American

These are one of my favorite things to order in a restaurant, so when we figured out how to make them at home, I was super excited. They are actually pretty easy to make, which is even better. For an even lower-budget option, leave out the ground beef, use the whole can of refried beans, and add an extra cup of cheese.

This is another dish that you can easily adjust to suit your tastes. You can use any vegetables you like. When your budget is squeaking tight, make it with just peas and carrots. But when you have a little more wiggle room, try it with red peppers, zucchini, and sugar snap peas.

This chili is so tasty that your carnivore friends may not even notice it doesn’t have meat. It makes a lot, so if you have leftovers, freeze individual portions in resealable bags. For a quick meal, just nuke one and eat it my favorite way: poured over a baked potato.

I know you’re thinking, “Yeah, it’s low-cal because I only get one measly enchilada.” Not true. Okay, partially true, you only get one enchilada per serving, but they’re really big. By making larger enchiladas, you can pack them with all the good stuff and still save a couple hundred calories from skipping the extra tortillas.

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.

This is how I like tuna casserole, but feel free to make it how you like it. With peas, without peas, with cracker crumbs or crushed potato chips on top, it doesn’t matter, it’s still good. You can also save a few calories by making it with low-fat cream of mushroom soup and you won’t even notice the difference.

Megan and I absolutely love Snickerdoodles, but neither of us likes to roll them into balls. So, one of us will mix the dough, and then we begin “let’s make a deal” with our parents. Offering to do chores seems to be our most effective bargaining chip to trade for rolling: we have washed dishes, cooked dinner, cleaned the litter box, and when it’s a double batch, even cleaned our rooms.

I love apple crisp, and this version is the best ever. It’s really easy to make and almost impossible to ruin. This recipe is also great with peaches, pears, blueberries, or raspberries, but if you use berries, put all of the crumble mixture on top, or it will get soggy. No matter what fruit you use, eat it warm with some vanilla ice cream, and oh man, it is the best!

Toffee Bars were the first things I learned to bake. These are my standard fare for those, “Oh man, I forgot I was supposed to bring cookies” times. They’re super easy and quick to make. Ten minutes to prep, twenty minutes to cook, done.

This cheesecake is a cross between a New York style and the creamier, no-bake versions. It is really good and really impressive looking (and really big). We usually save this for family parties since it serves twelve people, but if you are making it for your family, it can be refrigerated for four or five days or sliced, individually covered in plastic wrap, and frozen.

When we were on a family vacation in New Orleans we came across a store in the French Quarter that had daily cooking classes. We decided to sign up for a class (it got us out of going to another museum with our dad), and it turned out to be a blast. We learned to make several different Cajun dishes, but this was my favorite. I love the beans, but we also learned the secret to making the best cornbread ever—add lots of milk and sprinkle sugar on the top.

Meatloaf is one of my dad’s self-professed specialties. He will spend an hour putting it together, and I swear he adds a pinch of just about every spice in the cabinet. Here we have narrowed down the list substantially, but it is still every bit as good as his. Sorry Dad.

Chicken and dumplings is a great cold-weather dish. When we lived in the Midwest, we would always have this after a day of sledding or building snow forts, but when we moved to Arizona this tradition became a problem. Now when I want chicken and dumplings, I turn down the air conditioning, close the blinds, and pretend it’s snowing outside (if I don’t close the blinds, the palm trees kind of ruin the effect).

I am the queen of Sloppy Joes, and as queen, I get to make the rules: 1. Sloppy Joes must be served with potato chips and red Jell-O with bananas. Other fruits are acceptable in a pinch, but the Jell-O must be red. 2. Any meat that falls out of the bun must be scooped up and eaten on a potato chip. 3. Any leftover Sloppy Joe must be reheated and eaten directly out of the container with potato chips to scoop it up.

Although it takes longer to make, there is no comparison between real macaroni and cheese and the stuff that comes out of the box with a packet of powdered cheese. (What is that stuff anyway?) I have made it with Cheddar, colby, Jack, and the Mexican cheese mixture with chiles, and they were all great. I even once made it with cream cheese, but I wouldn’t recommend that.

When I did an internship at Disney World, one of my coworkers used to eat these for lunch every day. The rest of us always made fun of her until she finally got us to try one. As you probably guessed, pretty soon we were all eating them. This tasty wrap has the egg salad that I have always loved, but the cheese, lettuce, and tomato add a new flavor.

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.

Okay, the truth is, I’m not a big fan of lettuce, but I love steak. So this recipe was my mom’s way of getting me to eat salad. She figured if she put enough stuff on it that I liked, I wouldn’t notice the lettuce. Well, I’m not that stupid—I noticed the lettuce. But, her strategy worked, and I will admit (grudgingly) that this salad is good.

This is one of my favorite after-school snacks. It tastes great and it makes a lot, so I can eat it for a few days in a row. Although it tastes better cold, I am usually too impatient (and hungry) to wait for it to chill, so I eat it warm the first day and then cold the rest of the time.