Recipes! Baked Sriracha Chicken Breast, Broiled Salmon With Horseradish Sauce and Mushroom Fried Rice

What to cook during the week ahead, from Post Food editors.

We've been trained to see the new year as a momentous turning of the page – a fresh start, a time to be invigorated about possibilities. But can I let you in on a little secret? By the time January rolls around, I'm … tired.

The constant whir and activities of the holidays – and holiday parties – are over, and so are the joy and adrenaline that come with them. You may have spent weeks cooking for friends and family, or occupying kids home on winter break that never seems to end. And now it's back to work, school, commute, lather, rinse, repeat.

Returning to business as usual is hard. And that includes the groove of feeding yourself and others, day in, day out. Oh, and what if you've made resolutions about cooking and eating better, different, smarter, etc.? More pressure!

We're here to help. At the top of the list is this quick and easy Baked Sriracha Chicken Breast from Jacques Pépin that former recipes editor Ann Maloney shared in her farewell Dinner in Minutes column. It uses a popular cut of meat and a handful of pantry ingredients – salt, sriracha, mayo – for a moist, flavorful dish that just requires 10 minutes of hands-on time.

Daniela Galarza also shared a lickety-split recipe this week with her Broiled Salmon With Horseradish Sauce. The broiler is one of my favorite kitchen features, and Daniela takes advantage of it by setting skin-on salmon fillets on a sheet pan along with slender haricots verts. The salmon skin gets amazingly crispy and the green beans lightly charred. Add a bracing horseradish sauce and you have a 25-minute dinner that's fresh and filling.

The Mushroom Fried Rice that Joe Yonan shared from the Woks of Life website clocks in at 25 minutes as well. In this recipe, furry lion's mane mushrooms stand in for the seafood you'd otherwise find in Thai crab fried rice. But don't worry – if you can't find them, oyster, shiitake or cremini mushrooms work, too.

If you're looking for better ways to eat and cook that go beyond recipes, Ellie Krieger shared advice for how to use less salt in cooking without sacrificing flavor. Her tips include alternative ingredients to add punchy flavor and suggestions for being a savvy reader of labels. For coffee drinkers who want to up their game, Tim Carman offered his five steps for making a better cup of joe at home. Interested in cutting food waste in the kitchen? Aaron Hutcherson makes it less daunting with achievable tasks. Finally, Dave McIntyre can help you be a smarter, more adventurous wine drinker.

Our colleagues from across the newsroom are sharing practical tips to help you collect some easy wins and build some new good habits. Explore all of our New Year Reset stories here.

Speaking of making things easier, that's what Aaron and I try to do in our weekly live chat with readers, every Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern. I appreciate all of you who turn out to share your own advice, either during the live hour or after in the comments. This week I was touched by how many people chimed in with advice for a widowed reader who was struggling to shop and cook for one. Be sure to join us next week.

That give and take is one of the things I love most about my job. I hope to encourage it even more as I take over this newsletter for the foreseeable future. What would you find most helpful here? What do you want to cook? Feel free to send me your thoughts by email.

Until next week, happy cooking.