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Mama’s spaghetti and tuna casserole was delicious. We don’t want to give anyone the idea that it wasn’t by calling this Not-Your-Mama’s. But this casserole, full of creamed corn, olives, and cheese and topped with addictively crunchy fried onions, is really better than it has any right to be. Sorry, Mama!

Just about everything Mama makes involves sour cream or mayonnaise. Well, guacamole, with its rich, creamy taste, is like the Mexican version, and it goes great with a chicken and rice salad. This is another Bag Lady cult favorite. People still talk about it—the combination is a real keeper.

Orzo, a type of pasta shaped like flat grains of rice, is perfect for use in salads because it holds its shape and texture so beautifully. For this heart-healthy meal in a bowl, Jamie was inspired to use Italian flavors like fresh basil, sun-dried tomatoes, and olives, plus Brooke’s all-time favorite salad ingredient, pine nuts.

Back in the days of The Bag Lady, when Mama was making bag lunches and we were delivering them, she would always make a chicken salad. For the fall and holiday season she would add walnuts and mandarin oranges to make a colorful, festive lunch with a delicious nutty-sweet appeal. This is Jamie’s version. It’s a hearty, packed-with-protein meal that looks as good as it tastes.

This pasta salad is one of Jamie’s “greatest hits” meals. It’s perfect for leftover grilled or store-bought rotisserie chicken, and it’s got everything we could want Jack to eat in it: pasta, chicken, and veggies. A little ranch dressing makes the salad nice and creamy and helps bring all the ingredients together.

When we were traveling around the country shooting episodes of our Food Network show, Road Tasted, we ate lots of fried, barbecued, and sugary food (Hey, it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it). Wherever we were, Bobby would seek out a salad for lunch or dinner to add a little balance to his diet. The night he discovered chopped salad, it was love at first sight. He developed this easy week-night recipe as soon as we were back home. It’s a salad that accommodates almost any ingredient—feel free to add your own personal favorites into the mix.

This full and satisfying meal is Jamie’s dream salad—heavy on the sausage and spuds. What’s not to love?

Jamie is always in search of good Asian food, which is one of his favorites. We must have had this salad somewhere along the way, because it found its way into Jamie’s kitchen recently. With lime, soy sauce, cucumbers, peanuts, and rice noodles (which you can find in the Asian foods aisle of most supermarkets), it’s a whole new set of tastes that will no doubt appeal to anyone looking for something new to try. It’s also a perfect place to park your leftover steak.

Growing up in the South, we were surrounded by three-bean salads, which are something of an aquired taste. We ate up Mama’s beans and ham hocks, but give us kids a cold bean salad and we’d be out the backdoor. Well, now we’ve seen the error of our ways—plus canned beans seem to be better these days, less mushy and more flavorful. Here we toss them with spicy cheese and leftover ham for a main-course salad that’s delicious served with cornbread.

Bobby loves his goulash. It’s still the dish he begs Mama to make for him, even though he can have this easier, leaner version ready for himself when he gets home whenever he likes. Mama often serves her goulash the next day to let the flavors marry; cooking it in a crockpot in a single day achieves the same delicious effect.

Mama’s chicken and dumplings are sooo good. She simmers her chicken for ages until she has the richest stock—that’s how we do it at The Lady & Sons. All that effort certainly pays off, but we just never have time to cook like that. That’s where the slow cooker comes in. Along with easy-to-make drop dumplings (Mama would roll hers out), you’ll get that hearty chicken flavor and the light, fluffy, comforting dumplings without having to stay by the stove all day.

We owe enormous thanks to our slow cooker for making it possible to turn our absolute favorite weekend treat, barbecued pork, into a four-ingredient recipe we can throw together for a weeknight. We love to make sandwiches with the soft, flavorful shredded pork on hamburger buns, and serve them with some Lemony Coleslaw with Raisins (page 116), on top or alongside.

Cooking chicken with mushrooms gives you such a nice intense and meaty-tasting broth. Along with meltingly soft bell peppers and onions, this throw-it-all-in-the-pot stew has wonderful Italian flavor. We love it over buttered noodles.

Mama’s main squeeze Michael Groover’s famous pinto beans inspired this simple, savory recipe. We use a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce to create a real rich broth around the soft, silky beans.

We got this recipe from our good buddy (and Bobby’s neighbor) Michael Peay. He remembers his mom always used to make more than he and his brothers ever could eat because their house was so popular with their friends, especially around dinnertime. This stew, full of good porky sausage and plenty of tender cabbage, was his favorite childhood meal.

One of Bobby’s favorite soups on the menu at The Lady & Sons is Confederate bean soup, a rich mix of baked beans, sausage, and cream. We skip the cream here to make a lighter version with just as much flavor as the original. It’s a hearty meal in a bowl and a dream come true for anyone who loves franks and beans.

The crockpot might just have been invented to turn out the most tender pot roast you’ve ever had. Slow cooking makes the meat and veggies here so delicious that you might want to keep the recipe on hand for when company is coming for dinner. We think it’s so special that we serve a version of this at The Lady & Sons. And if you make it in advance, this pot roast just keeps getting better. We eat this with Buttery Stone-Ground Grits (page 25) when we get together for a family dinner.

Serve this hearty chili over rice for a simple meal, or do it up Deen style over a bowl of Fritos corn chips with cheese, fresh onions, and sour cream. It sure tastes good with Moist-and-Easy Corn Bread (page 45).

Our Aunt Peggy does a zucchini bake for every get-together, and it is so good that we decided to try cooking eggplant the same way. Since we don’t fry it, this is a healthier, easier take on your standard eggplant Parmesan, and, served over spaghetti with a crisp romaine and tomato salad, it makes a delicious vegetarian meal. (Of course, you can always add grilled chicken breast, if you prefer.)

Mama is friends with a couple from Indiana named the Moyers, who we like to refer to as Yankees. They taught her how to turn a handful of affordable, simple ingredients into these fried-patty sandwiches that will rock your world.