A slice of apple spice cake with a dollop of cinnamon whipped cream on a seasonal plate.

Apple Spice Cake

Overhead shot of butternut squash soup in a small white pot.

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup with Warm Spices

A pumpkin cheesecake bar on a white dessert plate.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with Cinnamon Graham Cracker Crust

Overhead shot of Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto in a white dish.

Savory Butternut Squash & Sage Risotto

Marinated Zucchini & Tortellini Skewers! Looking for an easy appetizer to serve up at a party or bring along to a gathering? These incredibly simple skewers are just the thing! They're crowd-pleasing, easy to make and appealing to the eye, too! 

appetizers

Strawberry & Goat Cheese Salad in a blue bowl.

salads

Overhead shot of Lemon Parmesan Roasted Brussels Sprouts on a porcelain plate surrounded by lemons and a striped kitchen towel.

side dishes

Vanilla Bean Citrus Bars! A crisp, shortbread crust is topped with a layer of sweet, citrusy filling speckled with fragrant vanilla beans. These are the stuff of potluck dreams!

desserts

holidays & special occasions

Close up of Italian Knot Cookies on a white cake plate.

cookies

Hi, I’m Dianna!

Elevated Recipes. Effortless Entertaining.

Here at The Kitchen Prep, you’ll find approachable, seasonal recipes that are easy to make & impossible to forget! Everyday entertaining — elevated.

Meet Dianna
Vegetarian Lentil & Farro Chili! This easy vegetarian chili gets an added boost of nutrition from lentils, and a great texture from the addition of farro. The rich flavor and heartiness of this dish is exactly what you need this fall -- you may be surprised when you don't even miss the meat!

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Vegetarian Lentil & Farro Chili

Moroccan-Spiced Vegetable Soup via The Kitchen Prep. An easy and flavorful meal for a cold day!

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Moroccan-Spiced Vegetable Soup with Couscous

Tortellini Artichoke Pesto Soup is a perfect quick & easy meal for chilly fall evenings. Prep fresh artichokes ahead of time for dinner in a snap.

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Tortellini Artichoke Pesto Soup

More Soup Recipes

Trending (But Always Classic)

Baked quinoa in a white bowl.

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Baked Quinoa

A variety of No Spread Sugar Cookies on a cooling rack, with one being lifted by a cookie spatula.

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No Spread Sugar Cookies

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Butternut Squash & Apple Chicken Sausage Rigatoni

White bowl filled with Creamy Cabbage & Potato Soup on top of a green kitchen towel with cabbage, dill and silver pot in the background.

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Creamy Cabbage & Potato Soup

A large skillet filled with Creamy Mushroom & Chicken Sausage Florentine Pasta with a yellow and white striped dish towel underneath.

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Creamy Mushroom & Chicken Sausage Florentine Pasta

Pumpkin Crackers

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Pumpkin Crackers

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Thanksgiving Recipes

A pumpkin cheesecake bar on a white dessert plate.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with Cinnamon Graham Cracker Crust

Balsamic Glazed Asparagus

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars stacked on top of a red and white striped napkin.

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

A silver spoon scooping a serving of Ruth's Chris Sweet Potato Casserole from a white casserole dish.

Ruth’s Chris Sweet Potato Casserole

A close up of Boursin Mashed Potatoes in a gray serving bowl.

Boursin Mashed Potatoes

Sour Cream & Chive Corn Casserole in a skillet on a table with white plates. 

Sour Cream & Chive Corn Casserole

Vegetarian Sheet Pan Stuffing! If you've got a family who fights over the crispy parts of the Thanksgiving stuffing, this recipe will ensure everyone gets what they want! Baking on a sheet pan creates extra texture on this wonderful {vegetarian!} twist on a beloved holiday recipe. 

Vegetarian Sheet Pan Stuffing

Maple-Roasted Acorn Squash & Ricotta Salad

Maple-Roasted Acorn Squash & Ricotta Salad

In Season, In Style

A slice of apple spice cake with a dollop of cinnamon whipped cream on a seasonal plate.

Apple Spice Cake

Butternut Squash Fritters topped with prosciutto on a white appetizer plate.

Butternut Squash Fritters

Butternut Squash Caprese Salad

Honey-Cinnamon Cream Cheese Stuffed Dates! Sweet, sticky dates are stuffed full of honey-sweetened, cinnamon-spiced cream cheese, then rolled in crunchy roasted pecans. A perfect snack or appetizer to prepare last minute holiday entertaining! 

Honey-Cinnamon Cream Cheese Stuffed Dates

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

Apple Grilled Cheese with fig jam on a white plate.

Apple Grilled Cheese with Fig Jam

Creamy Carrot Ginger Soup. Rich and creamy, yet completely dairy-free, this nutrient-rich soup is ideal for serving to just about any crowd.

Carrot Ginger Coconut Soup

Vegetarian Stuffed Acorn Squash filled with a spiced quinoa mixture.

Stuffed Acorn Squash (Vegetarian)

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