Recipe Category: Featured

Hey, welcome back!

Let’s be real for a second… There’s a box of frozen chicken nuggets in my freezer pretty much at all times. For a long time, they were my “I give up” dinner. Too tired to cook, too broke to order out again, so I’d throw some nuggets in the oven, eat them standing at the counter, and feel a little bit like a twelve-year-old.

Then I figured out that the same box of nuggets is about ten minutes away from chicken parm.

Real chicken parm is a whole production. You pound the chicken, set up a breading station, get egg and breadcrumbs all over your hands and the counter, fry it, then bake it. I love eating it. I do not love making it on a Tuesday. This version skips all of that. The nuggets are already breaded and cooked, so all you’re really doing is adding sauce and cheese and letting the oven finish the job.

Three ingredients. One pan. About five minutes of actual effort. And it tastes like you tried way harder than you did (I won’t tell!).

A few things that make it even better:

• Pack the nuggets close together. Seriously, have them touching! If they’re spread out, the sauce and cheese slide right off the sides and melt onto the pan instead of staying on top where they belong.
• No oven? Use the air fryer. Cook the nuggets at 400°F for about 10 minutes, add the sauce and cheese, then give it 2 more minutes to melt. Even faster, and no preheating.
• Want it to look like the real thing? Sprinkle some grated parmesan and a little dried basil or Italian seasoning on top before the last bake. It takes ten seconds and makes it look like it came from an actual restaurant.
• Make it a full dinner. Serve it over a plate of spaghetti and suddenly your “I give up” dinner is a real meal you’d be proud to share (not that you have to).

This is the recipe for the nights when you’ve got nothing left but still want something that feels like a real dinner. Your inner twelve-year-old gets nuggets, and the adult in you gets chicken parm. Everybody wins!

Justin (+ Benny & Frankie)

Hey, welcome back!

If you read my sheet pan post, you already know my history: drive-thru dinners, forgotten grocery lists, and vegetables dying in the back of my fridge. This recipe is the one that fixed the part I struggled with most, which was having to make a decision about food every single night…

Here’s the thing nobody told me about cooking for yourself. The cooking isn’t always the hard part. It’s opening the fridge at 7pm, staring at it, and having zero idea what to make. For me, that moment ended with my keys in my hand and a Chick-fil-A order in my head more times than I’d like to admit.

Salsa chicken gets rid of that moment entirely. You put chicken, a jar of salsa, and some taco seasoning in the slow cooker in the morning. That’s it. That’s the whole job. No chopping, no stirring, no standing at the stove. You go about your day, and when you get home it’s done and your place smells like you’ve had your life together all along (you don’t have to tell anyone otherwise).

The best part is what happens after. One batch turns into tacos tonight, a burrito bowl tomorrow, a quesadilla the day after that… and suddenly you’ve made three dinners and only cooked once. Benny and Frankie also think this recipe is the best one on the site, mostly because they sit right next to me while I shred it (no, they don’t get any. Okay, maybe a little).

A few things that make it even easier:

• Do it the night before. Put everything in the slow cooker insert, cover it, and stick it in the fridge. In the morning, just put it in and hit the button. Half-asleep me can handle that.
• Thighs over breasts. If you forget about it for an extra hour (I’m not judging!), thighs stay juicy. Breasts dry out.
• Freeze some. Portion the leftovers into bags with a little of the juice. Future you will be so grateful on a bad week.

This one’s about as low effort as real food gets. If you only try one recipe on this site, make it this one!

Justin (+ Benny & Frankie)

Hey, I’m glad you’re here!

I’ll be honest with you. When I first moved out, I was not cooking. Between school, starting my career, running a company, and making sure my dogs were fed (they always ate before I did), dinner was whatever drive-thru was closest. I knew the Chick-fil-A menu better than anything in my own fridge.

And the times I did try to get it together? I’d make a plan, forget the grocery list on the counter, buy stuff I already had, and by Wednesday I’d be too tired to deal with any of it. So I’d go out anyway, and a few days later I’d be throwing away vegetables I paid for and never touched. If any of that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place (welcome, fellow misfits!).

This sheet pan dinner is one of the recipes that actually stuck for me, and I think it’s because it asks so little. One pan. A few ingredients. About 10 minutes of real work. The sausage is already cooked, so there’s no guessing whether it’s done. You get the potatoes going first, toss everything else on top, set a timer, and walk away. I usually spend that time hanging out with my dogs, and by the time they’ve lost interest in me and crashed for a nap, dinner’s ready.

A few things that make it even easier:

• Buy the frozen peppers and onions. Seriously!!! If chopping is what’s going to stop you from cooking tonight, skip it. (I’m not grading you!)
• Line the pan with foil. Cleanup becomes crumpling it up and tossing it. (aka, no dishes left out for days)
• Make the full batch. Tomorrow you can throw the leftovers in a wrap or over rice, and that’s one less decision you have to make.

It’s not fancy, and it’s not trying to be… It’s just a real dinner that works on the days when your brain doesn’t feel like cooperating. I hope it helps you the way it helped me!

Justin (+ Benny & Frankie)