Summer Tomatoes and a Recipe for an Open-Faced PB & Tomato Sandwich (Podcast #116)

Tomatoes are at their peak in New England right now, which means endless good eats as far as we’re concerned. Janice’s husband, Don, has a green thumb that just won’t quit, and his backyard garden is brimming right now with the sweetest, juiciest tomatoes you’ve ever seen.  As for Liz’s garden, well, let’s just say she’s shelling out hard cash for her tomatoes this summer!

We celebrate the beautiful flavors and nutritional prowess of summer tomatoes this week on our Cooking with the Moms podcast. During the show, we serve up a new recipe creation for an Open-Faced PB & Tomato Sandwich (yes, it sounds weird, but it is soooo good), take you behind the scenes to Pumpkin Pond Farm on Nantucket where Liz sampled just-picked tomatoes, still warm from the sun, and share lots of fresh, new ideas for preparing tomatoes, inspired by our Twitter friends and Facebook fans.

When we asked our Facebook fans to share their favorite summer tomato recipes and stories, here’s what Shannon H. had to say:  I saw a recipe recently where you put peanut butter on a slice of bread, put a few thick slices of tomato from your garden on top, and sprinkle it all with a little sea salt. It sounds pretty gross to me, but it had tons of positive reviews. Maybe I’ll be brave and give it a try. I’d love to know if either of you has tried this?

We couldn’t resist Shannon’s challenge, so we gave it a go. The results were surprisingly good. While we wouldn’t serve it to our kids as an after-school snack (unfortunately, none claim to be tomato lovers), we thoroughly enjoyed it. The cracked pepper and kosher salt on top balanced the slightly sweet tomatoes and the creamy, nutty peanut butter. Overall, we’d have to say the sandwich was quite refreshing!

Open-Faced PB & Tomato Sandwich

Makes 1 Serving

  • One whole grain English muffin, sliced in half and lightly toasted
  • 2 tablespoons peanut butter (use your favorite kind)
  • 2 slices fresh, juicy tomatoes
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Spread a tablespoon of peanut butter on one English muffin half and a tablespoon on the other half. Top each with a slice of tomato (make the slice thin, thick, or anywhere in between) and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Print Recipe


While on vacation on Nantucket, Liz entertained friends with this family-friendly appetizer made with thin slices of French (or Italian) bread topped with olive tapenade, slices of fresh mozzarella cheese, extra virgin olive oil, diced tomatoes (just a few … so the kids happily ate them!), and kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.


In between long bike rides and trips to the beach, Liz stopped by Pumpkin Pond Farm on Nantucket where she toured the nine-acre organic farm.

“The Walk of Thyme” divides the garden, bursting with vegetables, herbs, and fresh greens.

Owner, Marty McGowan and Liz’s friend, Debbie, pose in front of the farm stand.

Hooray for summer tomatoes!

Tomatoes are an excellent source of vitamins A, C and K — a bone builder, and they”re also a good good source of molybdenum (which helps prevent tooth decay), potassium, manganese, and dietary fiber. Tomatoes contain an antioxidant called lycopene, which research shows may protect against certain cancers. They’re versatile too as we found out when our Facebook fans and Twitter friends weighed in to “talk tomatoes.” Here are a few tomato tales and tips to whet your appetite (listen to the show for even more inspiration)!

> Maria from Two Peas and Their Pod: Pasta with Slow Roasted Tomatoes, Artichokes, Zucchini, and Roasted Red Peppers.
> Chef Christine from Frederick Foodie: Panzanella.
> Alexandra from Delish Knowledge: Grilled Panzanella Salad with Baked Tofu Croutons.

> Kerry W.: I blanch and quick peel and chop fresh tomatoes (purple, yellow, red) and throw in measured portions in the freezer. When it’s time for fresh pizza sauce in the middle of winter, I pull out a bag or two and give it a whirl with red pepper flake, kosher salt and oregano. Fantastic!

> Pam T.: Last night I tossed penne pasta with some lightly sauteed yellow squash and tossed in some chopped garden tomatoes and feta. It was delicious and so easy on a night that I had no time to cook! I leave the tomatoes large enough that the picky kids can pick them out easily.

> Angela P.: Tomatoes fresh picked, wiped clean, and still warm from the sun with a little salt. You’ve picked a good one if the juice drips down your chin.

> Theresa P.: Fresh picked tomato sandwich — sliced tomato on squishy bread with salt pepper and mayo. Or just eat them in the garden (we did this when we were kids but my grandfather would get so angry when we picked his plants clean!! Good memories…).

> Kelly G.: I love them with basil and cucumbers from my garden, mixed with thinly sliced red onion, olive oil, and a little balsamic vinegar and fresh ground pepper.

Thanks for all the great ideas. We’d love to hear from our blog readers, so feel free to post a comment with your summer tomato faves!

September 2, 2010 | Filed Under CulinaryAdventures, Snacks, Sustainability, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Leave a Comment 

Whole Grain Goodness & Bob’s Red Mill Giveaway (Podcast #106)

Have you ever cooked farro or teff?  What about amaranth or barley? For the lowdown on every grain under the sun, visit the Whole Grains Council website, a fabulous resource for everything whole grains … or tune into this week’s Cooking with the Moms podcast.  During the show, we dish about whole grains and all the easy ways to add them to your family’s diet.

Giveaway News: For fresh ideas on whole grains, our friends at Bob’s Red Mill are sponsoring a giveaway for our readers.  To enter, leave a comment at the end of this post with your favorite way to incorporate whole grains into your family’s diet or share a recipe using whole grains. Three lucky winners will receive an assortment of whole grain products from Bob’s Red Mill — things like Spice Apple Bran Muffin Mix, 13-Bean Soup Mix, 10-Grain Hot Cereal, Quinoa, and more.  Winners will be selected randomly using random.org, and the giveaway ends at noon on June 25th.

Several weeks ago, Janice had the pleasure of touring Bob’s Red Mill while in the Portland, Oregon during the annual meeting of the International Association of Culinary Professionals.  Bob Moore founded Bob’s Red Mill over 30 years ago to preserve the ancient craft of stone milling and to grind whole grains for the local community.  Now, with over 200 employees, the company offers 400 wholesome products including ground flaxseed, quinoa, teff, whole wheat pastry flour, millet, whole grain pancake mix, gluten-free all-purpose baking flour, and apple blueberry granola (over 100 of them are gluten free too). You name it … if it’s a whole grain, they grind it, mill it, mix it, and sell it!

After touring the facility and seeing the whole grains being crushed and ground, Janice went to the store and feasted on a breakfast burrito wrapped in a whole grain flour tortilla with grits and fresh fruit on the side.  There, she met Bob and asked if he wanted to be a guest on our podcast.  To her delight, he said yes, and he invited his program director, Lori Sobelson to join the conversation too.  Lori runs all the culinary classes and programs offered to the community, and she shared two of her favorite kid-friendly recipes including Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies and Hazelnut Quinoa Salad (see below).  These two charming folks spent close to an hour chatting with Janice about everything from how the company was started to how to get kids to eat more whole grains.

Breakfast Burrito and Fruit Salad at Bob’s Red Mill

Bob and Janice take a spin in his 1931 Ford

Bob’s Red Mill Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Makes about 24 Cookies

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (we used 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup canola oil)
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups Old-Fashioned Rolled oats (not instant)
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside.

2. In a bowl using an electric mixer, cream butter (or butter and canola oil if using both) and sugar until creamy and smooth about 2 to 3 minutes.  Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat to combine.  Add the flour, baking soda, salt and old-fashioned oats.  Beat until well incorporated.  Stir in cranberries and walnuts.

3. For small cookies place about 1 tablespoon of batter on the prepared baking sheet, spacing cookies about 2 inches apart.  For larger cookies, use an ice cream scoop or about two and one half tablespoons of batter per cookie.  If your batter is too soft, place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to firm it up before baking the cookies.  Flatten the cookies slightly with the palm of your hand and bake cookies about 10 minutes for smaller cookies and 13 to 14 minutes for larger cookies, or until light golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let cookies cool about 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.

A recipe from Bob’s Red Mill Bakery, Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods

Print Recipe

As we mentioned in the podcast, on Bob’s 81st birthday he gave the company to his employees. He said, “I didn’t want it to be acquired by a competitor who would take it to pieces and fire everyone.  I couldn’t let that happen.”

Hazelnut Quinoa Salad

Makes 4 Servings (courtesy, Lori Sobelson)

  • 2 cups quinoa, cooked
  • 1/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted and crushed
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
  • 1/2 cup red seedless grapes cut in half

  • 1/3 cup orange juice
  • 1/4 cup strawberry fruit spread
  • 3 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (or white vinegar)
  • 2 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1 tablespoon silken tofu
  • 1 medium clove garlic, minced
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt

1. To cook quinoa:  In a saucepan over high heat, bring 2 cups water to boil.  Add 1 cup quinoa grain and ½ teaspoon salt.  Reduce heat and cook covered for 12 minutes.  Quinoa will be done when grain has absorbed all of the liquid.  Place quinoa on cookie sheet to cool.

2. In a medium size bowl combine cooled quinoa, hazelnuts, green onions and grapes.  Serve at room temperature or chill for 2 hours before adding dressing.

3. In a food processor or blender, combine all of the dressing ingredients.  Blend for about 1 minute or until smooth. Set aside until main salad ingredients are ready to serve.  Just before serving pour dressing over quinoa mixture.  Pour slowly as you will have more than you need.

* If you don’t like the dressing recipe listed above a low-fat raspberry vinaigrette may also be used.

Print Recipe

Good luck on the giveaway. We can’t wait to read about all of your ideas!

June 9, 2010 | Filed Under CulinaryAdventures, Giveaways, Grains, Podcast, Sides, Vegetarian | 170 Comments 

Our Favorite Cookbooks, a Cookbook Giveaway, and a Few New Recipes (Podcast #105)

What are your favorite family cookbooks, and what are your cookbook reading habits like?  For this week’s Cooking with the Moms podcast, we asked our Facebook fans to weigh in on those questions, and after hearing from dozens of moms, we learned a lot about reading styles:

> The Novel Reader: Moms like Sandi G. read cookbooks cover to cover — “I read cookbooks like a novel. They are by my bedside,  in the car, and I read them at work on break.”

> The Recipe Flagger: Danielle P. looks at the recipes to see what catches her eye — “I flip through them over and over and over again. I mark the pages I like with Post-Its, write notes on those I’ve tried and go through them again every few months to see if there are some that interest me this time around. Sometimes a recipe will jump out at me that didn’t before.”

> The Index User: Molly P. relies on the index — “When I get a new cookbook, I flip through it first checking out photos, reading recipes and generally checking out what sounds good. When I want to make something I look for what I have on hand in the index and then go from there.”

As for favorite cookbooks, it ran the gamut from The Joy of Cooking to America’s Test Kitchen Light & Healthy 2010 to Junior League and church cookbooks.  Recently, we received three new cookbooks for review, and for this month’s giveaway, we’re sending them to three lucky winners:  SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble to the Rescue (St. Martin’s Griffin – $17.99) by Aviva Goldfarb, Blue Ribbon Edition ($21.95) by Debra Stark, and Slim & Scrumptious (William Morrow Cookbooks – $24.99) by Today Show nutrition editor, Joy Bauer.

To enter to win (U.S. residents only, please), leave a comment on this post and tell us about your favorite cookbooks. You can also tell us about your cookbook reading habits and whether you have a favorite cookbook recipe of all time. We’ll enter you a second time if you Tweet the giveaway (just leave a separate comment).  The giveaway ends on Friday, June 4th at noon EST, and we will use Random.org to pick our three winners.

We decided to cook up a few recipes from each of the books. For Joy Bauer’s book, check out Liz’s review on our blog from May 10, 2010.

Janice and 10-year old Leah took a crack at SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble to the Rescue and had a hard time deciding what to cook (Leah went a little crazy with all her sticky notes). They finally decided on the Vegetarian Enchiladas (see below).  The book’s subtitle sums up the spirit of the book: Earth-Friendly, Kid-Pleasing Dinners for Busy Families. The recipes are presented by season, and there are lots of sidebars woven throughout:  tips for stocking your pantry, composting, eating more whole grains, eating on a budget, and packing healthy school lunches.  The author, Aviva Goldfarb is the creator and publisher of the family-friendly weekly menu planner, The Six O’Clock Scramble, so be sure to visit her site.

Vegetarian Enchiladas

Makes 6 Servings (from SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble to the Rescue)

  • 1 can (15 ounces) enchilada sauce, mild or spicy
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
  • 1/2 red or yellow onion, diced
  • 2 zucchini, cut lengthwise into 4 strips, and diced
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 3/4 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
  • 10 to 12 corn tortillas
  • 2 cups shredded Mexican-blend cheese (or use Cheddar or Monterey Jack)
  • 1 cup nonfat or low-fat sour cream for serving (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and spray the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.  Spread about one-fourth of the can of enchilada sauce on the bottom of the pan.

2. In a heavy skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Cook the garlic for about 30 seconds, and then add the onions and zucchini.  Season them with the cumin, chili powder, and salt (optional).  Sauté the mixture, stirring it occasionally, for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are very soft.

3. Wrap the tortillas in a moist paper towel and heat them in the microwave oven for about 1 minute until they are soft.  (Alternatively, warm each tortilla over medium heat in a nonstick skillet for 20 seconds per side, or until soft).

4. On a plate, fill each tortilla with about 2 tablespoons of the vegetable mixture, and about 1 tablespoon of cheese.  Roll it and place it in the pan.  Repeat with the remaining tortillas until all the filling is used.  Pour the remaining enchilada sauce evenly on top of the tortillas, and top them with any remaining cheese.  Bake the enchiladas, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes until the sauce is bubbly.  (Meanwhile, make the guacamole, if you are serving it.)

5. Serve the enchiladas hot, topped with the sour cream, if desired.  (Alternatively, let them cool, cover tightly, and freeze them for up to 3 months).

Print Recipe

Liz and the boys tested a few recipes from Debra Stark’s book, Blue Ribbon Edition: From Our Kitchen to Yours. Debra is the owner Debra’s Natural Gourmet in West Concord, MA, so the book draws upon the amazing array of locally-sourced and organic ingredients available at her store. Liz made a few recipes from the book including Quinoa Breakfast Cereal (which we’ll share in a later post) and Zucchini Orzo Pudding, but the one her boys loved the most was The Best Cookie Ever. Josh and Simon have actually dubbed this cookie, The Best Cookie in the World!

The Best Cookie Ever

Makes 8 – 12 Servings (from Blue Ribbon Edition)

  • 1 cup coconut sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a pie plate or 8×8-inch brownie pan.

2. In a small bowl, beat together the sugar, egg and vanilla with a wooden spoon until “liquidy.” Mix in flour and salt. Add walnuts and mix well. Batter will be sticky and hard to mix. Good exercise for flabby arms! Spoon batter into pie plate or pan. Pat out (easier to do with wet hands).

3. Bake cookies in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until lightly brown and edges slightly pull away from the sides of the pie plate. Remove pie plate from oven and place on cooling rack for 10 minutes. While cookies are still warm, cut into pie wedges. Cut while still warm or you won’t be able to cut at all. (These cookies are best eaten the day they are made, but they freeze beautifully.)

* Liz didn’t have coconut sugar on hand (but she plans to get some the next time she’s at Debra’s store!) so she used 2/3 cup granulated sugar. She also added 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips for a fun variation.

We can’t wait to read your comments and hear all about your cookbook faves!

May 27, 2010 | Filed Under Desserts, Dinner, Giveaways, Podcast, Sustainability, Vegetables, Vegetarian | 135 Comments 

Soy Story and a Recipe for a Tropical Soymilk Smoothie (Podcast #104)

This week’s Cooking with the Moms podcast is all about soy.  Soybeans are a type of legume native to Southest Asia. They may be tiny, but soybeans are the most widely grown legume in the world with about 210 million tons cultivated annually.  That’s a lot of beans!  Foods made from soy include tofu, soymilk, edamame, soynuts, miso (soy paste), tempeh, soy burgers and soynut butter.

To explain how soy foods can fit into a healthy family diet we invited pediatrician, Dr. Alan Greene, to be a guest on the show.  Dr. Greene is the author of several books including Raising Baby Green and Feeding Baby Green, and he has an award-winning website, DrGreene.com, cited by the American Medical Association as “the pioneer physician Web site” on the Internet.  Soy foods often find their way on to Dr. Greene’s dinner table (he has four kids), so we asked him to weigh in on the health benefits of soy, the difference between whole and processed soy, and the role soy may play in heart disease and cancer prevention.

Here at Meal Makeover Moms’ Kitchen we’ve developed a bunch of recipes that feature soy including Mommy’s Edamame,  Vegetable Garden Tofu Pie, and Tasty Tofu Nuggets. For the show we thought it would be fun to whip up a new recipe using soy milk, so we hope you give our Tropical Soymilk Smoothie a try!

Tropical Soymilk Smoothie

Makes 3 Servings

  • 1 ½ cups light vanilla soymilk (we like Silk soymilk because it’s made with whole soybeans and is non-GMO)
  • 1 medium ripe banana
  • 2/3 cup frozen mango (4 ounces)
  • 2/3 cup frozen strawberries (4 ounces)
  • 1 tablespoon honey

1. Place the soy milk, banana, mango, strawberries, and honey in a blender, and blend until well combined.

2. Pour into individual glasses and serve with a straw.

Nutrition Information per Serving (1 cup): 150 calories, 1g fat (0g saturated), 35mg sodium, 34g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, 3g protein, 10% vitamin A, 40% vitamin C, 15% calcium

Print Recipe

If you have a favorite tofu or soy recipe feel free to share it by leaving a comment.  As always, we love hearing from you.

May 19, 2010 | Filed Under Podcast, Vegetables, Vegetarian | 2 Comments 

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