Dinnertime Challenges for Mom, Top Chef Style

Is it just me, or was the elimination challenge on Bravo's Top Chef last night hardly, well, a challenge? The task: cook a nutritious, simple, and kid-friendly dinner that American families would be happy to re-create. Oh, and spend $10 or less. If this seems an impossible feat, as Chef Andrew quipped, it's worth noting these astounding figures reported in Chef Tom Colicchio's blog: 10% of Americans rely on food stamps. Food stamps allocate just $1/meal per person. That means cooking a simple, nutritious, and kid-friendly dinner for your family of 4 for just $4. And the cost of food continues to rise...

Anyhow, it seems this 'challenge' -- or should I call it a 'regularly nightly task' for most American moms -- really stumped these talented chef-testants. So I've decided to critique each of the chefs so they'll be ready when they have hungry kids of their own.

Mark: I agree with the judges on this one. Your sweet curry entree lacked essential carbs and protein. Gail was right, sweet potatoes are a great source of vitamins, but a dinner of "just vegetables" doesn't work on the family table. How about mashed sweet potatoes with turkey burgers?

Dale: Good thinking. Pre-cooked sausages are a quick, inexpensive staple in the family kitchen. But your kids may find brats and cabbage to be the 'worst'. How about smoked chicken and apple sausage instead? Or an Italian turkey sausage kabob with sauteed red peppers and broccoli, with a side of brown rice?

Spike: Few kids get excited about olives and capers. But pasta with red sauce will always be a quick, inexpensive, and nutritious family meal. Jessica Seinfeld's been known to sneak some unique vegetables in there, too. I loved your idea for carrot soup -- I wish more American moms knew how easy and rewarding it is to make homemade soup.

Nikki, Richard, Stephanie, and Lisa: Lots of roasted chicken. Definitely a healthy, delicious way to feed a family. Think outside the BSB (boneless, skinless breast): it's a lot cheaper to buy whole chicken, thighs, or even bone-in breast. I liked Nikki's easy clean up plan and wished more chefs had considered using just 1 pan. Richard did a nice job introducing hot pink beets. Kids love the sweet taste and bright color when they are roasted. But left whole the texture is intimidating. Try running the beets through a food processor and toss with pasta and cheese. Though Stephanie's dish was deservedly on the bottom, whole wheat couscous is a great, quick kid-friendly grain. Mixed with some leftover chicken, chickpeas, and snow peas, it's one fast dinner.

Andrew: I loved this take on a 'kid classic': chicken parm. Your salad of fennel, orange, and apple was sweet and full of vitamin C. But Spike, no dad in his right mind would dare serve it on top of the chicken!

Antonia: How fitting that you, the single mom, knew how to "stir-fry" up a healthy, tasty, inexpensive kid-favorite. It's no surprise that this includes whole wheat pasta, chicken, and sweet veggies like bokchoy and edamame. I'm sure your daughter is proud!

I applaud Top Chef for inviting kids into the kitchen to help put dinner on the table: note to viewers, try this at home! And I know moms across the nation smiled in victory last night, confident their "Wednesday night chicken" or "surprise pasta bake" would have earned gushing praise from the Judges Table in this "challenge".

No Bones About It

Having dinner with my 27-year old friend the other night reminded me of one of my biggest (and silliest) 'food fears' as a child: chicken bones. My friend hesitated to order the roasted chicken, asking our waiter if it would be 'on the bone'. While I was hardly a picky eater as a child (fond of sushi and caviar by 5), I was quite picky when it came to eating chicken on the bone. Thankfully, I've come to realize just how much better chicken actually tastes when it is on the bone.

In two of my recent kids' cooking classes, we have roasted bone-in chicken breasts. Rib bones intact, the meat has been roasted with cherry tomatoes and thyme, or lemon and rosemary. The pan sauce is rich and flavorful; the meat moist and tender. This chicken was no match for it's boneless, skinless brother. Having hesitantly confronted the bone in the kitchen and tasted the results at the table, both groups of children readily admitted bone-in chicken simply yields a more complex and delicious meal. And discovered they had no problems working around the bone.

Aside from the far superior taste of chicken on the bone, my family came up with a list of other benefits last night at dinner, over you guessed it, roasted chicken.

1. It's quick. Okay, well, a 4 lb bird will take about 1 1/2 hours to roast, but it is sure quick to prepare. I was lamenting the fact I'd be roasting such a behemoth after a long day at work. But I mixed up an herb, lemon, and mustard marinade, smoothed it on my chicken, and halved some potatoes, onions and carrots to go in the roasting pan, all in less than 10 minutes. With a side of spinach sauteed in 30 seconds when the bird came out of the oven, I spent less time actually making this dinner than I would have seasoning and sauteing 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and some sides.

2. It's cheaper. Much cheaper. Last night's whole chicken was $1.59/lb for a free-range, organic, grass-fed bird. The boneless, skinless version would sell for nearly five times that amount.


3. It's healthier. Well, I can't promise more vitamins and minerals, but it certainly has seen less commercial processing equipment than the pre-packaged chicken tenders.

4. It feeds a family. With leftovers -- chicken sandwiches... chicken soup....chicken salad....


5. It's an age-old tradition. Roasting a whole chicken has been a culinary adventure since... no joke, the Babylonian times. Your grandma would be proud.


6. Your house will be filled with wonderful aromas that will make you feel like Julia Child.

So next time you're family is in the "chicken-rut", grab a whole bird and give it a roast.

Free Range -- Not a Cash Cow

No doubt you've noticed it takes a few more greenbacks to buy things these days. With gas prices soaring past $3.50 gallon, the mortgage crisis heating up, and unemployment rates rising, it's no surprise that groceries are becoming gastronomical too. The cost of eggs were up 40% in 2007; milk and coffee are 26% more expensive than they were just 6 months ago.

You may be thinking that the rising cost of living is one more reason to skip Whole Foods (deemed Whole Paycheck by many) and head to the 99 Cent Store. In fact, the LA Times offered advice last Sunday for really eating on the cheap with a review of the new 99 Cent Store "gourmet" cookbook.

But as it turns out, this might just be the best time to appreciate the free-range, organic, cage-free, grass-fed and typically more expensive goodies from organic farmers and green grocers. Why? On many organic, natural, and local farms that depend less on corn products, operating costs such as feed are staying fixed. What does this mean to the consumer? Grass-fed chicken may still cost a few cents more than their corn-fed brothers, but the price gap is most definitely shrinking. Higher-quality organic produce may not cost more for long. Similarly, industry experts are predicting that the rising price of whole foods -- those in their most natural form like eggs and milk and apples -- are beginning to peak and perhaps drop. Whereas processed foods -- those foods that require economically volatile products such as corn syrup, extensive packaging, and long-distance travel from farm to factory -- are most definitely going to be hit by price inflation throughout 2008.

You knew your heart would thank you for choosing fresh spinach from the produce aisle over a spinach and sausage Hot Pocket from the freezer section. And you knew your conscience would be thankful you chose eggs from free-range birds over those that were cooped-up.

Finally, your pocketbook is beginning to appreciate both.