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On today’s Cooking with the Moms radio podcast, we hit the holiday party scene with recipes for Sugar & Spice Pecans and Mini Mango Cheesecakes.

Mini Mango Cheesecakes

The great thing about these easy recipes is that they taste great and they’re not dripping in sugar, saturated fat and calories.  In other words, your friends and family can feel good about eating them.  To make the spiced pecans, we use less sugar than most spiced nut recipes — but they’re still sweet enough for our taste — and there is less bad fat in our yummy mango cheesecakes thanks to the 1/3-less-fat cream cheese and light sour cream.  We hope you’ll tune in, and by all means, if you get a chance to try the recipes, let us know what you think of them.

Sugar & Spice Pecans

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, consider the abundance of vegetables that will undoubtedly appear on your holiday table. It’s an ideal time to introduce kids to old favorites – green bean casserole anyone? — and some new ones too. If you’ve never cooked Brussels sprouts before, we have a recipe for Finally-Edible Brussels Sprouts on page 317 of The Moms’ Guide to Meal Makeovers that you and your family may like. We also have a new recipe for Maple Bacon Brussels Sprouts, featured earlier this year in an article we wrote for Kiwi magazine called Veggie Love! While we see Brussels sprouts as the Rodney Dangerfield of veggies (they get “no respect”), you’ll be surprised how much kids like them.

Sweet potato casserole is another vegetable side dish kids seem to want to eat. Years ago — 1996 to be exact — Liz found a recipe for Streusel Topped Sweet Potato Casserole in Cooking Light Magazine. She’s been making a version of that recipe ever since. Coincidentally, Janice found that same scrumptious side dish, and made her own recipe revisions for Thanksgiving (instead of folding in three beaten egg whites, she simply adds two whole eggs). Even though there are no marshmallows on top, we guarantee your guests – kids included – will gobble it up.

Streusel Topped Sweet Potato Casserole

Makes 12 Servings

Adapted from Cooking Light Magazine

• 3 pounds unpeeled sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon grated orange rind, optional
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 ¼ cups finely chopped, unpeeled Granny Smith apple
• 1/2 to 1 cup toasted, chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Cook sweet potatoes in boiling water for 20 minutes or until tender. Let cool; peel and mash. Combine potatoes, orange juice, and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl and stir (orange zest, optional)
2. Beat egg whites (at room temperature) until soft peaks form. Add ¼ cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Gently stir one-fourth egg white mixture into sweet potato mixture. Gently fold remaining egg white mixture into sweet potato mixture. Spoon mixture into 2-quart casserole coated with cooking spray and set aside.
3. To make the topping, combine apples, pecans, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a bowl and stir well. Spoon evenly over the sweet potato mixture. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until puffed. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving side dish? Feel free to share your ideas and recipes right here on our blog!

This week, Janice and I are attending the Mediterranean Diet Conference in Cambridge, MA sponsored by a group called Oldways. Fifteen years ago, I covered Oldways’ first Mediterranean Diet Conference for CNN (in my pre-Meal Makeover Mom life, I was a nutrition producer and reporter for CNN). Back in 1993 the group got together to talk about the taste and health benefits of eating the Mediterranean way – a lifestyle approach to healthful eating filled with fruits, vegetables, fish, beans, nuts and whole grains as well as olive oil, rich in good-for-you fats.

Some of the same people who spoke 15 years ago are at the meeting this week including cookbook author, Nancy Harmon Jenkins. I was excited to see Nancy because I’ve been cooking from her book, The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, since before Josh was born! One of my favorite recipes in the book is Risotto Alla Zucca (Risotto with Pumpkin or Squash).

Whether you’re a huge fan of risotto – a rich and creamy, traditional northern Italian rice dish — or have never made it before, I think you and your kids will love Nancy’s recipe. Sometimes I use sweet potato instead of the squash.

Risotto Alla Zucca

Makes 6 to 8 Servings

(Adapted from The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook)

• 6 cups all-natural chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 medium yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 small butternut squash, peeled and coarsely chopped, 2 to 3 cups
• 2 cups Arborio rice
• 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon salt or more to taste

1. Heat the broth to a bare simmer and keep simmering very gently while you prepare the risotto.
2. In a large Dutch oven or saucepan, gently sauté the onions in the oil over medium-low heat until the onions are thoroughly softened but not browned, about 15 minutes. Add the squash and stir well to coat the pieces with the oil. Cover and cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until the squash is soft enough to be broken up with a spoon. If the squash starts to scorch, add a little water or broth. The squash should be very soft, almost a puree.
3. When the squash is soft, add the rice and stir to mix well. Add a ladle or two of the simmering broth and stir. As soon as the rice has absorbed the liquid, add more, and continue adding simmering liquid, ladle by ladle stirring constantly. There should always be liquid visible in the pan. Do not add all the liquid at once; this will produce boiled rice or pilaf instead of risotto. The rice is done when it is al dente, with a bit of a bite in the center. Each grain should be well coated with brilliant yellow sauce, which should be dense and rather syrupy looking. When it is done, the risotto should be thick enough to eat with a fork. You might not need to use all the liquid. Total cooking time varies from 20 to 30 minutes.
4. When the rice is cooked, remove the pan from the heat and immediately stir in about ¼ cup of the cheese and the pepper. Let stand for 5 minutes or so, to settle the flavors, then taste and adjust the seasoning, adding salt as needed. Serve immediately and pass more cheese at the table.

By the way, the reason I’m at home right now posting to the blog rather than hanging out with Janice tasting olive oil is because Simon woke up sick today. Luckily Tim was able to come home from work this morning while I spoke at the conference (more on my talk as well as Janice’s when we post again later this week). In the meantime, if you have a traditional Mediterranean dish you and your family love – something from Greece, Morocco, Italy, Spain, etc – feel free to add it to the comments section of this post, and by all means, let us know if you try this recipe.

~ Liz

Every year, we attend the annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association. This year’s conference was in Chicago (and yes, it was windy there).  As part of the show, we had an opportunity to try an array of new and nutritious food products for kids and families.  Here’s a sampling of what we found:

Clif Kid Organic Twisted Fruit:  Looking for a fun new snack to pack in your child’s lunchbox or backpack?  Your search is over.  Clif Bar is out with a new line of Twisted Fruit snacks.  They take real fruit – strawberry, pineapple, grape — and twist it into a rope shape.  It looks like licorice but is all natural and has no added sugar.

Food Should Taste Good:  Multigrain, sweet potato, olive, and even chocolate. Those are a few of our favorite Food Should Taste Good snack chip flavors.  The sweet potato chips were a big hit with our kids – something we appreciate given their 3 grams of fiber and 20% vitamin A per serving. 

PlumSweet:  Sunsweet is at it again with a new dried plum snack your whole family will love.  PlumSweets are scrumptious, bite-sized pieces of dried plums coated in rich, dark chocolate.  Yum!

Read more about some of the other healthy new food products at the show in the Chicago Tribune, and let us know what new kid-friendly snacks you have found at your local market.

Sometimes the craziest recipes make the biggest impression on kids. A few weeks back, Simon joined me on my weekly trip to the supermarket. I’m sure he would have preferred staying home with his soccer ball, but he tagged along anyway without complaint (probably because he knew he could play his favorite sneak-as-many-boxes-of-cookies-into-Mom’s-shopping-cart-without-being-noticed game).

On this particular trip, Simon had his sights set on soup (and cookies, of course). It seemed bizarre but he insisted on a Creamy Portobello Mushroom Soup – one of the all-natural soups from Imagine. I kid you not.

So that night, I took the soup, added a few nutritious ingredients to jazz it up, and presented “mud” with dinner to the delight of everyone.

Muddy Mushroom Soup

Makes About 5 Servings

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• One pound mushrooms, coarsely chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• One 32-ounce carton Creamy Portobello Mushroom Soup
• 1 cup oyster crackers

1. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Add the soup and bring to a low boil, stirring occasionally. Serve in individual bowls and top with oyster crackers (look for trans-fat free oyster crackers from companies like Westminster Cracker Company or Trader Joe’s).

Nutrition Information per Serving: 160 calories, 7g fat (0g saturated), 360mg sodium, 19g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, 6g protein, 10% iron

While Simon ate it happily, Josh was a bit skeptical. That’s when I came up with the name, Muddy Mushroom Soup. In the end, Josh also gave it two thumbs up and said he really loved it. The only complaint from the boys and hubby Tim was that the soup needed more mushrooms — can you imagine kids actually asking for MORE vegetables!? (I originally made it with 10 ounces of mushrooms, but have since increased it to a pound — use the 10 ounces if you think your troops would prefer a bit less).

For more soup ideas, tune into this week’s Soups that Satisfy podcast. But before you leave our blog, feel free to share any of your own silly recipe success stories.

~ Liz

Just because a recipe may look sophisticated or fancy doesn’t mean kids — even the chicken nugget, mac & cheese-loving ones out there — won’t want to eat it.  Last week while surfing a blog called ChocolateAndZucchini, I found a recipe for Orange and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin, posted on October 7th.  Since pork tenderloin is my absolute favorite cut of pork (it’s lean, tender, mild in flavor and easy to cook) I was drawn to this particular dish.  My initial thought when scanning the ingredients was:  “Carolyn’s gonna love it but Leah, no way!”  Well, I’m happy to report that my opinioned 9-year old with her unpredictable palate devoured every bite.  In fact, after her first helping she replied enthusiastically “More steak please!”   

Though this recipe definitely featured what some might consider “adult” flavors — white wine vinegar, garlic, rosemary — Leah still loved it.  I did make a few minor tweaks to this recipe.  Instead of the juice of two oranges (which I did not have), I used about 3/4 cup orange juice.  And since I didn’t have any crème fraîche on hand, I used light sour cream.  By the way, on the side, we enjoyed mashed potatoes and roasted acorn squash. All around, I’d consider this a successful — and nutritious — family meal. 

We would love to hear some of your “adult food” success stories.  Have your kids ever surprised you by gobbling up a food you thought they would reject?  Do they routinely request a recipe that you thought was for “adults only?  We’re always on the lookout for new ideas so post your recipes and stories now!

~Janice