Dairy Free

Soft hamburger buns work best with these kid-friendly sandwiches. Serve with pickles or potato chips.

This Korean dish is usually eaten wrapped in lettuce leaves, but you could serve it over white rice instead. For added spice, serve Asian chile-garlic sauce on the side.

When cutting the beef into strips, slice against the grain (across the striated fibers); the result will be meat that is much more tender.

Mushrooms, acorn squash, and rosemary lend a woodsy taste to roast chicken. We used cremini mushrooms, but regular white button mushrooms can be substituted.

Wrapping the stir-fried chicken in lettuce keeps this dish lower in calories and carbohydrates than it would be if served with tortillas. You could omit the lettuce and serve the chicken over rice, if desired.

For a break from roast chicken, try these smaller hens, which cook in about half the time it takes for a chicken. If you like, substitute four bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (10 to 12 ounces each) for the Cornish hens.

This simply dressed assortment of wholesome vegetables and legumes is full of bright color, texture, and flavor. Serve it as a starter or side at dinner, and save any leftovers for lunch the next day.

Try this slightly spicy salad with roast pork or chicken. Shredding the vegetables in a food processor makes the preparation lightning fast; you can shred them on a four-sided box grater instead, but it will increase the prep and total times.

Oats lend an interesting texture to this soup, but because they are added in such a small quantity and are puréed with the rest of the ingredients, they’re impossible to detect.

Not only is this one of the simplest desserts to prepare—it’s also low in calories and virtually fat-free. Because it is so light and refreshing, it’s a perfect ending to a heavy meal.

Since the corn is not cooked for the salad, it’s important to use the freshest you can find, preferably from a roadside stand or farmers’ market. Serve the fritters warm, topped with dollops of cool sour cream.

Elegant enough for a dinner party but simple enough to prepare any night of the week, this pasta dish makes good use of quick-cooking shrimp and two types of tomatoes.

Use any salsa you like in this dish: mild, medium, or hot. For the best flavor, buy the fresh variety sold in the refrigerator section of grocery stores. To add more heat, cook 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes with the corn and garlic in step 3.

Experiment with different combinations of your favorite herbs to coat the snapper, but remember to balance strong herbs, such as dill and thyme, with milder ones, such as parsley.

Filled with Caribbean flavors, this dinner is made to be enjoyed outdoors. You will need twelve metal or wooden skewers. To keep them from scorching on the grill, soak wooden skewers in water while preparing the ingredients.