Author

Alana Reyes

Alana writes and tests everything published here. She cooks at home, not in a restaurant, and the recipes on this site are the ones that survived being made repeatedly in an ordinary kitchen with ordinary equipment.

When a preparation arrives with a health claim attached, she goes and reads what has actually been published about it, and writes down what she finds — including, most of the time, that nobody has checked properly. That is the whole editorial position, and it is set out on the about page.

32 recipes

August 13, 2026 · Dessert

Salted Chocolate Oat Cookies

Chopped chocolate rather than chips, so it melts into seams instead of staying in little buttons.
August 6, 2026 · Dinner

Skillet Pork Chops with Apples

The chops come out of the pan before they are done and go back in at the end, which is the only way to keep them from drying.
July 28, 2026 · Lunch

Leftover Roast Chicken Slaw

Built to use what is already in the fridge, which means the amounts here are a starting point rather than a rule.
July 9, 2026 · Breakfast

Buttermilk Drop Scones

Cooked in a pan rather than an oven, so they are ready in the time it takes to lay the table.
June 27, 2026 · Breakfast

Salted Honey Butter on Good Toast

Barely a recipe, and the only one on this site where the whole thing depends on the bread.
June 22, 2026 · Dessert

Baked Rice Pudding

Two hours in a low oven and almost no work, and the skin on top is the reason to make it rather than something to skim off.
June 15, 2026 · Dinner

Roast Cauliflower with Tahini

Cut thick so the middle stays firm, and roasted long enough that the edges go properly dark.
June 8, 2026 · Lunch

Tomato and Bread Salad

Stale bread and tomatoes that are slightly too ripe. It is designed around both problems and it is better than either ingredient deserves.
June 2, 2026 · Lunch

Chickpea and Cucumber Bowl

Salted cucumber, drained, so the bowl does not turn into a puddle by lunchtime.
May 27, 2026 · Dessert

No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream

Two ingredients plus coffee, no machine, and the texture holds up because the condensed milk keeps ice crystals from forming.
May 21, 2026 · Breakfast

Toasted Oat and Yogurt Bowl

Four minutes in a dry pan turns raw oats into something closer to granola, without the sugar, the oil or the oven.
May 16, 2026 · Dinner

Skillet Gnocchi with Spinach

Shop-bought gnocchi, never boiled, fried straight from the packet until the outsides blister.
May 5, 2026 · Dessert

Apple Cider Cheesecake Bars

The cider gets boiled down to a syrup first. That step is the difference between apple-flavored and apple.
April 27, 2026 · Lunch

Egg Salad on Rye

Two textures of egg in the same bowl — some mashed, some chopped — which is what stops it being a paste.
April 23, 2026 · Dinner

Baked Mushroom Risotto

No stirring, no standing over it, and no ladle. The oven does the same job with none of the attention.
April 19, 2026 · Breakfast

Savory Oats with a Soft Egg

Oats cooked in stock instead of milk, finished with cheese and an egg. It sounds wrong and it stops sounding wrong at the first spoonful.
April 11, 2026 · Breakfast

Sheet Pan Breakfast Potatoes

Parboiled first, then roasted hard. The parboiling is the difference between potatoes that crisp and potatoes that steam.
April 2, 2026 · Dinner

Mustard Crust Baked Salmon

Twelve minutes in a hot oven under a mustard and breadcrumb lid that keeps the fish from drying while it cooks.
March 30, 2026 · Dessert

Olive Oil and Orange Cake

Oil rather than butter, which is why it is still soft three days later instead of dry by the second morning.
March 25, 2026 · Lunch

Leftover Rice, Egg, and Not Much Else

Fried rice works because the rice is old. Fresh rice steams instead of frying, and no amount of heat fixes it.
March 18, 2026 · Lunch

Roast Carrot and Lentil Salad

The lentils get dressed while they are still warm, which is the only step in this that changes the result.
March 13, 2026 · Dessert

Peanut Butter Banana Mug Cake

Ninety seconds, one mug, one fork. It exists for the specific evening when you want cake and are not going to make a cake.
March 9, 2026 · Dinner

Sausage and White Bean Skillet

One pan, twenty-five minutes, and the beans get crushed against the side of it to thicken everything without flour.
March 6, 2026 · Breakfast

Spinach and Feta Baked Eggs

The spinach goes in raw and wilts under the eggs, which saves a pan and a step and gives the whites something to sit on.
March 4, 2026 · Dinner

Smoked Paprika Lentil Soup

Red lentils, which need no soaking and collapse into the soup on their own. Forty minutes, mostly unattended.
March 2, 2026 · Breakfast

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

Four ingredients, no flour worth mentioning, and they come out light in a way that ordinary pancakes do not.
March 1, 2026 · Lunch

Two-Ingredient Cottage Cheese Wraps

Cottage cheese and eggs, blended and baked flat. They roll without cracking, which is more than most low-carb wraps manage.
February 27, 2026 · Lunch

White Bean and Tuna Salad

Pantry from start to finish, and it improves for an hour while you get on with something else.
February 25, 2026 · Dinner

One-Pan Lemon Chicken and Potatoes

Everything on one tray, and the potatoes cook in the fat from the thighs, which is the entire reason this is worth making.
February 23, 2026 · Dessert

Three-Ingredient Lemon Posset

Cream, sugar and lemon. It sets without gelatine, without eggs and without an oven, and it has done for about six hundred years.
February 20, 2026 · Breakfast

Grated Apple Overnight Oats

The apple goes in raw and grated, which is the whole trick: it releases enough liquid overnight that the oats end up creamy without extra cream.
February 19, 2026 · Dessert

Crème Brûlée, Without the Drama

Five ingredients and a water bath. The only difficult part is the sugar on top, and that is a matter of two thin layers rather than one thick one.