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Easy Recipes with a Fresh Twist

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    Easy Recipes with FRESH Twist

    • Honey Apple Bundt Cake on a white cake plate with fall leaves and apple in background.
      Honey Apple Bundt Cake with Honey Caramel Sauce
    • Butternut Squash & Apple Chicken Sausage Rigatoni
    • Manchego, Fig & Apple Panini! Even quick and easy lunches can be seasonal and flavorful; the proof is in this panini! Crusty bread is slathered with fig preserves, then topped with manchego cheese & tart apple slices and grilled to melty perfection!
      Manchego, Fig & Apple Panini
    • Cider Glazed Turkey Apple Meatballs! Shredded apple keeps these easy meatballs juicy & flavorful. Tossed in a sweet cider glaze, they make a great fall party appetizer or accompaniment to rice or quinoa for a quick dinner. 
      Cider Glazed Turkey Apple Meatballs

    Cooking doesn't have to be complicated to be good, that's why I love creating easy recipes with a fresh twist that are as fun to make as they are to eat! Whether you're looking for easy weeknight dinners, simple appetizers that impress or fresh, seasonal recipes, The Kitchen Prep has hundreds of produce-packed options that you'll love. I'm so glad to have you here and can't wait to hear which recipes become your favorites!

    Fall Salads

    • Pumpkin-Spiced Roasted Squash & Chickpea Salad! Need something a little different to serve alongside your holiday staples? This warm salad dish is sweet, savory and filled with the flavors and aromas of the holiday season!  Delicata squash is having a moment. I noticed its popularity on the rise last fall, and I've continued to see more and more people using it lately. I never jumped on the bandwagon last year, but when I started seeing them piled into pretty mounds at Trader Joe's at the start of autumn this year, I figured it couldn't hurt to toss a few in my cart and experiment with them at home. Now that I've cooked with them several times, I don't know why it took me so long to get on board! If you like squash but dread dealing with prepping it, then Delicata is the perfect variety for you. Unlike its tough-skinned counterparts, there is no need to peel Delicata squash which makes it a huge time saver. Since it's typically smaller than butternut squash and not quite as wide as an acorn squash, it's also much easier to chop, which I deeply appreciate since I can't tell you how many times I've feared for my digits. {This is also the reason butternut squash is one of the only vegetables I buy pre-chopped -- unharmed fingers are totally worth the convenience charge, if you ask me.} Anyway, I bought some Delicata squash a few weeks ago to serve as a side dish when I had my family over for dinner, and everyone raved about how I prepared it so much that I decided I'd work on a Thanksgiving-worthy recipe to share here using the gourd-du-jour. This Pumpkin-Spiced Delicata Squash & Chickpea Salad is what I came up with! I know I throw this phrase around a lot, but it is SO EASY to make, especially since that Delicata squash is so much less difficult than the other kinds. You just chop, drop and toss everything with a mixture of oil, maple syrup and seasoning {salt and pumpkin spice blend to be exact} on one sheet pan, and let the oven do the rest of the work. The maple syrup glazes both the squash and the chickpeas, caramelizing everything as it roasts, and makes them taste like candy. The pumpkin spice pairs like a a dream with the naturally sweet and creamy interior of the squash. Ugh. It's so good. If you want to simplify the prepping even further, you don't need to chop the squash into cubes if you don't want to -- it's fairly quick-cooking even when it's sliced in larger pieces. I thought the cubes worked well with the size of the chickpeas to make it easily "poppable", but you can chop it however you'd like. Finish it off by tossing in some pecans or pumpkin seeds, and maybe a handful of chopped greens for color and freshness, and you've got a new side dish for you Thanksgiving table that will be joining Delicata squash in the highest rankings of supermarket superlatives, taking the "Most Requested Side Dish" category every year. ;)
      Pumpkin-Spiced Delicata Squash & Chickpea Salad
    • Butternut Squash Caprese Salad
    • Autumn Harvest Salad with Pecan-Crusted Warm Goat Cheese Medallions! Fresh greens topped with apples, cranberries & baked goat cheese encrusted with pecans come together in the best autumn salad ever! 
      Autumn Harvest Salad with Pecan-Crusted Warm Goat Cheese Medallions
    • Maple-Roasted Acorn Squash & Ricotta Salad
      Maple-Roasted Acorn Squash & Ricotta Salad

    More Salad Recipes →

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    TRENDING NOW

    Current reader favorites! These are the recipes everyone is making right now. You can also check out my web stories for quick, step-by-step snippets of some of my most popular recipes!

    • Irish Cheddar & Cabbage Hash Brown Skillet on a dark green surface with a striped kitchen towel beside it.
      Irish Cheddar & Cabbage Hash Brown Skillet
    • An apple crumble cheesecake bar on a white plate with a decorative caramel swirl.
      Apple Crumble Cheesecake Bars
    • Close up shot of sliced Zucchini Bread with butter in a small bowl in background.
      Zucchini Bread
    • Benedictine Spread for Kentucky Derby in a white bowl with a piece of pumpernickel toast in the foreground slathered with spread.
      Benedictine Spread - A Derby Classic
    • Fork and knife cutting into a stuffed cubanelle pepper.
      Stuffed Italian-Style Cubanelle Peppers
    • Strawberry tangulu with grapes on a skewer.
      Tanghulu
    • Moroccan-Spiced Vegetable Soup via The Kitchen Prep. An easy and flavorful meal for a cold day!
      Moroccan-Spiced Vegetable Soup with Couscous
    • A large skillet filled with Creamy Mushroom & Chicken Sausage Florentine Pasta with a yellow and white striped dish towel underneath.
      Creamy Mushroom & Chicken Sausage Florentine Pasta

    ABOUT DIANNA

    Hi, I'm Dianna! I used to think cooking had to be complicated to be good, so I never considered it "my thing." Now I know that's far from true, and my mission is to create & share easy, mouthwatering recipes - from weeknight dinners to simple bites for entertaining - that anyone can make! Join me in my South Florida kitchen and let's get cooking!

    Learn more about me →

    Primary Sidebar

    Hi! I'm Dianna. I used to think cooking had to be complicated to be good, so I never considered it "my thing." Now I know that's far from true, and my mission is to create & share easy, mouthwatering recipes - from weeknight dinners to simple bites for entertaining - that anyone can make! Join me in my South Florida kitchen and let's get cooking!

    More about me →

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    Popular

    • Fork and knife cutting into a stuffed cubanelle pepper.
      Stuffed Italian-Style Cubanelle Peppers
    • Benedictine Spread for Kentucky Derby in a white bowl with a piece of pumpernickel toast in the foreground slathered with spread.
      Benedictine Spread - A Derby Classic
    • Close up of Italian Easter Cookies on a light blue platter.
      Italian Love Knot Cookies
    • A large skillet filled with Creamy Mushroom & Chicken Sausage Florentine Pasta with a yellow and white striped dish towel underneath.
      Creamy Mushroom & Chicken Sausage Florentine Pasta

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