Rachel Morgan 
To make savory oatmeal, skip the sugar and milk and simmer old-fashioned rolled oats in seasoned broth with garlic, salt and fat, then finish with vegetables, protein and umami boosters like cheese, soy sauce or nutritional yeast. One pot, about 20 minutes, and the result sits somewhere between risotto and congee. Most people who try … Read more
If you want to know how to cook lentils so they hold their shape, the whole game comes down to four things: pick a firm variety, keep the heat at a lazy simmer, salt once the skins have softened, and drain while the centers still have a tiny bit of resistance. Do those and you … Read more
You eat more vegetables without cooking every night by doing three things: add produce to meals you already make, prep it once so it sits where you can see it, and blend or hide it inside dishes you already like. That is the whole system behind this guide to eating more vegetables without cooking every … Read more
Freezing fresh herbs in oil takes about 15 minutes of prep and one night in the freezer: chop the herbs, dry them completely, pack them tight into an ice cube tray or jar, pour olive oil over the top until every leaf is submerged, then freeze. The oil seals out air, which is what stops … Read more
To freeze spinach and kale for smoothies, you have two good options: wash the leaves, dry them completely, and pack them loosely in airtight freezer bags, or blend them with a splash of water and freeze them as single-serving purée cubes. The bag method keeps the greens versatile, and the cube method gives you a … Read more
Berries clump because a thin film of water between touching pieces freezes first and welds them into one brick, and a slow freeze grows ice crystals large enough to rupture the cells and turn everything mushy. The fix is a pre-freeze: wash and dry the berries, space them on a lined tray so nothing touches, … Read more
Berries go bad because of moisture, not age. To learn how to store summer berries so they last longer, keep them unwashed and bone dry until you need them, then refrigerate them in a single layer in a shallow container lined with paper towel. Whole firm berries like blueberries can stretch from three or four … Read more
To pick a healthy yogurt at the store, look for plain yogurt made mostly from cultured milk, with 5 grams or less of added sugar, 10 grams or more of protein per serving, and live and active cultures on the label. Put any tub back if sugar appears in the first three ingredients. That is … Read more
To know how to tell if a granola bar is actually healthy, turn it over and read the panel in a fixed order: serving size, total sugars, added sugars, fiber, protein, calories, then the ingredient list. A bar earns a pass when it delivers roughly 3 to 5 grams of fiber, 5 grams or more … Read more
Ingredients on a packaged food are listed in descending order by weight, from the largest amount to the smallest, and the panel usually sits on the back or side next to the Nutrition Facts. The first ingredient is the one the product contains most of. That is the whole trick, and it takes about sixty … Read more