Siri Daly shows Savannah how to make healthier mac and cheese and chicken tenders

Savannah Guthrie is seriously dedicated to learning how to cook in her new TODAY All Day Series, Starting from Scratch. To help hone her skills, her friend Siri Daly is joining her in the kitchen to teach her how to make lightened-up, kid-friendly comfort foods that the whole family can enjoy. Together, they cook up cauliflower macaroni and cheese, crispy baked chicken tenders with special sauce and perfect grilled cheese sandwiches.

Cauliflower Mac and Cheese by Siri Daly

There’s nothing better than homemade mac and cheese … especially when there’s cauliflower pureed into the sauce! Trust me — your kids will never guess there’s a vegetable snuck into this delicious meal.

Parmesan-Crusted Chicken Tenders by Siri Daly

Siri's kids love chicken tenders, and she loves when she can make them at home with this simple and tasty recipe. The Parmesan adds a flavorful, crunchy coating to the tender chicken, making it a delicious lunch or dinner. Plus, who doesn’t love a dipping sauce, especially one made with three simple ingredients you’re bound to have in your pantry?

Perfect Grilled Cheese by Anthony Contrino

Grilled cheese sandwiches are serious business! After much debate in the TODAY All Day kitchen about what the perfect grilled cheese looks like, this was the winning recipe! We wanted to keep it classic, using a simple sliced bread (we all preferred Sara Lee's sliced whole wheat bread) and deli-sliced American cheese. Other important factors were cheese-tobread ratio, crispiness level of the bread and gooeyness of the cheese. We sliced our sandwiches into quarters (on a diagonal, of course!) so we could each taste as we were testing, and because, for many of us, that’s what mom used to do!

If you like those family-friendly recipes, you should also try these:

Eggplant Chicken Tenders by Nikki Dinki

Frosted Chocolate Zucchini Brownies by Siri Daly