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Meal kits were once the realm of the online shopping market. Don’t have time to grab ingredients for a complete meal from the grocery store? Teaching yourself how to cook for the first time? Order from a company liked Plated or Blue Apron, and you’d get everything you need for dinner dropped on your doorstep.

Over the summer though, many meal kit services shifted that business model and began appearing in grocery stores. HelloFresh launched a meal-kit service available in Stop & Shop. Kroger and Albertsons now carry Blue Apron and Plated meal kits. And now Costco is cashing in on the trend too, but there’s one crucial difference: It’s one of the first grocery stores to offer a meal kit worthy of a five-star restaurant.

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Parents will go to extreme lengths to get picky eaters to eat something. When my boyfriend was a kid, for example, he would only eat pizza — nothing else would suffice — so his mom resorted to creating pizza-like dishes. Chicken Parm suddenly became “pizza chicken,” and it was finally OK for him to eat.

Sound familiar? Trying to feed a picky eater feels like a never-ending, thankless task. You can do everything “right” and still end up with a kid who won’t touch anything on his plate. So, what are you supposed to do? Kitchn has covered a lot of different strategies over the years, including this smart vacation tip, recipes ideas that have helped, and throwing a peer pressure party.

But the smartest thing I’ve heard recently comes from a recent episode of the Didn’t I Just Feed You podcast, that our very own Associate Food Editor Meghan Splawn runs with her friend (and Kitchn contributor!) Stacie Billis. They’ve dedicated three episodes of their new podcast to talking picky eaters, and in the first episode (listen here!) and there’s a pretty small but important reminder for struggling parents.

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Have you ever wished you had an extra pair of hands while cooking to flip the pages of your cookbook, set a timer, look up how long the chicken should roast, or read the next step in your recipe? Well, starting today, you can, thanks to a new set of features from Amazon on Amazon Echo devices — and a new Kitchn relationship with Amazon.

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Potato soup is such a fall classic. Tender pieces of creamy russet potatoes mingle with onions, garlic, and salty pancetta for a bowl of soul-soothing solace. The only possible upgrade to this classic is to make it easier with the help from the slow cooker. And let’s be real — this soup is one hundred times better when it’s made in the slow cooker.

To make the absolute easiest potato soup, this recipe relies on pantry staples to create a bowl of creamy, comforting soup that’s as easy to make as it is to love. Here’s how it’s done.

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Parents of little toddlers and preschoolers who are dutifully packing lunches for daycare and school, you are awesome. I know how exhausted you are by those little ones right now, but I’m here to remind you that in just a few short years, you’ll be sending those same kids off to first grade with lunches they packed themselves. I know this firsthand, because I just sent my oldest off with a lunch she learned to pack watching me throughout these past few years.

Toddler and preschool lunches are often the most arduous to pack; most things need to be small and soft, which means you’re either spending a lot of time chopping or even more time steaming. That’s why I compiled 10 of my favorite preschool and toddler lunch ideas that are both easy and healthy, and will help you pack lunches more quickly until those kiddos can pack their own.

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At first glance, Trader Joe’s and Costco couldn’t be more different. TJ’s stores are fun, quirky, and smaller than most supermarkets. Costco is the complete opposite — utilitarian and truly cavernous in size. Yet they actually have a lot in common. For example, both are known for carrying a wide array of organic foods, and both are known for offering some of the lowest prices in the industry.

Of course, shopping at Costco means buying, say, four pounds of quinoa instead of one, which requires a bigger up-front investment both in terms of money and pantry space. Which is a better deal? Can Costco’s bulk prices beat Trader Joe’s ounce for ounce?

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If you’ve already traveled down the Amazon wormhole to trade your soul for free shipping, you know how convenient it can be to shop an online mega marketplace that can get you anything you need in two days flat. It’s good, then, that Amazon is constantly coming up with new ways to help you save more money on the stuff you’re buying. It just takes a little research.

To save you some time, we rounded up all of the awesome money-back programs the site has to offer. Read ahead for eight ways to pinch even more pennies while you’re shopping online.

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Not only does Amazon make it easy to get all sorts of stuff delivered to your door in a near instant, but it also makes it easy to get all sorts of good stuff delivered to your door. In addition to its often-lengthy and extremely detailed customer reviews, the site also tracks — and shares! — data on its bestselling items, category by category. Armed with this information, you can buy something that’s well-received by customers and popular. Fun, right?

Let’s let’s look at the most popular chef’s knife (because chef’s knives can get pretty pricey and because I promised we would, based on the title of this post).

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Next time you’re in the canned tomato aisle at the grocery store, forgo you’re usual plain diced tomatoes and opt for a can of Ro-tel. The Southern favorite is a blend of diced tomatoes and fire-roasted green chilies, so it has all the juicy sweetness you’ll find in regular canned tomatoes but with the bonus of bold, smoky spice. Basically, it has the potential to jazz up a whole lot of meals.

Here are our 10 favorite ways to use a can.

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After moving apartments (yet again) earlier this year, I went to a big-box bargain store for some general supplies. And as an avid lover of grocery shopping, I couldn’t not check out its aisles of food. What I found really surprised me.

Classy crackers that would automatically raise my social status! Craft sodas with trendy lettering! Sacks of milled flaxseed the size of an ostrich egg! Organic dried figs not in Fig Newton form! Specialty flours that would sit, untouched, in my cupboard for years!

Unlike the dollar store grocery section, which is comprised of approximately 97 percent junk food, this store had an eclectic mix of high-end food items at low prices. Before I knew it, I was loading up my cart with brands like Bob’s Red Mill and LaCroix.

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