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I’ve been devouring the new book, Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School by dietitians Jill Castle and Maryann Jacobsen, and decided to cook up their recipe for Black Bean Sliders. My daughter, Leah, has been experimenting with being vegetarian—that’s a new decision, so the sliders looked like a [more]
Hi everyone: I am Caroline Lavery, a graduate student at Boston University. This past semester, I worked with The Meal Makeover Moms as an intern. Every week I took time out of my hectic studying schedule to help The Moms with research for their radio podcast, cook up healthy, great tasting recipes, and I even [more]
I’ve never made crepes before—at least not that I can remember—but they’re super easy to make, even if you’re a kid with a dad hovering over your shoulder. These peanut-butter filled crepes are the perfect breakfast-in-bed treat for Mother’s Day … and they’re healthy too! All YOU have to do is copy the recipe and [more]
There is no shortage of new cookbooks on the market, but most don’t address the dos and don’ts of feeding kids a healthy diet. According to Jill Castle, mother of four and a dietitian who writes the blog Just the Right Byte, “Raising children to be healthy eaters is an 18-year process.” (We couldn’t agree [more]
When I asked a few friends what they thought Cinco de Mayo was a celebration of, the universal answer was Mexico’s Independence Day, much like our Fourth of July. Well, they are all incorrect (and I actually thought my friends were relatively smart)! Mexico’s Independence Day is celebrated on September 16th. Cinco de Mayo actually commemorates [more]
As promised, as a follow up to my recent post about the lamb dinner I hosted in my kitchen last week, I’m sharing a recipe I created for Barbecue Lamb Sliders. I developed this family-friendly and super-easy recipe for the folks at LeanonLamb.com, and I’m happy to report that my daughter, Leah, is a huge fan. The [more]
Most of us would probably entertain more often if someone else did the food shopping for us and then stopped by to prepare, serve, and clean up the mess! It takes hours to plan and implement a spectacular dinner party … hours most of us don’t have in our busy lives. As much as I [more]
When you assemble things like taco seasoning mix, pancake mix, and your own mixes for chocolate syrup and creamed soups, you end up saving money, using less packaging, and getting unpronounceable ingredients out of your family’s diet. This week on our Cooking with the Moms radio show, we chat with fellow dietitian, Melanie Zook, MA, [more]
Whether you’re an avid do-it-yourselfer or simply looking for an easy way to clear excess packaging and yucky, fake-o ingredients from your diet, you’re going to love this homemade recipe for Do-It-Yourself Taco Seasoning Mix. Our virtual friend and fellow dietitian, Melanie Zook from Fresh Start Nutrition, created the recipe and shares it on her [more]
My kitchen makeover took six months to complete, but do you know how many people it took to make it happen? The answer: A lot! It took a village to make my dream kitchen a reality … from the architect, excavators, framers, roofers, and siders to the countertop/appliance/cabinet suppliers, plumbers, electricians, tilers, painters, and general [more]
Time flies. I can’t believe it’s already mid April and that another Patriot’s Day celebration has come and gone. Yesterday was the Patriot’s Day parade in Lexington, MA where I live, and today, I stopped by one of the many pancake breakfasts that take place each year at area churches. After the breakfast, Simon and [more]
As a mom of two teenage boys, I spend a lot of time getting meals and snacks on the table. Josh turns 18 next week, and he has a fuel tank (AKA stomach) that’s impossible to top off. Simon, 14, has never had as big an appetite, but lately, he seems to be catching up [more]
With all the recipes out there in cookbooks, magazines, newspapers, and on the internet, do you ever scratch your head and wonder, “What should I make for dinner tonight?” I found myself doing just that last night, so I turned to our trusty cookbook, No Whine with Dinner, and I came across this recipe for [more]
I am a big fan of (and do some consulting work for) Oldways, a nonprofit food and nutrition education organization, so when they asked me if I wanted to be a Whole Grain Ambassador to help them celebrate Whole Grain Sampling Day, I jumped at the chance. After all, part of what Liz and I [more]
The beauty of working at Janice’s house — which we do most Tuesdays — is that we get to cook as we work … and work as we cook. Today, we took advantage of Janice’s Easter leftovers by creating this better-for-you egg salad recipe. We used two classic Easter ingredients: spiral cut ham and hard-cooked [more]
My parents have hosted every major holiday since I was born … and well before that too. They’re the ultimate entertainers, and they throw a party like no one else I know. Mom sets her game plan weeks in advance, and she and Dad set their beautiful dining room table days before their doorbell rings [more]
Every March, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) hosts National Nutrition Month. This year, we decided to tip our hats to the event by creating a special board on Pinterest dedicated to A Month of Meal Makeovers in March. Featured on the board are some of our toughest makeovers ever for Whoopie Pies, Chicken [more]
The second Passover seder is tonight, though I must admit that I celebrated the holiday early this year. Over the weekend, we visited my family in Connecticut where we sat down to my mom’s best-in-the-world matzo ball soup and my niece’s hardest-in-the-world-to-find afikomen. I made two vegetable side dishes fro the meal: Roasted Fennel and [more]
When we heard about this month’s Recipe Redux “Green with Herb Envy” cooking challenge, we had one of those LOL moments. The image of green things popping from the earth, backyard gardens, and thumbing through seed catalogs seems light-years away! The Boston suburbs are still blanketed in snow, so instead of seeing green, everything outside [more]
Many of you know that I have undergone a major kitchen renovation over the past 6 months. My mom, whose spectacular cooking and entertaining skills have inspired me to do what I do, turned 80 as our project was winding down. My siblings and I had talked for a year about a surprise birthday party [more]
Today is Registered Dietitian Day … or RD Day for short. It’s a day when dietitians are acknowledged for the work they do to help friends, family, clients, and communities eat a healthy, wholesome, and delicious diet. We celebrate today with one of our most extreme recipe makeovers ever for Strawberry-Filled Toaster Pastries, a wholesome, [more]
Dinner from a can can be convenient, but there can clearly be some nutritional drawbacks. Take Chef Boyardee’s Beefaroni as just one example. The sodium is on the high side—730 milligrams in a 1 cup serving—it contains just 9 grams of protein, and the only “vegetable” in the meal is tomato puree from the sauce. [more]
Many of the recipe makeovers on this blog are inspired by our readers, so when Sheilah B. sent us a brunch recipe for Egg ‘n’ Bacon Breakfast Casserole and asked us to give it a “fix,” we came up with this new-and-improved Bagels & Lox Overnight Casserole. The casserole that Sheilah wanted us to health-ify [more]
Any time I can go to Napa Valley — for business or for pleasure — I jump at the opportunity. When the Food & Culinary Professionals (a sub group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics) announced plans for a culinary workshop at the Culinary Institute of America, I think I was the first dietitian [more]
Most people come home from vacation with a snow globe, a piece of local art, or even a few seashells. The souvenir I nabbed on our recent family vacation to Amelia Island, Florida, however, was this gorgeous antique plate. I’m a pushover when it comes to pretty blue dishware, so I couldn’t resist nabbing this [more]
Every year when the Oscars roll around, we stay up late to hear the results, but then we wonder, “Why on Earth did we stay up so late? We haven’t seen any of the movies!” This year is no exception … with the exception of Lincoln. I prefer watching my movies from the comfort of [more]
I spent a few glorious days in Napa Valley a few weeks ago to attend the Food & Culinary Professionals‘ culinary workshop at the Culinary Institute of America. Wow, that’s a lot of culinary in one sentence! And it was a lot of culinary delight during my time in Napa. I’ll be talking about my [more]
After a weekend of shoveling and digging out from under 27 inches of snow (thank you Nemo), our kids were more than happy to dig into our latest recipe for Super Strawberry Pudding. Janice’s daughter, Leah, loved it so much and told us, “This is the best thing you’ve ever made!” Tune into this week’s [more]
Our blog readers know that I have a special affinity for Julia Child, so when I traveled to DC last month to shoot cooking videos for the Tri-Lamb Group, I decided to arrive a bit early and visit the new Julia Child exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History. I spent over [more]
I don’t have a single ounce of “Martha” in my blood, so I actually surprised myself with these Valentine brownies. Besides the pretty hearts on top, my brownies are heart healthy too thanks to some of their star ingredients: red kidney beans, dark chocolate, walnuts, and omega-3 eggs! Pretty artsy fartsy, don’t you think (excuse [more]
When your husband decides to become a vegetarian — albeit a fish-eating one — but your teenage boys crave chicken and beef, what’s a wife and mom to do? Over the past few months, I’ve spent a lot of time adapting recipes (see my recent recipe for Loaf Pan Lasagna) and cooking up ways to [more]
Now that 2013 is well on its way, we took a moment to reflect back on the resolutions we made earlier this month. If you had a chance to listen to podcast episode 209, you may recall Liz’s resolution to take better care of her skin (the biggest organ in the human body!) and Janice [more]
A few weeks ago, I received an email from a producer at NECN, a TV station here in the Boston area. The station runs a segment called, Money Saving Mondays, and they asked me to help with a piece on saving money at the supermarket. What followed was an afternoon shoot at my house featuring [more]
This month, we’re giving away a kitchen gadget that’s sure to please every French fry lover and fried chicken fan out there! We were recently given the opportunity to try out an ActiFry appliance from T-fal, and we were super pleased with the results. And now, one lucky blog reader or Facebook fan will have a [more]
I’m obsessed with blue dishes, so when I saw the cover of this month’s Bon Appetit magazine, I was nothing short of jealous. Where did they get that bowl? I would do anything to get my hands on it. Of course, I have a few blue bowls of my own, so rather than sulk and [more]
Both of us were graduate students at Boston University, so the school is near and dear to our hearts. We also get a lot of smart and talented nutrition interns from B.U. including Bianca (standing in the photo below second from the right with a gray shirt and white apron), who spent some time with [more]
I was so excited when my friend and fellow dietitian, Janet Helm, announced the release of her new book, The Food Lover’s Healthy Habits Cookbook: Great Food & Expert Advice That Will Change Your Life Forever, written with the editors of Cooking Light magazine. When my copy arrived in the mail, I tore through it [more]
You could say I started off the New Year on the right foot. On day-one of 2013, Tim and I set off for a snowshoe adventure in the woods of Loon, NH. Our boys were happily skiing (without us) as we hiked our way up Loon Mountain and then into the snow-packed woods. It was [more]
Those of you who follow our blog, listen to our Cooking with the Moms podcast, or know me personally are no doubt aware that I’ve been knee deep in a major kitchen renovation since last August. It’s been an exciting journey, but like most home improvement projects, a big-time challenge. Indeed, washing dishes in the [more]
2012 was a whirlwind year filled with fun foodie adventures, Janice’s mega kitchen makeover, a Best Culinary Podcast nomination from IACP, and the exciting news that we won a recipe app contest from the app development company, Mobile Skillet. We’re entering 2013 with a big bang for sure! On this week’s Cooking with the Moms [more]
Easy. Nutritious. Family friendly. That’s what this new recipe for Loaf Pan Lasagna has to offer. I’ve been playing around with this recipe all week using various vegetable combinations and finally nailed it with a mixture of mushrooms and carrots … though you could certainly use just about any sauteed veggie: diced bell peppers, spinach, [more]
Every year, Janice attends her neighborhood cookie swap, and every year, she raves about it! Well, this year, she finally invited Liz. The reason: Janice’s kitchen is still in the midst of a major renovation and she has no working oven. Instead of showing up empty handed, she kindly invited Liz along … as long [more]
My mom makes the best brisket in the world. She makes the best latkes. AND, she makes the best applesauce. My boys call my mom’s applesauce, Bubbie Sauce. (Bubbie is a term of endearment for a Jewish grandmother.) Her secret to applesauce success, other than the intuitive cooking that allows her to add a dash [more]
I’m not going to lie. Going into our fifth month without a kitchen and with only the living room for food prep, eating, doing homework, watching TV, playing piano, and reading has been a big-time challenge. Toss in an emergency appendectomy for 13- year-old Leah and well … let’s just say we are all ready [more]
Once a year, I put on my game face, don my apron, tell my manicure “bye bye,” shred potatoes, and make a Hanukkah favorite, Latkes (AKA potato pancakes). Latkes are messy and fussy (AKA potchke) and they smell up the house … but they are worth every miserable minute! Yesterday, my son, Simon, walked in [more]
There’s nothing better than a good ol’ fashioned cookie swap, and this year, we took part in the granddaddy of ‘em all. Thanks to two dedicated bloggers, Love & and Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen, the second annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap welcomed well over 500 food bloggers from around the world. As [more]
Many of us have annual holiday traditions, and this year, I started a new one with my four best girlfriends. Instead of the usual Yankee Swap or gift-giving grab bag, we each purchased “our favorite thing” and gave it to everyone. Five friends + four gifts each = 20 gifts under my friend Meg’s Christmas [more]
This is the time of year when we get to let our hair down as we nibble our way through luscious and decadent holiday goodies. It’s hard to turn them down, which is why we spend a lot of our time dreaming up clever ways to slim down and health-ify all of those traditional treats. [more]
This weekend, it finally felt like winter here in the Boston area. The temperature dipped below freezing, the snow was falling, and each of our towns — Lexington and Melrose — held holiday celebrations. The spirit of the holidays is in the air (brrrr) and the holiday desserts are everywhere! To help you navigate all [more]
For me, the best part about Thanksgiving is the spread of savory side dishes … and of course, the time spent with family and friends. This year, I brought our MMM Sweet Potato Casserole — a healthy makeover of a recipe I found in the New York Times Cookbook — and our Better-For-You Brussels Sprouts [more]
