This week is all about the Best Of ChowMama 2009! To help ensure that you begin 2010 with a recipe box loaded with quick and healthy recipes that your whole family will love, I’ve hand selected my favorites (recipes that I return to over and over again) and the most popular recipes as measured by traffic and comments (ones that worked out well for me and you).
Phew! 2009 was a busy year filled with lots of ChowMama goodness. I hope this week’s picks help kick off a delicious 2010 while we gear up for a new year of recipes, tips and discussions. To end the “best of” extravaganza, I’m highlighting a few posts that fall under the “parenting” header. Instead of highlighting a recipe, these posts focus on a tip that (hopefully) makes cooking for your family easier, a way of thinking that (maybe) sparks a shift towards more inspired eating, or a topic that (with any luck) gets a thoughtful debate started. These are my favorite posts to write. I hope you enjoy them, too. Let me know if you do!
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Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week is all about the Best Of ChowMama 2009! To help ensure that you begin 2010 with a recipe box loaded with quick and healthy recipes that your whole family will love, I’ve hand selected my favorites (recipes that I return to over and over again) and the most popular recipes as measured by traffic and comments (ones that worked out well for me and you).
You’ve been waiting for today, haven’t you? Healthy sweet treats and desserts it is. Enjoy! Tomorrow is the last day of this “best of” extravaganza and we’ll delve into parenting posts, because how we feed our families is central to how we raise our kids.
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Photo: Freakgirl

I usually make these delicious, wholesome muffins with pumpkin puree, but gave sweet potato a try when I couldn’t get my hands on pumpkin (may seem irrelevant now, but you’ll be glad for this variation come the end of the holiday season!). This version is also healthy and equally addictive. So much so that, topped with your favorite icing, they can easily fill in for cupcakes.
These are a sweet, healthy treat for all. This recipe is for mini-muffins which make a great finger food for the littlest ChowBabies, a just-right toddler sized dessert, a yummy lunchbox snack, and a perfect on-the-go breakfast for ChowMama and ChowPapa.  Make a bunch and pop em in the freezer—you’ll be happy to have a stash on hand at all times. (Plus, reheating them makes the cream cheese filling gooey and delicious all over again, as though they’ve come straight out of the oven.)
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Photo: Food Network

No matter how hard I try to be good, Halloween week ends up being a bloodbath. (Is it just me?!) I do my best to keep it healthy, lower sugar, and all homemade, but the bottom line is that it’s sweets week! (And that’s fun, damn it!) One of the ways that I keep myself—and my family—in check is by serving lighter meals heavy on the veggies in between all the Halloween fun.
This meal was inspired by my to-die-for Polenta “Creamed” Spinach. I simplified this quick polenta side to make an even healthier vegetarian main. Now, if you’ve been reading ChowMama for a while, you know how vegetarian dinners usually go over in my house. If you haven’t been reading for a while, not well is the point. But this meal was a winner! Like pasta, this Spinach Parmesan Polenta is hearty enough to fill the boys’ bellies, especially topped with garlicky Roasted Broccolini. (No daydreaming of meatballs this time!)
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Am I the only one who feels tricky trying to make Halloween healthy? Don’t get me wrong—I’m loathe to feed my ChowBaby packaged candy and heaps of refined sugar confections. At the same time, I’d feel pretty lame offering up most of the “treats” suggested under the “Healthy Halloween” banner. So, when I was asked to write an article for—you guessed it—healthy Halloween treats, I knew I had some serious soul searching to do!
After a lot of thought and consideration using “natural” ingredients like carob (eww!), hiding veggie purees (just for a hot second—you know I wouldn’t actually go there!), and swapping sweet treats for spookily decorated apple slices and carrot sticks, I decided that moderation is the key. (Duh!) So, instead of choosing between (or, if you have older kids, balancing) two extremes, consider my quick and easy, homemade, lower sugar treats that are wholesome but can still satisfy a sweet tooth.
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Photo: PACHOM’s felt sushi set on Etsy (via Cool Mom Picks)

Food News, Things We Crave, Green Your Eats, Tips, Tools & Techniques, and the Weekly Roundtable (a roundup of our most recent posts).
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