Tyler Florence Dishes on Good Nutrition for his Family, and a Giveaway for Three of his Cookbooks (podcast #115)

When it comes to feeding the public, celebrity chef and Food Network host, Tyler Florence is known for his uncomplicated recipes, bright flavors, and fresh food. And when it comes to feeding his family, this dynamic dad is clearly devoted to good nutrition. On this week’s Cooking with the Moms podcast, we caught up with Tyler to talk about his three kids, the importance of sharing family meals, and some clever ways to get picky eaters to try new foods.

Tyler, who lives in San Francisco and hosts the new Food Network series, The Great Food Truck Race, was in Boston for the National “got milk?” Milk Mustache Milk the Moment Mobile Tour. When we asked him what “milking the moment” means to him, he said it’s about stopping what you’re doing and having dinner with your family. “If you do one thing to improve the quality of your family life and how your family will remember you,” he said, “make your house smell great … cook something every day and eat dinner together.”

Studies show that when families break bread together, kids are more likely to eat a nutritious diet, higher in fruits, veggies, and calcium. They also have healthier body weights and do better in school.

Tyler had lots of great advice for nourishing young families including the best way to serve up veggies kids will happily eat (hint, hint: roast them), lunch box ideas for back to school, and strategies for enticing young children to try new foods. Be sure to tune into the show for all of his creative tips. In the meantime, read on for his simple recipe for Roasted Broccoli with Crispy Parmesan and Lemon and for our latest giveaway for Tyler’s gorgeous cookbooks: Stirring the Pot, Dinner at My Place, and Tyler’s Ultimate!

Roasted Broccoli with Crispy Parmesan and Lemon
Makes 4 Servings

  • 2 heads broccoli (about 3 pounds)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
  • 1 lemon, juiced

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Trim about 1 inch off the ends of the broccoli stalks and peel the stalks with a vegetable peeler. Then cut the broccoli lengthwise into spears. Arrange the broccoli on a non-stick cookie sheet, drizzle with some olive oil and season with a little bit of salt and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. Toss to coat evenly. Transfer to the oven and roast for 10 minutes.

3. Remove the broccoli from the oven, sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top and bake until the cheese melt and forms a crisp shell over the broccoli, about 10 minutes. Lift the broccoli out onto a platter with a spatula and hit it with a squeeze of fresh lemon.

Print Recipe

Now for news on our latest GIVEAWAY! Five lucky winners (U.S. only) will be selected to win a Got Milk? T-shirt and autographed copies of Tyler’s cookbooks. Three winners will receive Dinner at My Place, one winner will receive Stirring the Pot, and one winner will receive Tyler’s Ultimate: Brilliant, Simple Food to Make any Time.

To enter …

> Post a comment on this blog post telling us why family dinners are important to you and share your best tip for gathering your family around the dinner table. We will enter you into the giveaway a second, third, and/or fourth time if you …

* Subscribe to our RSS feed
* Tweet about the giveaway with a link back to this post
* Share the giveaway news with your Facebook fans and friends with a link back to the post

Please be sure to leave us a new comment every time you do something extra …. and GOOD LUCK!  The giveaway ends on Wednesday, September 8 at noon, and as always we’ll use random.org to pick our winners.

August 27, 2010 | Filed Under CulinaryAdventures, Giveaways, Podcast, Vegetables | 163 Comments 

Substituting Ingredients: The A to Z Kitchen Reference and a Giveaway (Podcast #114)

How many times have you been in the middle of making a recipe only to discover you’re out of a key ingredient?  We can certainly relate to that! Thanks to Substituting Ingredients: The A to Z Kitchen Reference (Sourcebooks, 2010) by Becky Sue Epstein, the next time you run out of pumpkin pie spice, or teriyaki sauce, or even an egg, you’ll be able to swap it with something else from your pantry in no time.

On this week’s Cooking with the Moms podcast, we caught up with Becky for some substitution secrets, like this one for a sweetened, nonfat whipped cream!

Sweetened Whipped Cream

Makes 1 Cup

  • 1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
  • 1 cup ice water
  • Sweetener of your choice
  • Vanilla extract

1. Whip together the nonfat dry milk powder and the ice water. Sweeten to taste and add vanilla as desired. Serve over berries, pie, or a fruit crisp.

Print Recipe

Becky also shared her best swaps for pumpkin (or apple) pie spice and tartar sauce.

The next time you run out of pie spice, create your own with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/8 teaspoon allspice, and 1/8 teaspoon cardamom. According to Becky, this recipe yields enough to make one 9-inch pie.

Does your tartar sauce sit in the fridge for a year before you “find it” and finally toss it? Make your own (and save money) with Becky’s easy-does-it recipe …

Tartar Sauce

Makes About 1/2 Cup

  • 2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish or sweet pickles, chopped
  • 4 tablespoons light mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon onion, chopped, optional
  • 1 tablespoon hard-boiled eggs, chopped, optional
  • A few drops of lemon juice, optional
  • 1/2 teaspoon mustard, optional
  • 1/2 teaspoon dill, optional

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together until well combined.

Print Recipe

Besides her substitution tips (don’t have a cardoon … no worries!), Becky also reveals common yields (did you know 1 pound of potatoes yields 1 ¾-cups mashed?), remedies for fixing common kitchen disasters, and household formulas. We think every home cook in America should buy this book; it’s truly indispensable. But before you hit the bookstore, enter to win our giveaway for Substituting Ingredients!

To enter, post a comment on this blog post telling us why you’d like to win this book. The giveaway ends on Wednesday, September 1 at noon, and as always we’ll use random.org to pick our winner. We Will Enter You into the Giveaway a Second Time if you Tweet about it and a third time if you subscribe to our RSS feed (just be sure to leave us a new comment if you tweet and/or subscribe). Good luck!

Thanks Becky for an awesome interview!

August 18, 2010 | Filed Under CulinaryAdventures, Giveaways, Podcast | 100 Comments 

BlogHer 2010 Adventures (Podcast #113)

Our trip to New York last week for the annual BlogHer 2010 conference was a whirlwind mix of meeting fellow bloggers, dining at fabulous restaurants, and working on a project with Why Milk on the importance of eating a healthy breakfast every morning. We dished all about our adventures on this week’s Cooking with the Moms radio show, so we hope you’ll tune in.

With well over 2,000 (mostly women … that’s where the “Her” in BlogHer comes in) bloggers in attendance, there were plenty of interesting people to meet including Wendy from Wendolonia (she’s one of our fabulous Facebook fans as well as a pro at making beautiful bento box lunches and snacks for her two young sons), Christine from Gotta Break Some Eggs (a cooking school for tweens and teens and a food blog to go with it), Jennifer from Savoring the Thyme (she was one of the other bloggers nominated — with us — for the FoodBuzz Best Family Food Blog award last year), and Amanda, from Food on the Table (be sure to check out her weekly No Whine Wednesday post).

We don’t know too many children who could resist a snack like this one.  If you’re looking for back-to-school lunch box ideas, Wendolonia’s weekly This Week in Bentos is the place to go for inspiration.

Liz with new pals, Beth of My Point of View and Christine from Gotta Break Some Eggs

The Meal Makeover Moms, along with hundreds of other bloggers, pose for a blogger-only Milk Mustache ad (the secret to the ’stache’ is in the milkshake)

On our first day at the conference, we spent some time at the Got Milk booth talking up the benefits of eating a nutrient-rich breakfast (full disclosure: We were compensated for our work on this project). Did you know that according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 20% of kids and 32% of adolescents are breakfast skippers?  Yikes. Breakfast is truly the most important meal of the day because it (1) helps kids concentrate, (2) improves kids’ performance in the classroom and on the playground, and (3) helps maintain a healthy body weight.

Milk is naturally nutrient rich, and what could be easier than starting the day with a bowl of whole grain cereal topped with your favorite fresh, dried, or even frozen fruit, and a glass of low-fat milk? Milk is rich in calcium and vitamin D for strong bones, protein for lean muscle, and B vitamins for energy. One of our favorite get-breakfast-on-the-table-fast strategies that we shared with bloggers is this: After dinner, prepare the table for the morning. Have your kids set the table with colorful placemats, napkins, bowls, spoons and cereal boxes as part of your dinner wrap-up routine. When alarms sound, you’ll be ready for the morning meal.


For more information on breakfast, you can download our Back-to-School Checklist, our Milking the Moment article, and you can even enter the “Unlock Their Potential” sweepstakes for cool educational prizes.

There is no shortage of great places to eat in the Big Apple. Two of our favorites were Bobby Flay’s Bar Americain and A Voce in Columbus Circle featuring Missy Robbins’ authentic Italian cuisine.

Cedar Planked Pacific Salmon with Wild Mushrooms and California Flat Leaf Spinach at Bar Americain

Peach Pie with Blueberry Sherbet at Bar Americain

Other BlogHer 2010 and NYC highlights:

Blogger extraordinaire, Susan Getgood from Marketing Roadmaps, signs copies of her new book, Professional Blogging for Dummies

Liz runs into Laura Giardina who represents Fiber Gummies, a company Liz has consulted with this year

Our cookbook editor, Wendy Smolen, spends the afternoon working with us on our book manuscript!

For more photos from our adventures at BlogHer, visit our Flickr page.

August 12, 2010 | Filed Under Breakfast, CulinaryAdventures, Podcast | 3 Comments 

Healthy Summer Grilling and a Recipe for Grilled Pork with Pineapple Pizzazz (Podcast #112)

Here in the Boston area, it’s been a glorious (albeit hot) summer. Though we’ve had little time to enjoy it — that’s what happens when you’re writing a cookbook and your deadline is August 9 — we’ve each managed to fit in some time for backyard barbecues. On this week’s Cooking with the Moms podcast, we join forces with fellow podcasters for the Summer 2010 Podcast Project. Sponsored by Jerilyn, Amy and Susan from The Because Show, we chose healthy summer grilling as our show theme.

Charged with dishing about any topic related to summer food, our show features healthy ideas for the grill and a recipe for Grilled Pork with Pineapple Pizzazz. Other podcasters who also recorded shows for the Summer Podcast Project are: Musing Mommies, PFD Podcast, Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone, and 2 God Chicks.

Grilled Pork with Pineapple Pizzazz

Makes 4 Servings

They don’t call pork the other white meat for nothing. A three-ounce serving of pork tenderloin, our favorite cut, is comparable to chicken breast with 120 calories, 3 grams fat, and just 1 gram of saturated fat. Pork is rich in the B vitamins, thiamin and B6, important for converting food into energy, and when it comes to grilling, it’s super easy. For this recipe, we pair it with grilled slices of sweet pineapple … but don’t stop there. While you’re at it, fill your grill with an array of veggies — zucchini, bell peppers, Portobello mushrooms, and onion. Your kids will think they’re at a luau.

  • 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 small clove garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
  • One 1 ¼ pounds pork tenderloin
  • One 20-ounce can pineapple slices in juice, drained

1. Whisk together the soy sauce, honey, lime juice, sesame oil, garlic, curry powder, ginger, and black pepper in a small bowl until well blended.  Pour into a large zip-top bag and add the tenderloin.  Place in the refrigerator and marinate at least one hour and up to overnight.

2. Preheat the grill to medium and lightly oil the grate. Grill the tenderloin, turning halfway through, until an instant-read meat thermometer registers 155°F, 20 to 25 minutes.  The pork should still be slightly pink in the center. Remove from the grill and let stand before slicing, about 5 minutes.

3. While the pork is resting, spray the pineapple slices lightly with nonstick cooking spray and grill until golden grill marks appear, 1 to 2 minutes per side.

4. Slice the pork and serve with the pineapple slices.

Nutrition Information per Serving:  270 calories, 5g fat (1.5g saturated), 140mg sodium, 25g carbohydrate, 1g fiber, 30g protein, 25% vitamin C, 10% iron

Print Recipe

Last summer, we shared a recipe for grilled veggie kebabs. Brushed with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt, they cook up in under 20 minutes.

If you have a favorite summer-time recipe, feel free to tell us all about it.

August 3, 2010 | Filed Under Dinner, Fruits, Podcast, Pork | 5 Comments 

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