These are one of my favorites at family pot luck dinners, so I finally had to get the recipe so I could make them myself, should I need to. Mom calls them “Lion House Baked Beans” and uses granulated onion and garlic, but I still think of them as hers.

This is an easy dessert that I can knock out and serve in about an hour, making it a go-to for family night.

This Mexican take on spicy tomato sauce is perfect for serving up Huevos Rancheros (fried egg on corn tortilla with this tomato sauce) or Chile Rellenos. I may even try it for a Mexican inspired pizza.

With the success of my Chicken Katsu recipe, I thought I’d give fish tacos a try. I love them, but the nearest place to get what I like is 45 minutes away from home, and deep fried fish isn’t ideal for my diet anyway. Luckily, these turned out fantastic!

One of the things that keeps me sane while dieting is making sure I still get sweets. Most of my sweet tooth cravings are satisfied by a couple diet soft drinks per day, but sometimes I need more of a dessert. This works perfectly.

Much lower in calories, but still natural and decent tasting.

This has become a weekly staple for me because it’s cheap, easy, and low calorie because of its low fat content.

Recently I’ve been getting a lot of my protein from boneless, skinless chicken breast, as well as experimenting with the air fryer. This seemed like a perfect pairing of both, while thoroughly satisfying my crispy fried cravings.

A vegetarian legume curry that pairs wonderfully with Jeera Rice.

This is a great side dish when dieting, since it’s high in fiber and reasonably low in calories.

This has always been one of my favorite soups, but a few of the ingredients are fairly hard to come by, namely the dried mushrooms. But after finally just ordering some from Amazon, I was able to make it myself at home.

A great, easy accompaniment to turn Fried Rice and Lo Mein into a full meal.

Pad Thai is traditionally made with rice noodles, but I need something with a lot fewer carbs and calories, at the moment. So, this is my current incarnation that I plan to tweak over time. Authentic it is not, but it takes care of the craving adequately.

I ran into this at a Halloween pot luck and loved it so much I practically demanded the recipe. It has become one of my favorite desserts.

The remaining gyros place in town seems to have closed, so I needed to find some other way to get my Greek American food fix. Luckily, my grocery store sells gyros slices, but they don’t sell the classic sauce that goes with it. So here’s a version that I can make up in small batches, as I’m the only one that eats it.

When I began making my own gyros, I decided that I couldn’t put up with the store bought pitas for them anymore. After trying a few different recipes online, this is the one I landed on. This, along with tzatziki sauce and store-bought gyros slices makes a really good combination.

I’ve been making Spanish Rice in the Instant Pot for a few years, but I liked how easy the Oven Fried Rice was to make, so I modified this to use the same technique.

I’ve kept fried rice on the menu rotation for a couple of years now, but making it from scratch just wasn’t worth the time and effort. Which is to say, I’ve been buying it from the freezer section. However, I recently came across this method from Chef John that made me reevaluate making it at home. It turned out wonderfully for reasonable effort. Here’s my variation.

I needed something to punch up my oven fried rice a bit, so I thought of Chinese five spice. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it in any of my local grocery stores. Rather than just order it directly, I figured I’d make my own. However, I did end up having to order one of the ingredients from Amazon: Szechuan peppercorns.

The whole family loves these with mashed potatoes, even though I’m too lazy to make the meatballs from scratch.