When we first started sheltering in place, I suspected that many of us had grand plans of the cooking and baking we would do now that we didn't have the distractions of a commute or other events pulling us away from the kitchen. Various food writers (myself included) said that quarantine was the perfect opportunity to tackle that cooking project you have been putting off for lack of time. At first, I tried to live this advice and managed to make two kinds of bread, a couple of cakes, and an elaborate dinner before I hit a wall. I couldn't throw myself into another project, and just wanted to eat something that didn't require a lot of effort.

There is no shame in being too tired or stressed by current events to plan extravagant bakes or fussy dinners. Sometimes, easy is best, whether it is throwing together a simple stew or sheet pan dinner/traybake (or even chucking a frozen pizza into the oven). The crew at The Guardian (UK) understand this, and have assembled a collection of traybake meals that let you create a delicious meal without all of the fuss. In addition to the recipes, their Kitchen Aide offers helpful tips on substitutions you can make if your pantry has been depleted.

You can use the "Stews & one-pot meals" filter in the EYB Library (located under Recipe types > Dish types) to find additional ideas. Traybakes are included in this filter. Add the "Quick/easy" filter to find dishes with high flavor and low effort. Member favorites include these great recipes: