Food Network Magazine January/February 2017

DINNERS UNDER 500 CALORIES We lightened up all the dishes in our Weeknight Cooking section, including these comfort food favorites. BARBECUE CHICKEN sandwiches with pickled okra slaw PAGE 84 CALORIES: 450 MINI MEATLOAVES WITH MUSHROOMHERB orzo PAGE 86 CALORIES: 470 One-Pot SPAGHETTI WITH SAUSAGE PAGE 84 CALORIES: 490 SLOW-COOKER PORK CURRY PAGE 90 CALORIES: 400 Looking Good There’s more to yogurt than meets the eye: In addition to promoting digestion, probiotics can protect the proteins and lipids in your skin and make your hair look healthier, according to a recent report. Have some yogurt for breakfast, or use it to make the tandoori turkey on page 94. Mind Over Chocolate Go ahead and enjoy some Valentine’s Day chocolates— but pay attention while you eat them. A recent study found that…

What’s the best way to spend Valentine’s Day? Sunny Anderson The Kitchen pg. 28 Valerie Bertinelli Valerie’s Home Cooking; Kids Baking Championship pg. 46 Alton Brown Cutthroat Kitchen; Iron Chef America; Good Eats (on Cooking Channel) pg. 28 Anne Burrell Worst Cooks in America pgs. 12, 28 David Burtka pg. 120 “have a stay-cay at a hotel in town, Order room service and get to bed early!” Guy Fieri Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives; Guy’s Grocery Games; Guy’s Big Bite pgs. 103, 134 Bobby Flay Beat Bobby Flay; Brunch @ Bobby’s pg. 28 Ina Garten Barefoot Contessa pg. 116 Duff Goldman Holiday Baking Championship; Kids Baking Championship; Spring Baking Championship pg. 46 Eddie Jackson Clash of the Grandmas pg. 128 “With someone you love, preferably over a nice dinner, finished by…

High-low shoes “There’s a real dichotomy with my shoes: I’m either in clogs or six-inch heels. There is not much I splurge on, but I do have a collection of Christian Louboutins. They’re impossible to walk in but so, so pretty.” Christian Louboutin New Very Prive Patent Leather Peep-Toe Pumps, $795; saksfifthavenue.com Winter bronzer “I always like to look a little tan. In the depths of winter, my hair and my skin look the same color, so I am a huge fan of Neutrogena self-tanner on my face. It gives me a sun-kissed look.” Neutrogena MicroMist Airbrush Sunless Tan, $11; neutrogena.com Fur buster “I live in a Manhattan apartment with two Maine coon cats, and they run around like the place is their jungle gym. I pick up after them…

One recent morning, after keeping me in suspense for months, my daughter came out of her room and told me she’d made her decision: The theme for her seventh-birthday party was going to be Cupcake Wars. I could barely contain my excitement. All the cupcake baking I’d done over the years—all the money I’d invested in batter dispensers, pastry tips, sprinkles and luster dust—was finally paying off: I’d created a cupcake lover. “This is fantastic!” I said, and I started rattling off ideas about how we could make her party just like the show. “You guys can divide into teams, and we can come up with crazy challenges, then I can throw in some last-minute curveballs. Oh, and we can ask some of my chef and baker friends to judge…”…

January 1 Happy New Year! Put a twist on the Southern tradition of eating cornbread and turn some into croutons: Toast cubes at 400˚, 8 minutes; add to a salad. 29 One week until the Super Bowl in Houston! Host a Tex-Mex brunch: Make quesadillas, filling them with scrambled eggs, cheese and avocado. Top with salsa. 16 It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national day of service. Host a bake sale and donate the profits to a good cause. See page 57 for a dozen cupcake recipes. 3 Back to work! Whip up three-ingredient pancakes to get you going: Mix 1 mashed banana with 1 egg and a dash of cinnamon. Cook in a buttered skillet; top with syrup. 31 Stick to your resolutions with a healthful salad dressing:…

Sunny, do you have any suggestions for making an easy caramel sauce? Claudia Amell Sterling Heights, MI I definitely do! An oldschool trick is to place sealed (non-pop-top) cans of sweetened condensed milk in a slow cooker, cover the cans with water and cook them on low for 8 hours. Remove the cans with tongs and let them cool to room temperature before opening. Voilà, caramel sauce! And you didn’t have to stir a thing. —Sunny Anderson Alton, I make your recipe for English muffins all the time. They’re great, but I don’t get nooks and crannies. How can I fix this? Sherry Duke, Woodstock, GA First, keep in mind that my English muffins don’t replicate the storebought kind—they won’t nook-andcranny quite as much. Also, make sure you’re letting the…