Tacos made simple

Desserts30 min18 g protein

Cosmic Brownies

The trick is pulling them out while the middle still looks underdone. They set as they cool, and that is the difference between fudgy and cakey.

30 minTotal

9Serves

Lunch16 min45 g protein

Smash Burger Wrap

Smashing the beef thin on a hot pan is what gets you the lacy brown edges. A thick patty in the same pan just steams and goes grey.

16 minTotal

Desserts12 min16 g protein

Biscoff Cheesecake Jars

Blend the cottage cheese completely on its own before anything else goes in. Combined with the rest it never fully breaks down and you get a grainy cheesecake.

12 minTotal

Snacks10 min25 g protein

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Shred the chicken while it is still warm. Cold chicken tears into chunks instead of strands, and the dip ends up lumpy instead of stringy.

10 minTotal

6Serves

Dinner22 min42 g protein

Chipotle Steak Bowl

Let the steak rest before it goes anywhere near the bowl. Cut it straight off the heat and the juice ends up in the rice instead of the meat.

22 minTotal

Desserts8 min21 g protein

Cookie Dough Protein Ice Cream

Blend it and freeze it in a shallow container, not a deep one. A deep tub freezes into a brick you cannot get a spoon into.

8 minTotal

Dinner26 min35 g protein

Gochujang Fried Chicken

The glaze goes on after the chicken comes out, off the heat. Put it on in the fryer and the sugar in it burns before the coating is crisp.

26 minTotal

Snacks20 min22 g protein

Pepperoni Pizza Rolls

Broil them for the last minute. That is what blisters the top and makes them look like pizza instead of a rolled up wrap.

Desserts24 min24 g protein

Protein Donuts

Baked donuts want a batter that is thicker than you think. If it pours easily it spreads over the tin and you get rings with no definition.

24 minTotal

6Serves

Dinner20 min33 g protein

Egg Roll Stir Fry

Cook the cabbage fast and hot and stop while it still has bite. Let it go soft and the whole thing turns to a wet pile.

Breakfast13 min36 g protein

Egg White Breakfast Burrito

Egg whites go rubbery the second they overcook, so they come off the heat while still visibly wet. The residual heat in the pan finishes them on the way to the tortilla.

13 minTotal

Lunch12 min48 g protein

Spicy Tuna Poke

Dress the tuna last and eat it soon after. The acid in the dressing starts curing the fish on contact, and after about ten minutes the texture turns from silky to chalky.

12 minTotal

Dinner15 min38 g protein

Slow Cooker Turkey Meatballs

Ground turkey has almost no fat to keep meatballs tender, so grated zucchini goes in instead. It disappears completely and does the job the fat would have done.

15 minTotal

Dinner20 min34 g protein

Korean Beef Bulgogi

Freeze the beef for 30 minutes before slicing. Half-frozen meat cuts into the paper-thin sheets that cook in under a minute, which is the entire point of bulgogi.

Snacks22 min33 g protein

Tandoori Chicken Bites

The oven goes to its highest setting and the baking sheet goes in empty first. A hot baking sheet sears the underside the moment the chicken lands, which is the closest a home oven gets to a tandoor. A cold baking sheet steams it.

22 minTotal

Dinner20 min31 g protein

High protein mac and cheese in a cast iron skillet

High-Protein Mac & Cheese

Cottage cheese blended into the sauce, which sounds wrong and tastes like nothing but cheese. It carries the protein without the sauce splitting.

Dinner20 min

Spaghetti Carbonara

There is no cream in carbonara. The sauce is egg yolk, hard cheese and starchy pasta water, and the only real skill is pulling the pan off the heat before the eggs scramble.

Desserts30 min

Classic Tiramisu

Made the night before, which is the point — it needs six hours in the fridge before the ladyfingers soften into something you can spoon. Thirty minutes of actual work, and nothing goes in the oven.

30 minTotal

8Serves

Dinner6 hr 20 min

Slow Cooker Beef Chili

Twenty minutes of actual work and then the crockpot has the rest of the day. Browning the beef first is not optional, it is where most of the flavor comes from.

Brown Butter Cookies

Browning the butter is the entire difference between a decent cookie and one people ask about. It takes four minutes and smells like toffee when it is ready.

27 minTotal

18Serves

Dinner3 hr 25 min

Birria Tacos

Real consomme for dipping and a cheese crust fried onto the tortilla. It takes three hours, almost all of it unattended, and it is worth every one of them.

3 hr 25 minTotal

Dinner12 min36 g protein

Honey Garlic Salmon

Nine minutes in the air fryer and the glaze does the rest. The glaze goes on at the end, not the start, because honey burns long before salmon is cooked.

12 minTotal