie board lunch

The lunch box includes:

• Salami slices

• Cheese slices

• Kettle chips

• Kalamata olives

• A halved hard-boiled egg + cherry tomatoes

• Green apple slices (or swap for any seasonal fruit)

• Mini cookie

COMBO #5: BBQ chicken meatballs, broccoli, and tomatoes with cheesy rice + BBQ chicken and cheesy rice box

The lunch box includes:

• BBQ chicken meatballs

• Cheesy rice + cherry tomatoes

• Broccoli

• BBQ sauce

• Watermelon & clementines

• Brownie bite

My kids will eat room temp rice and meatballs! But I know not all kids are into it. If yours wouldn’t, you could warm them in the morning and pack them in a temperature-controlled thermos — meatballs piled on top of the rice. Fruit and/or veg could be packed separately in something like this.

This PDF contains all five dinner recipes, all five lunch box recipes, leftover repurposing tips, and a grocery list organized by aisle!

the dinner leftovers lunch box guide

5.37MB ∙ PDF file

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Panzanella is a Tuscan salad famous for swapping salad greens out for BREAD. Delicious, crusty, craggly, freshly baked croutons that are crunchy, but also soft thanks to the oily vinaigrette they get doused in.

Today’s panzanella is not traditional in any way, shape, or form other than having freshly baked croutons and an oil-based vinaigrette. Instead of the croutons’ traditional panzanella accompaniments — raw tomatoes and red onion — we are tossing them with warm roasted tomatoes, zucchini, and corn. We’re adding shrimp to the equation, too, for a delicious, lean, quick-cooking protein. And topping things off with tons of fresh summer herbs and creamy, briny feta (or goat cheese, if you’d rather).

I am absolutely obsessed with this one!!! The crunchy homemade croutons soak up not only the dressing, but also the pan juices from the roasted veg and shrimp, for the most flavorful panzanella you’ve ever tasted. It’s summer food perfection and comes together in half an hour.

Let’s talk about shrimp. If you live near the coast or in a town that has a good fishmonger, AKA a business or person that specializes in selling fish and seafood, go there and get fresh peeled and deveined shrimp! If you don’t, or if you just want to buy shrimp from the regular grocery store to avoid making another stop, I highly recommend using frozen shrimp.

Fresh shrimp on display at many grocery stores were previously frozen and thawed for the display case. You can bypass that time sitting out on display by thawing your own! Thaw them for a few hours in the fridge, or, if you don’t have time for that, place the frozen shrimp in a bowl of cold water and they’ll thaw in 20 to 30 minutes. If you don’t even have time for that, run the frozen shrimp under cold water in a colander to melt the ice off the outside. Pat them dry and cook! They will just need an extra minute or two of cook time if they’re still partially frozen.

I’m calling for U-20 shrimp here, so the big guys. They might be labeled “extra large” or “jumbo” instead. If you’re working with smaller shrimp, they’ll need a little less cook time! Keep an eye on them while they broil and pull them when they have turned pink and curled into a “C” shape.

Shrimp haters or vegetarians: As always, you can find substitutions for shrimp in the notes and subs sections beneath the recipe!

There’s another panzanella salad in the WTC archives that deserves to be cooked this summer: chicken panzanella, which uses perfectly ripe raw heirloom tomatoes, baby arugula, and balsamic vinegar. Another Mediterranean-vibe salad starring crusty bread is my show-off-y Greek salad with grilled chicken and bread. And if you just want more shrimp and corn in your life, you can invite a couple friends over (or not!) and host a Lowcountry boil with peel-and-eat shrimp, corn, potatoes, and sausage. So good and so fun.

Serves 4

Cook time: 32 minutes and 38 seconds

Tools:

• Chef’s knife

• Serrated bread knife, if you have one, for slicing the bread

• Cutting board

• 2 rimmed sheet pans

• Large serving bowl

• Whisk

Ingredients:

• 1 medium zucchini, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick half moons

• 4 ears of corn, shucked, kernels cut off

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes

• Extra-virgin olive oil

• Kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder, divided

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 6 cups (12 ounces, about 4 thick slices) really good sourdough bread, cut (or torn) into bite-size pieces

• 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt

• Juice of 1/2 large lemon (2 tablespoons)

• 2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard

• 1/2 teaspoon honey

• 1 cup fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped

• 1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds U-20 peeled and deveined shrimp

• 8 ounces feta or goat cheese, crumbled

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Cut 1 medium zucchini in half vertically, then into 1/4-inch-thick half moons. Cut the kernels off 4 (shucked) ears of corn. Place the zucchini, corn, and 1 pint of cherry tomatoes on a large rimmed sheet pan. Toss with 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, and several grinds of black pepper. Spread into an even layer and roast for 20 minutes (heads up that we’re going to add another sheet pan to the oven about halfway through!).

As soon as the vegetables go in the oven, prep the bread: Tear or cut about 4 thick slices of sourdough bread into 6 cups of bite-size pieces and throw them on a second sheet pan with 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt, several grinds of black pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder. Use your hands to combine it all then spread into an even layer. If any of the bread looks dry, add a little more oil! Add to the oven and roast for 10 minutes, or until the bread pieces are golden-brown and crispy on the outside, but still chewy inside.

While everything is roasting: In a large serving bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard, 1/2 teaspoon honey, and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Drizzle in 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, whisking as you go.

Season 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of U-20 peeled and deveined shrimp with a big pinch of kosher salt and a few grinds of black pepper and let it sit out on the counter while everything’s roasting.

Roughly chop 1 cup basil leaves and 1/2 cup parsley leaves.

Remove the bread from the oven and set it aside. Remove the sheet pan with the vegetables, too. Add the seasoned shrimp evenly on top of the vegetables and drizzle the shrimp with some extra-virgin olive oil.

Turn the broiler on high.

Add the sheet pan with the shrimp and vegetables to the oven and broil for 2 to 3 minutes, until the shrimp are cooked through (they will be pink, opaque, and curled into a “C”). If you don’t have a broiler, just roast them at 400°F for 4 to 5 minutes.

Like always, sit in front of the oven and watch your food broil! Do not walk away and get distracted and let your dinner burn!

Just before serving, add the bread, warm veggies, shrimp, any juices that have collected on the pan, the chopped herbs, and 8 ounces crumbled feta to the serving bowl with the dressing and toss to combine.

Scoop into four bowls, add a little pepper on top, and dig in.

summer shrimp panzanella

779KB ∙ PDF file

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link to printer version

• Prep ahead: The veg and bread can be totally prepped ahead of time. Store the vegetables in the fridge (either covered on the sheet pan or in an airtight container) and store the bread in a zip-top bag at room temp.

• Halve it/love your leftovers/meal prep it: You could very easily halve this recipe if you’re feeding 1 or 2 people. If you have leftovers, store them in the fridge in an airtight container and eat ASAP. Panzanella is best right away when the crispy bread is starting to soften from the dressing but isn’t mushy yet — but I’d definitely eat leftovers of this if I had them in the fridge! If you want to meal prep this recipe, keep all the parts separate (dressing, veg and shrimp, and bread) and compile your serving of panzanella right before you eat.

• Feeding kids: At one point, all of my kids reliably ate shrimp, and it was a glorious time. Frozen shrimp are IMO the easiest protein out there — you can thaw them quickly in a bowl of cold water, then just pat them dry and cook in mere minutes! These days, only my baby will eat them, but that’s OK! George, Tav, and I enjoy this whole meal while the other boys crush the croutons and corn, and I throw a meat stick on their plate for some protein.

• Bring it to a party: Watch this episode of the What To Cook show to see my favorite trick for bringing a delicious salad to a party. Here are the Cliff’s Notes: Make the dressing in the serving bowl and cover it with a big piece of parchment. Let the veggies and shrimp cool to room temperature, then add them on top of the parchment. Top with the bread then the herbs, and wrap the bowl tightly with plastic. Once you’re ready to eat, uncover the bowl, slide the sheet of parchment out, and toss! It’s OK if the dressing separated, it will still taste great.

• Vegetarian: Swap the shrimp for white beans — add a can of rinsed and drained navy, cannellini beans, or chickpeas to the sheet pan with the other veg!

• Dairy-free: Use dairy-free feta, goat cheese if that would work for you, or just skip the cheese altogether. Cubed avocado would be a tasty, creamy, DF alternative.

• Gluten-free: Use a loaf of gluten-free bread. If you can’t find good-quality GF bread, you could swap the bread for roasted chickpeas.

• Zucchini: Squash, eggplant, red onion, or omit

• Corn: You can use 2 to 3 cups frozen corn if it’s what you’ve got (you can add it to the sheet pan frozen). Canned corn (drained) would also work. If you don’t like corn, you can omit it and swap in a red onion cut into wedges, or add another pint of tomatoes.

• Cherry tomatoes: Chopped heirloom tomatoes, but remove some of the seeds so there isn’t too much liquid. If you can’t eat tomatoes, swap them for chopped red bell pepper, a red onion cut into wedges, or extra corn and/or zucchini.

• Extra-virgin olive oil: Olive oil, avocado oil, or another neutral cooking oil

• Garlic powder: Onion powder or 4 minced fresh cloves of garlic (divided)

• Flaky sea salt: Kosher salt

• Sourdough: Ciabatta, country loaf, French bread, Italian bread, baguette, whole-wheat bread, gluten-free artisan bread. Or swap the bread out for crispy chickpeas!

• Lemon juice: A light-colored vinegar like white wine, red wine, or apple cider vinegar

• Whole-grain mustard: Dijon mustard, yellow mustard, or omit

• Honey: Maple syrup, agave, brown sugar

• Basil and parsley: You can just use one rather than both, or you can swap either herb for another soft leafy green herb like cilantro or chives. Arugula would be good here, too!

• Shrimp: Chicken thighs would be great instead of shrimp! Add them to the sheet pan at the same time as your vegetables — add more oil and an extra big pinch of salt and few grinds of pepper to make sure everything is well coated. Cook them for the whole 20 minutes then measure their internal temp. You may need to cook them for about 5 more minutes to hit the safe internal temperature of 165°F. The vegetables can cook that extra time, too. See “vegetarian” note above for another idea.

• Feta: Goat cheese, fromage blanc, ricotta salata, freshly shaved Parmesan or pecorino romano, or just omit the cheese

Click here for the full index of What to Cook recipes categorized by protein, cook time, and *mood.*

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Editor: Molly Ramsey

Today we’re making a 30-minute sheet-pan panzanella salad with warm roasted summer veg (corn! zucchini! tomatoes!), a tangy vinaigrette, and perfectly cooked shrimp to make it a complete meal.

In this episode, you’ll learn my favorite magic trick for bringing any salad to a dinner party or potluck, meet our new pals Midnight and Scales, see George saunter through the kitchen half sedated, and watch a gorgeous summer supper come together in 30 minutes (or not!!?).

Links to a few things I talk about or show:

• The kid-safe knife that Cash is using

• The nakiri knife I’m using

• My cutting board

• My favorite bread shop

• And my humongous salad serving bowl

The full recipe will land in your inbox tomorrow morning!

Click here to watch today’s episode on Youtube or Youtube TV.