Cheddar

I adore tortilla soup, but a lot of restaurants make it too spicy for me. I’d rather make it at home where I can control the heat by using milder salsa. This is an easy version that can be made from start to finish in less than 30 minutes.

Fajitas are great because you can put anything you want on them. I like mine with meat, onion, and cheese, but my sister always grills some eggplant or zucchini for hers. They are also really good with refried beans, guacamole, or even Spanish rice.

A tuna melt is one of the easiest things to make when you are eating alone. It really doesn’t take much more work than a tuna sandwich, but because you eat it with a knife and fork, it always seem more like a meal than just a sandwich.

I was intimidated by the prospect of making a broccoli cheese soup, but I like it so much, I had to try. The recipe we came up with turned out to be one of the fastest, easiest soup recipes I’ve ever tried. Just to clarify, a bunch of broccoli is what you buy rubber-banded together in the store: a stalk is one of the pieces within the rubber band, and florets are the flowery tops.

If you make these for your friends, make sure you eat some right away, because they will evaporate if you walk away. Megan and I like our salsa saucy, more like a picante sauce, so we add some tomato sauce. But, if you like chunky salsa, you can skip the sauce and just use the diced tomatoes.

This dip is so easy it’s embarrassing, but we included it anyway because we love it. We usually make it in two smaller pans, one using chili with meat for me and one with vegetarian chili for Megan. This is the perfect after-school snack, taking less than ten minutes from walking in the door to munching away in front of the television.

Potatoes and chiles are “New World” stuff, and yet, as it turns out, they have nourished millions of people around the world since they were brought to the “Old World” by European explorers just a few hundred years ago. Here is a simple dish combining the Old World and New World ingredients, stewed together in the pot—in this case, the slow cooker. Unlike conventional scalloped potatoes baked in a gratin pan, where “design” matters, I recommend gently stirring these potatoes once or twice during their cooking time to evenly distribute the good stuff and ensure even cooking.

Grits, a traditional Southern breakfast dish, are often served topped with butter and cheese. They fill hungry bellies and stick to the ribs for many hours. Technically, grits are coarsely ground hominy, and they are white in color, while polenta is ground, dried yellow corn. But in the United States (outside the Deep South), the two are often used interchangeably. It’s best if you can find the stone-ground real thing, but if not, you can use the instant grits that are available in nearly every grocery store or mail-order them from a source that specializes in grains, such as Bob’s Red Mill in Oregon. I recommend using a 2- to 3-quart slow cooker so that your grits don’t dry out overnight.

Soaking the cornmeal in buttermilk is a tip I picked up from my good friend Peter Reinhart’s epic tome, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The wonderful flavor it imparts and the texture it lends might keep you from ever considering using another boxed cornbread mix.

Ready to think outside the box? While it may take a touch more time than its boxed counterpart, this creamy casserole is exponentially better than anything off the grocery shelves. The light crunch of the panko bread crumbs set against the thick, gooey underbelly of cheese-laden pasta makes for a most decadent taste and texture experience. Feel free to experiment, trading out some of the Cheddar for Gruyère or a smoked Gouda, if you so desire.

Grits are a true thing of beauty when properly cooked. Unfortunately, instant grits can never come close. If you’re really pressed for time, wait for a pleasant Sunday morning when you can afford those few extra minutes. Your patience will be rewarded.

Piquant garlic and creamy cheddar make this muffin a mouthwatering appetizer or an excellent accompaniment to soup or salad.

This is a mac-and-cheese you can actually feel good about serving. Substitute any vegetables you prefer to boost the nutrition of this meal far beyond any boxed version bought at the store. Traditionally, American-style macaroni and cheese is made primarily with Cheddar cheese, but personally I’m a fan of using mozzarella and Monterey Jack. Of course, you can mix and match any combination of cheeses in this meal. Nondairy cheeses perform about as well as real cheeses in Glorious One-Pot Meals, although I usually look for those listing casein as an ingredient for that cheesy gooeyness that’s more like the real stuff. Casein might be a problem for vegans and those with mild dairy allergies, so keep this in mind. You can use much less cheese than I recommend and the dish will still turn out pretty cheesy. If you find it is too rich, try using harder, lower-fat cheeses such as Swiss, provolone, or Parmesan. Enjoy experimenting with your favorite cheeses. Some noodles and cheese may form a crusty layer along the bottom and lower sides of the pot. While my husband enjoys crunching these tasty strips, stirring well to coat the noodles with water when building the pot and paying careful attention to when the aroma first escapes the oven will help you avoid this.

Bobby loves broccoli; Jamie loves bacon; Brooke loves pine nuts and dried cranberries; and everybody loves ranch dressing, so this salad just kind of “appeared” in the bowl one day when we were all feeling hungry. Also try it with Quick-’n’-Easy Chicken ’n’ Dumplings (page 131).

We’ve never met a kid who doesn’t love grilled cheese—with extra-gooey cheese, please! We like to slip in some tomato, too, which some kids won’t eat otherwise. And let’s be honest here: You may as well make yourself one of these while you’re at it; otherwise your kid’s sandwich doesn’t have a chance.

When we were traveling around the country shooting episodes of our Food Network show, Road Tasted, we ate lots of fried, barbecued, and sugary food (Hey, it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it). Wherever we were, Bobby would seek out a salad for lunch or dinner to add a little balance to his diet. The night he discovered chopped salad, it was love at first sight. He developed this easy week-night recipe as soon as we were back home. It’s a salad that accommodates almost any ingredient—feel free to add your own personal favorites into the mix.