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It’s that time of year again when most of us ring in the New Year with some sort of resolution stating what we’d like to change in the coming year. What’s yours this year? Some of the most popular resolutions we hear about are getting fit, losing weight, managing debt, eating right, quitting smoking, and volunteering more in order to help others.

On this week’s Cooking with the Moms podcast, we share our resolutions - can you believe we’ve both resolved to get more organized? - along with tips for helping you and your family stick to yours.

We also have two recipes to make eating right in 2009 easier than ever. The first is an easy-does-it recipe for Confetti Chicken Wraps, a makeover of fast food Mexican fare. Why drive into the drive through with your kids when you can make this yummy meal instead? Our second recipe for Smooshed Sweet Potatoes is a kid-friendly side dish that’s sure to help everyone get more veggies on the table.

Tell us about your New Year’s resolutions and how you plan to stick with them. We welcome any and all ideas. Most important of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

In today’s Cooking with the Moms radio podcast, we take a reflective look back at 2008 and dish about our favorite recipe makeovers, restaurant meals including Neo at The Mansion on Peachtree in Atlanta and Xinh’s in Shelton, WA, and new food products as well as our most exciting food adventures - can you believe Liz’s son Josh caught a 7-pound lobster in Maine? We also share our predictions for the top 2009 food & nutrition trends including omega-3 fats, vitamin D, sodium, and sustainability.

During the show, Janice had an opportunity to talk about our trip to Chicago for the annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association. During the conference, she met up with former college professor, Katherine Musgrave, for dinner.

Janice & Katherine

Janice told our listeners, “Katherine, now 88 years young, is the reason I became a dietitian. I was a microbiology major at the University of Maine when I took Intro to Food and Nutrition as an elective my sophomore year. After the first class I asked her to be my advisor since I knew that food and nutrition was the major for me. Katherine’s enthusiasm, passion and energy inspired me then and inspires me today. She has been retired for over 20 years yet she still teaches and counsels patients and remains active in the dietetic association. I feel blessed to have her as my mentor.”

To watch a video of this amazing woman, visit the University of Maine’s website.  Who are the mentors in your life?  We’d love to hear about them.

If recipes like “Mom, the House Smells Great” Roasted Chicken and Lazy-Day Beef & Vegetable Soup sound like they would hit the spot on a cold winter’s day, then be sure to tune into this week’s Cooking with the Moms radio podcast show on Hearty Winter Dinners.

The roasted chicken was featured in our cookbook, The Moms’ Guide to Meal Makeovers, and is surprisingly easy. Your house will definitely smell great when you make this dish, and your kids will definitely ask for seconds. Our simple beef and veggie soup is chock-full of great nutrition and is brimming with rich flavors. The stew meat — which cooks for hours in the slow cooker — melts in your mouth, and as Liz likes to say, “it’s like butt-ah.”  She’s from New York, so she can get away with that!

We hope you enjoy listing to the show as much as we enjoyed recording it.

It’s that time of year again when cookie jars overflow with holiday goodies and family and friends get together to swap their favorite cookies.  Whether you’re attending a cookie swap or not, we hope you’ll tune into this week’s Cooking with the Moms Cookie Swap podcast as we dish about our best-ever holiday treats.

First up in the show is a recipe makeover for Ginger Drizzle Cookies.  We received the original recipe from Jenni K., a mom of three boys from New Castle, Ohio.  Jennie asked us to cook up a healthier alternative to the shortening-based frosting in her recipe which we did by creating a simple sugar glaze.  While we were at it, we also used canola oil instead of butter and tossed in some whole wheat flour and ground flaxseed for extra nutrition.

Our second recipe on Cooking with the Moms features Peppermint Meringue Snowballs.  They’re delicious and easy to make and are perfect for people with celiac disease who follow a gluten free diet.

Feel free to share your favorite holiday cookie recipes right here on our blog or tell us about your cookie swap adventures this season.  And by all means, if you have a super-rich recipe that needs a makeover send it along.

If we could click our heels and be in Spain or Italy right now, we’d be the happiest dietitians in the world.  That’s because the foods of the Mediterranean — olive oil, nuts, legumes, seafood, vegetables, whole grains — are some of the healthiest and most delicious on the planet.  Recently, we attended a Mediterranean diet conference sponsored by Boston-based group called Oldways.  At the meeting, we hobnobbed with scientists, chefs and fellow health professionals and sampled everything from artisinal olive oils to French cheeses. 

For this week’s Cooking with the Moms podcast, we share two of our favorite Mediterranean-inspired recipes:  Potato Ole Omelet and Walnut Cannellini Wraps.  We promise your kids will like the recipes as much as the adults do!  Tune in and let us know what you think of the show, and feel free to share your family’s favorite Mediterranean recipes right here on our blog.

If you’ve never listened to the Vicky and Jen What Really Matters radio podcast, be sure to tune in.  We recently “met” this dynamic duo of the podcast world when they invited us to be guests on their weekly show.  Lucky for us, Vicky and Jen (two moms dedicated to making lifer easier for everyone) included us in three podcasts.  The first, Breakfast in a Jiffy, features lots of our Meal Makeover Mom advice as well as a few recipes your kids will definitely love (including Banana Blueberry Pancakes –a perennial favorite with Liz’s boys).

To hear our two additional interviews on snacks and lunch, cruise on over to Vicky and Jen’s website, and while you’re there, listen to their other 100 episodes on topics ranging from organizing your kitchen to traveling on a budget!

“Cousin Andrea,” perhaps one of our biggest fans out there, was the first “live” guest on Cooking with the Moms this week (www.MealMakeoverMoms.com). Ever since our weekly radio podcast launched back in May, 12-year old Andrea (Liz’s niece) has been a devoted listener. In fact, every Wednesday when we post a new show to iTunes and our website, Andrea rushes home from school (or camp), runs straight to her computer, and listens to the show.

This summer, Andrea spent two weeks at Camp Medolark (www.Medolark.com) near Camden, Maine. On her way back to Connecticut, she stopped by the Moms’ “studio” and sat in on our Frozen Treats show. You’ll love hearing her talk about her adventures at camp (she got to take cooking classes!) and her thoughts on our Trio of Pops.

We hope you’ll listen in each week just like Andrea does! In the meantime, here’s a recipe for Watermelon Pomegranate Pops to whet your appetite for our August 6th podcast

Watermelon Pomegranate Pops
Makes 4 Servings

1 1/2 cups cubed seedless watermelon
1/2 cup Pomegranate blueberry juice

Combine the watermelon and juice in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into four 3-ounce popsicle molds and freeze until firm, about 3 hours. To remove the pops from the molds, run under warm water to loosen. If you don’t have popsicle molds, divide t he liquid between four paper cups. Cover each cup with foil, insert one craft stick through the center of each foil, and freeze.

* We like Minute Made Enhanced Pomegranate Blueberry Juice

Nutrition Information per Serving: 30 calories, 0g fat (0g saturated), 0mg sodium, 9g carbohydrate, 0g fiber, 0g protein, 15% vitamin C

Last week, Liz traveled to Chicago for a nutrition conference on the benefits of beans (yes, we know, as dietitians we get all the perks). Before heading back to the airport, she took a walk over to Millenium Park where she was greeted by what looked like the world’s largest bean! Turns out the 110-ton sculpture is not a bean at all but rather an abstract structure called Cloud Gate designed to reflect the city’s famous skyline and the clouds above.

Beans were clearly the theme of Liz’s trip to Chicago. Here are a few things she learned:

* Beans wear two hats: They’re rich in protein — like beef, chicken, and eggs — so are listed on the government’s MyPyramid in the meat & beans category. They’re also categorized as a vegetable. In fact, beans have more protein and fiber than any other vegetable out there!

* Black beans, pinto beans, chickpeas, canellini beans and the hundreds of other bean varieties are incredibly versatile and are found in almost every cuisine from around the world.

* If you visit VegetableWithMore.com, you’ll find over 1,000 bean recipes as well as info on the Moms And Kids Panel where families can test and rate bean recipes.

Speaking of vegetables, be sure to tune in to our Cooking with the Moms podcast this week as we chat about vegetable recipes kids love. And while you’re at it, check out the May/June issue of Kiwi magazine and read our Veggie Love article!

Maureen M., a supermom of four boys from Massachusetts sent us an email with these adorable photos. As you can see, her kids were thrilled when she let them create their own fruit and chicken kebabs for lunch. The photos inspired us to feature our Fruit & Chicken Kebab recipe in this week’s Cooking with the Moms radio podcast. Tune in and listen as we share recipes and ideas for lunch box makeovers.

Well, we finally did it! After months of planning and preparation, we launched our new podcast this week, Cooking with the Moms. This 20-minute podcast/radio show is packed with fast and healthy recipe ideas and helpful mealtime tips designed to help you and your family eat a more nutritious diet.

We have discovered that there is quite a learning curve when starting a podcast. The biggest challenge was figuring out the technology end of the podcasting and iTunes world. In fact, we are still trying to understand some of the finer points! However, we are forging ahead and hope you will listen to our podcast and let us know what you think.

You can either listen to Cooking with the Moms by clicking the “listen here” button on our site, or you can download it to your mp3 player and tune in while you are walking, commuting, or working out. Either way, we hope you’ll join us (or download us) each week as we share our kitchen creations and cooking insights with you.