Cynthia 
One of the most realistic new year financial resolutions you can actually keep is resetting your grocery budget in January by shopping your own pantry and freezer first, instead of starting the year with a brand new grocery list like December never happened. Every December I tell myself I’m going to stay under budget, and
Butterkäse is one of the best all-purpose melting cheeses you can cook with, and it works in everything from grilled cheese and mac and cheese to eggs, pizza, and the viral stuffed sweet potato. Once I got my hands on a block of this stuff, I went a little overboard testing it in everything I
Aldi comes out cheaper for most Thanksgiving staples, especially turkey, butter, and canned goods, while Walmart’s curated meal bundle prices out almost dead even with Aldi’s own bundle deal. I built the exact same Thanksgiving dinner shopping list at both stores last November, sixteen items, nothing fancy, just what actually ends up on a normal
The Chipotle costume deal, called Boorito, gets Chipotle Rewards members a $6 entree if they show up in costume after 3 p.m. on Halloween and scan their rewards account at checkout, in restaurant only. I look forward to Halloween restaurant deals almost as much as the candy. Free food for putting on a costume you
Real, traditional spice combinations, like Moroccan ras el hanout on chicken thighs or Korean gochugaru on cabbage, can turn cheap staples into food that tastes like an actual regional cuisine, as long as you use real ratios and not just a random pinch of whatever’s in the cabinet. I did not grow up with a
A solid Thanksgiving dinner checklist breaks hosting into four stages: thawing and shopping three to five days out, make-ahead sides two days out, table setting and light prep the day before, and an hour-by-hour cooking schedule on the day itself that you build backward from your actual serving time, not forward from when you wake
Butterkäse is a mild, semi-soft German cheese whose name literally means “butter cheese,” known for a buttery, creamy flavor and a melt so smooth it’s landed inside baked sweet potatoes all over TikTok. A few people have asked me “what is butterkase cheese” lately. Makes sense, given how fast it went from a cheese nobody
Eggs with avocado, Greek yogurt with chia and berries, cottage cheese with flaxseed, oats fixed with nut butter, baked veggie egg muffins, and nut butter with apple all pair protein or fat with fiber, which is what keeps blood sugar steady for hours instead of crashing by 10am, and none of it requires weighing a
Yes, you can freeze both turkey and stuffing after Thanksgiving, but turkey holds up in the freezer a lot better than stuffing does. I learned that the hard way a few years back when I froze a full container of leftover turkey and stuffing mixed together, thinking I was saving myself a step. Big mistake.
Costco Halloween candy runs about 18 to 30 cents an ounce depending on the bag, which is why I can walk out with three full varieties of candy, over 15 pounds combined, for under $50. I have made this same Costco run every October for years now, and the math has stayed pretty consistent. You
Aldi is the cheapest place to buy Halloween candy this year, with bulk variety bags running as low as 9 cents a piece, and Costco and Walmart aren’t far behind if you time your trip right. I spent way too many afternoons this month walking the seasonal aisles at Aldi, Costco, Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club,
Candied carrots are sliced carrots simmered first in water until just tender, then finished in a butter and brown sugar glaze that reduces until it clings to every piece. Carrots are the side dish nobody plans around and everybody finishes first. Glazed properly, they go from an afterthought to the thing people ask about before
Cranberry sauce is fresh or frozen cranberries simmered with sugar and a little water or orange juice for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the berries pop and the natural pectin in the fruit thickens the sauce on its own as it cools. Canned cranberry sauce is a texture, not really a flavor, and the
Candied yams are sliced sweet potatoes simmered in a butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon syrup until tender and glazed, made on the stovetop or finished in the oven, with marshmallows entirely optional depending on which side of the family you grew up in. The name bothered me for years before I finally looked into it.
Creamed corn is fresh or frozen corn kernels simmered in butter and cream until the sauce thickens into something rich and slightly sweet, made without any canned cream-style corn at all. I spent years assuming creamed corn came from a can, the pale, oddly sweet stuff sitting next to the green beans on the Thanksgiving