Hi! Carmel Valley schools are operating on a half-day schedule all week, and we’re in the middle of an extreme heat wave, so it feels like a mini spring break before real spring break is upon us in April. I know a lot of your kids have spring break this month (my friend Mary Pell is visiting from North Carolina right now for her daughter’s spring break!), so today we’re sharing a few spring break-related things, should it be on your radar right now, too. Whether or not you’re in a spring break time of life: spring as a season will be official on Friday! To celebrate, Saturday’s new recipe includes my favorite spring vegetable, asparagus, but in the meantime, we wanted to share our team’s personal favorite super-springy recipes from the archives to welcome the new season. And lest you forget: there’s a whole “spring” section in the What to Cook recipe index — along with many, many more categories based on cook time, protein, and mood. If you’re ever needing inspiration for dinner, let the index be your guide. Also worth noting if you’re a Substack app user: we are VERY happy to report that the WTC index is pinned again under “posts” when you’re on the WTC homepage within the app. The pinned posts went missing for a few weeks but they’re back, baby! Caro’s: sheet-pan spring salmon This is perhaps the springiest weeknight dinner recipe I’ve ever written. Dilly sauce, asparagus, roasted potatoes, and salmon with lots of lemon… it’s so fresh and delicious. It’s also both gluten- and dairy-free as written and is delicious served either right out of the oven or at room temp, so you could cook the entire meal ahead of time, let it cool, and store it covered in the fridge. Bring it out 30-ish minutes before dinner to let it come to room temperature, then dig in! It’s a total crowd pleaser. There’s an even simpler version of this meal — it omits the potatoes — in WTC the book on page 40! Jillian’s: crispy artichoke and chicken salad Artichokes are one of my favorite spring vegetables! This is a good-all-week salad that combines roasted marinated artichokes with chicken that you marinate in the artichoke brine, a can of white beans, kale, homemade croutons, and the most addicting, springy lemon-Parm dressing out there. I typically eat vegetarian and highly endorse the mushroom vegetarian riff that Caro suggests! Molly’s: roasted asparagus farrotto I cooked this meal one day last week after the time change and it was a perfect springy experience. I sipped a glass of white wine (the same wine I used later for the recipe!) while the asparagus and farro roasted away in the oven and the evening sunlight (!!) poured through the windows. It’s VERY tasty, and Caro’s asparagus-roasting hack in this recipe — you cook it on an inverted pot lid! — always makes me feel like a pro. Do you have a favorite springy WTC recipe?! Whether you’re traveling this season or not, these “vacation house” meal plans will get you in the springy and/or spring break spirit! Version one + version two. I’m taking my older boys on a very adventure-heavy spring break trip with Lonely Planet Journeys (formerly known as Elsewhere, the travel company that sent me on the Camino and to Patagonia!) next month. It’ll be my first real trip with kids that isn’t a plop vacation by the pool/beach — we are going to be making our own chocolate from native cacao! Snorkeling in cenotes! Exploring ancient ruins! We are all so excited and grateful for the opportunity. That said, my typical spring break plan is to go somewhere that I can plop in front of a body of water (pool, beach, lake, etc.) with the kids, and have easy access to a house or hotel room with all the creature comforts we may need. Other years, we hang at home and go to the pool after work and/or on local outings that we can’t usually do when the kids are in school. Whatever your plans may be, here’s a random collection of spring break tips and things we are loving. * I’ve said this before but one of my favorite vacation tricks is shipping a Thrive order to the rental house with pantry staples, kids snacks and meals (like Goodles!), and any other miscellaneous things we’ll need during the trip like sunscreen, dish soap, diapers, etc. I love that when I’m filling my Thrive box I don’t have to study the ingredients lists — they have a strict vetting process to ensure that everything they carry is organic and free from more than 1,000 artificial, synthetic, and GMO ingredients. It also saves me money!!! The membership’s only $5 a month, they run sales all the time within their membership, and the items are already priced up to 30% off retail. Click here to get 30% off your first order and a free $60 gift of your choice when you sign up. And as a reminder, new-to-Thrive WTC Insiders get $25 off their first four orders (plus lots of other perks)! * I got this suit in black for Mexico and it’s a really nice middle ground between mom suit and sexy suit. It’s definitely VERY SNUG in my normal size, so size up if you’re on the fence about going up or down! * At the pool this week three of my friends had this sun hat and it looked so good on everyone! I’m a ball cap person but I know I need to become a sun hat person for more coverage, ugh. * I continue to be obsessed with this glowy face sunscreen. It’s honestly helping me remember to wear SPF every day because I love the way it brightens up my face when I’m not wearing makeup! * Loeffler Randall gifted me a really great travel tote bag and it got a lot of use in February. I love that it slides onto the handle of my roller bag and actually stays in place, it fits under the airplane seat nicely, and has tons of storage compartments. And it’s nylon, so it transitions from airplane to poolside splashes nicely. * Speaking of roller bags, I just got a new one and I’m VERY into it. I really prefer a hard shell when I’m trying to cram WAY too much stuff into a carry-on (like for my 10-day business trip in February!), and this one has tons of great storage compartments and glides really nicely. * I just ordered these Bermuda shorts! In black. I’m very excited about them!! * From Molly: I went shopping at Vuori this past weekend in NYC and found another pair of my all-time favorite shorts, the Villa, in this new color. I wear them everywhere — exercise classes, my kids’ sports practices and games, and as a coverup at the beach and pool. They have a wonderfully roomy thigh, dry quickly, and are just the comfiest. I also got this tee — I’m a shorty and the crop hits perfectly with high-waisted bottoms like the Villas. (From Caro: I’ve been thinking about ordering these!! We love a roomy thigh. I’ve been getting a lot of wear out of my fave $20 shorts but they’re more athletic looking than the Villa. Also, FYI that we have heard from multiple readers that these are a great Target dupe!) * Speaking of coverups… * From Caro: I’ve been wearing this button-up dress to the pool (and around town) all week (and I wore it all last summer while pregnant and postpartum!). * From Molly: I shared this Quince coverup last year but can update that it held up well all summer (and we live at the beach so I wore it a ton!). It stretches out/gets weighed down a bit when it’s wet, but shrinks back up once washed and dried. I love this one, too, that’s similar but collared. I’m also excited for an order from this sister-owned small business to arrive soon — I’m trying to invest in more UPF-50 coverups! * From Molly: One last staple I’ll be packing for beach outings this spring: my Reefs! The back strap makes them easy to walk through soft sand in (I hate it when flip flops fling sand up my legs!), and you can hose them down afterward. Every week, we dig into the What to Cook archives to see what we were cooking this time in years past — the recipes worth bringing back into your rotation. Here’s this week’s lineup. 1. farro fattoush, 2025 Here’s another springy good-all-week salad that will hold up well in the fridge for days! This one packs farro, chickpeas, tons of herbs, crunchy veg, a punchy lemony dressing, and poached chicken for protein. It’s fresh, herby, and satisfying in a way that makes a lunch (or dinner!) salad feel like a real meal, not a side dish. 2. the ultimate easy-but-fancy spring menu, 2024 Your blueprint for a special occasion spring meal that comes together with zero stress: slow-roasted lamb, lemony potatoes, a bright salad, asparagus, and Gruyère & black pepper biscuits with hot honey butter! It comes with a full plan of attack to keep things seamless, but you can also mix and match pieces for a simpler, just-as-delicious meal. 3. rotisserie-ish chicken with schmaltzy frizzled cabbage, 2023 A sheet-pan dinner where the chicken does double duty — roasting on top of cabbage so all that schmaltzy goodness drips down and transforms it. Add buttery sweet potatoes and you’ve got a cozy, low-effort, high-reward situation. From WTCer Jill: “Wow. My husband kept saying, ‘this is restaurant quality’… The cabbage is SO GOOD… And the chicken was so moist and flavorful. First time cooking a whole chicken and this recipe made it so easy.” 4. roasted harissa chicken and sweet potato bowls, 2022 Jammy, caramelized sweet potatoes and harissa-roasted chicken layered over a cool, creamy swoop of yogurt or labne — then finished with crunchy nuts, pops of sweet dried fruit, and a squeeze of lemon. This meal hits every note (spicy, creamy, tangy, crunchy) and is endlessly adaptable depending on what you have. 5. one-skillet crispy chicken burrito bowls, 2021 So many of you have this recipe on repeat — it’s easy, reliable, and a total crowd-pleaser. Rice cooks in salsa until it’s rich and flavorful, chicken gets golden and crispy on top, and everything finishes with melty, bubbly cheese under the broiler. We u
