Simple Cooking

Lemon-scented muffins with plump blueberries really hit the spot for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

Homemade corn muffins make mealtime special. Try them with Lima Bean Soup with Ham Bits and Crisp Sage (page 70) or Pecan-Crusted Catfish with Zesty Tartar Sauce (page 106). Any leftover muffins are super for a grab-and-go snack.

Use seasonal fruit so you can serve this salad with its mildly sweet and tart dressing year-round.

Fresh sage garnish, lightly crisped on the stovetop, updates humble lima bean soup and gives it restaurant-like flair.

Lentils and potato provide wholesome fiber in this hearty main-dish soup. While it simmers, bake some Corn Muffins (page 286) and toss a salad with one of the vinaigrettes on pages 96–97.

These muffins boast more nutrition than a high-calorie snack bar. Pack two muffins in your lunchbox, and share your heart-healthy treat with a friend.

The raspberries or blueberries peek through the top of this coffee cake, giving a hint of what’s inside.

Making this soup with roast beef you’ve saved from another meal (maybe Easy Roast Beef, page 170) cuts down on both prep time and cooking time. Even people who think they don’t like leftovers will enjoy this soup, which gets lots of flavor from fresh produce.

Curry powder and ground cumin add an unexpected flair to traditional split pea soup.

A garden of vegetables teams up with barley and lean chicken to make this “souper” nutritious. The cooking water from the chicken serves as a flavorful low-salt base for the soup.

Fresh asparagus and dill turn this soup into a flavorful celebration of spring.

Whether you serve these pancakes for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner, they’ll soon become a family favorite.

With this recipe in your repertoire, you’ll be tempted to start a weekend tradition of serving waffles for a special breakfast treat. Double the recipe when you have guests or so you’ll have waffles to freeze for quick breakfasts later on.

Here’s a good way to use up some of that leftover holiday turkey!

This creamy chowder boasts chunks of potato and your favorite mild white fish. For a little crunch, top it with crumbled no-salt-added pretzels.

Enjoy a bowl of this soup for a light lunch, or pair it with a dark green or spinach salad or Balsamic-Marinated Vegetables (page 78) for a heartier meal.

Assemble the ingredients for this oatmeal in the slow cooker before you go to sleep, and a heart-healthy breakfast reminiscent of apple pie will await you in the morning. Unless you have a large family, you’ll even have enough left over for another breakfast later in the week.

Here’s how to have a quick cup of soup that won’t eat up your sodium limit for the day. Keep this mixture on hand at work for an easy lunch or take it on a camping trip—in fact, you can use it wherever boiling water is available.

A combination of mango, cantaloupe, and banana creates a taste of paradise with just the swirling of the blender.

A wonderfully moist cake (partly because of baby-food prunes), it’s perfect all on its own—no icing required!