The Dinner Plan

When Carla Lalli separated from her ex and moved part-time into a sublet after decades of marriage, the first thing she did was make dinner. “I cooked because it gives me a sense of comfort,” Carla says in this week’s episode of The Dinner Plan. “It makes me feel like I’m in power, and it’s soothing, and it is a way to shut off other noise.” Carla shares the meals she made as she got in touch with her own cravings again and what freedom and flexibility she found cooking for one or cooking for two instead of four, and also gets into what she thinks a cookbook written by a human can offer in the age of AI. Carla’s new cookbook, Food Is a Feeling, is the rare cookbook that doesn’t start from the assumption that “every day is happy and perfect.” Instead, she says, “actually sometimes it's a really bad day, and that the best thing in your day might be this great thing that you make for dinner.”

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Get Carla's cookbook recommendations
+ the recipe for Carla's Chovy-Forward Fazool on our newsletter: TheDinnerPlan.Substack.com

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Straus Family Creamery: Find Straus organic ice cream at Whole Foods nationwide or at strausfamilycreamery.com.
Michele's Granola: Use code DINNERPLAN15 for 15% off your order at MichelesGranola.com
Row 7: Get 10% off Row 7’s chef-prepared tinned vegetables using code DINNERPLAN10 at Row7Seeds.com
Made In Cookware: Visit madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.
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The high-protein vegetarian recipes in Grace Elkus's new cookbook, Protein-Packed Vegetarian, are exactly the kind of dinners I crave, packed with flavor and easy to make, even on a busy weeknight. In this episode of The Dinner Plan, I talk to Grace about her must-have kitchen gear, how to cook tofu so it actually gets crispy, and what to do if you just haven't come around to the idea of cottage cheese. I've been making the easy dinners from Grace's book over and over already, and I think you'll love them too.

Get Grace's recipes for sheet-pan veggie parm and unstuffed eggplant parmesan shells on our newsletter at TheDinnerPlan.Substack.com
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Check out today's sponsors:

MaraBela: Find Marabela Alcohol-Free Sparkling Tea at MaraBelaTea.com
Trimona Yogurt: Find Trimona's A2A2 Bulgarian-style yogurt at TrimonaFoods.com and stores near you.
Michele's Granola: Use code DINNERPLAN15 for 15% off your order at MichelesGranola.com
Dirty Labs: Use code THEDINNERPLAN to get 15% off your first order at DirtyLabs.com.
Made In Cookware: Visit madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.
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I've been looking forward to chef Pim Techamuanvivit's Thai cookbook for years. It's an essential guide to cooking Thai food, including fresh curry pastes, grilled dishes, curries, soups, and laab. In this episode of The Dinner Plan, I talk to Pim about how she learned all the Thai recipes she'd missed from home, why it matters that you seek out Thai ingredients to cook these recipes, and everything she'd put on a September dinner party menu, whether the guests eat meat or are vegetarian. You'll hear about Pim's favorite cookbooks and her advice for dealing with cooking burnout, too.

Get Pim's recipe for Kin Khao's chicken wings on TheDinnerPlan.Substack.com.
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Check out this week's sponsors:

Thaan Charcoal: Get a free starter kit including Thai-style charcoal, fan, and fire starters with the Thaan Grill when you use code DINNERPLAN at thaancharcoal.com/dinnerplan
Listen to Food Friends on Apple podcasts or any podcast listening app.
Made In Cookware: Visit madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.
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Steel Russell started The 99% Cooking Club after walking out of the grocery store with a single bag of food that cost $150. He focuses on tips for making easy, cheap meals taste complex and flavorful, and shares recipes for family dinners that stretch your grocery budget. In this episode of The Dinner Plan, we talk through the best budget-friendly ingredients to buy right now, and how to think about meal planning when you're trying to save money.

We’re all in this together, Steel reminds us. "I wanted to be able to show people how to make good food for cheap, but I also wanted to find a way to give people a place that they can come to and not feel isolated," he says. "I think we need to be reminded that, you know, my neighbor is going through the same thing I'm going through right now. On the other side of my house, they're going through the same thing I’m going through right now, but we don’t talk about it."

Steel gets into the backstory that inspires this work. Trigger warning: addiction.

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Check out this week’s sponsors:

Find Ajinomoto at your local grocery store, and stocked in bulk at your nearest Costco.
Made In Cookware: Visit madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.
MaraBela: Find Marabela Alcohol-Free Sparkling Tea at MaraBelaTea.com
Straus Family Creamery: Find Straus organic ice cream at Whole Foods nationwide or at strausfamilycreamery.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When you ask cookbook author Alex MacLaren how to save money on groceries, her answer is simple: don't go to the store for as long as possible. The author of We Use What We Have is known for making family dinners on a budget, thanks to smart substitutions and a lot of flexibility. Sometimes, you just gotta let things run out. In this episode, Alex explains why she doesn't think about meal plans until after she's already shopped, how she gets her kids to eat leftovers even when they claim to hate leftovers, and how she stretches a small amount of meat into a full meal. If back-to-school dinners are feeling overwhelming for you right now, you'll want to listen for Alex's easy dinner ideas and practical advice for cooking for kids.

Get Alex MacLaren's recipe for honey garlic slow-cooker ribs on our newsletter at TheDinnerPlan.Substack.com ➡️

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Discounts for you from this week's sponsors:

Dirty Labs: Use code THEDINNERPLAN to get 15% off your first order at DirtyLabs.com.
Michele's Granola: Use code DINNERPLAN15 for 15% off your order at MichelesGranola.com
Made In Cookware: Visit madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.
Find CookShelf on iOS and Android, and use the code DINNERPLAN for 25% off your first year.
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