My Favorite Recipes of 2020

I think nearly everyone’s relationship with their kitchen and cooking changed this year. Many, many folks found themselves in the kitchen more than ever. I actually found myself in the kitchen less than I would have hoped. Parenting two kids was never something I was worried about, but I obviously didn’t anticipate a lack of other caregivers or external activities for those kids. Nor did I anticipate trying to teach from home with both of those children at home the majority of the time. Thankfully, daycare has mostly been open since August. Still, I worked far more weekends than I would have liked.

Nevertheless, we still ate 3 meals a day and I discovered some recipes I really loved. This year I leaned into one pot meals, preschooler friendly food and my slow cooker. I also made a lot of Budget Bytes recipes and remembered to take photos.

Kale Pesto with Whole Wheat Pasta – Bon Appetit

Kale is one of the most reliably available vegetables from our CSA. I am always on the lookout for new ways to use it that everyone will eat. This kale pesto is super easy to make and very delicious. I omit the pistachios for allergy and cost reasons and I don’t feel that the recipe suffers as a result. This recipe also freezes great.

Homemade Whole Grain Pancake Mix – King Arthur Baking

Generally speaking, I am not a baking mix person. I don’t pre-make pancake, waffle, biscuit or any other mix for future use. But this recipe is all about that – it makes 10 cups of baking mix that can be stored “indefinitely”. We stored our mix in a big mason jar at the back of the fridge. It is a whole grain mix, but I found these pancakes to be much lighter than some recipes and the flavor is great. Using milk resulted in a batter that was too thin; buttermilk or yogurt resulted in a successful batter.

Vegetable Pot Pie Skillet with Cheddar Biscuit Topping – Budget Bytes

This recipe hits the comfort food sweet spot and it is pretty simple to create. I use my 10-inch stainless steel skillet to make it and it all the ingredients fit just fine. Every time I’ve made this pot pie skillet I’ve used a different blend of frozen vegetables and they’ve all been great. I always feel like the amount of “filling” (sauce and vegetables) is a little low relative to the biscuits, but its all so delicious that I keep making it anyway.

Beef Stir Fry Noodles – Budget Bytes

For something so simple, this dish is so satisfying. I used egg noodles, peas and shredded carrots for my version and would do it again. Only half a pound of ground beef is needed, which is a nice bonus. These Beef Stir Fry Noodles were a hit with everyone in my household.

Sausage Cassoulet – Dinner for Everyone by Mark Bittman [affiliate link]

I didn’t do much cookbook cooking this year, but my sister bought me Dinner for Everyone for my birthday and I’ve made several recipes from it. The book contains an easy, a vegan and an “all out” version of each recipe. The Sausage Cassoulet is the easy cassoulet recipe and involves cooking sliced sausage with onion, garlic, white beans and tomatoes in a thick stew. The stew is topped with bite-sized pieces of bread and the whole thing is put under the broiler. The result is hearty, warm, rich dish.

Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala – Budget Bytes

As noted above, I was really intentional about using my slow cooker this fall, partially for the novelty and partially to make dinner prep easier. This is the only new recipe I tried that made my 2020 Favorites. Generally, I find slow cooker recipes that require anything besides throwing everything in the slow cooker to defeat the point of slow cooking, but I followed the instructions and seared the chicken before putting it in my Crock-Pot. It was totally worth it and gave the chicken additional complexity.

Sheet Pan Chicken Tikka – Smitten Kitchen

This is another chicken tikka recipe, but it is very different from the Budget Bytes one above. This Smitten Kitchen recipe is a sheet pan bake of yogurt and spice marinated chicken, cauliflower and potatoes that’s designed for weeknights. The chicken comes out so juicy and flavorful and every time I make it I promise myself next time I’ll make extra chicken. I’ve had good results with just roasting potatoes when I didn’t have cauliflower and I imagine other vegetables would work as well.

One Bowl Whole Wheat Banana Bread – Wholefully

This recipe wins the title of “most baked” recipe of 2020. I didn’t count the number of times I made Cassie’s banana bread this year, but it was probably at least a dozen. This is a fantastic recipe for making with kids as it doesn’t require any special equipment and is hand mixed. I make the recipe with vegetable oil (instead of coconut), a mix of white and wheat flours, no nuts, and a handful of chocolate chips.

You may also enjoy My Favorite Recipes of 2019.