In need of some quick family meals? In this episode Jill Green, a self-proclaimed foodie, a powerhouse career woman and busy mom of three describes easy food prep ideas. She also shares how travel has influenced the flavors she infuses in her me...

In need of some quick family meals? In this episode Jill Green, a self-proclaimed foodie, a powerhouse career woman and busy mom of three describes easy food prep ideas. She also shares how travel has influenced the flavors she infuses in her meals; her epic weekly dinners with a revolving door of guests; and how she’s turned her kids into adventurous eaters. Jill is so enthusiastic in describing some of her recipes that you will no doubt leave inspired to try some of her tried and true family recipes.

Recipe for chicken in a bag:
Ingredients
1 whole chicken
paprika
garlic powder
1 Trager Joe's paper bag
1) Smother the chicken with paprika and generously sprinkle with garlic powder
2) Place spiced chicken in the center of a Trader Joe's paper bag
3) Tuck the handles of the bag under the chicken snugly
4) Place in a roasting pan and roast in the oven at 425 F for 90 minutes

Transcription of this Episode

Andrea Heyman 00:00 Adventures In Feeding My Fam is a podcast for busy families trying to feed their families and get healthy food on the table. Fast and easy. I'm Andrea Heyman. And I've been a registered dietician for over 25 years. So I know the importance of good nutrition. But I'm also a mom of three. So I understand the challenges, and the humor that comes along with trying to make this happen. I'll share my tips, tricks, meal plans, menus, and more. But I'll also share the failures and the stories that come along the way.Let's have fun with this. I think the listeners are in for a real treat. Today, we have my friend Jill green with us. And she is a powerhouse woman who people gravitate toward for her conversation, opinions and companionship. She always has a lively House of guests. Well, maybe not lately, but typically a lively household guests and three kids and manages to fit in much in her life. Jill, thanks for being here.

Jill Green 01:08 So excited. Thanks for having me.

Andrea Heyman 01:11 All right. So tell me a little bit about your background growing up what your house was like, as it relates to food, family meals and that type of thing.

Jill Green 01:23 Sure. So I grew up in a family of wholesale grocery food distributor. My great grandfather started that business. And so we're grocers. And our house was always filled with food. Our basement looked like a grocery store. You know, we had shelves lined up with canned goods. And we often got to test or taste test new products. You know, when Nabisco came out with a new cereal, they would send it to the company and so we would get to taste it. And so we always had a lot of food in the house. And it was interesting because it wasn't always the healthiest food. We had a drawer people loved to come to our house because we had two drawers in the kitchen that you could rely on. One was filled with tasty cakes, Twinkies, crumpets, you know, all rings, and the other was filled with bags of Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos, potato chips, and this was your lunch, you know, when you went to make a lunch, it was white bread with bologna sandwich with something and then a bag of the chip, one of the desserts, and maybe a juice or like a milk carton or something like that. But our me at meal time, you know, we had dinner as a family every night. And that meal was, you know, my mother preparing it for the most part. And, you know, if there was a protein, there had to be a green vegetable, you know, there was a green and a really an effort, I think to be healthy and tasty. But the and on Friday nights for our family, we It was a sometimes bigger gathering, we might have had guests, and it would be a traditional Jewish meal. And always, you know, delicious chicken and salads and things of that nature. So just a kind of a mixed bag. But food was at the center of our lives talked about food. No, you were going somewhere was about Oh, that restaurant that's there and she'd be stopping. And I had forgotten that your that your grandfather was the food distributor. So that makes a lot of sense. And I can imagine everybody wanted wanting to go to your house all the time. Yeah. And, and my grandmother's house, you know, she was just known for her cooking and people far and wide wanted to be invited to be able to sit at the table and eat her food. But it was just a it's a part of like our lives in such a I don't know, a big way it's dominated.

Andrea Heyman 04:24 Yeah, it sounds like food was definitely at the center of much of your routines. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So how does your How did things compare now in your household now?

Jill Green 04:37 Well, you know, I was always a different eater than many in my family growing up and I carried that forward somewhere. You know, I got into being healthy and wanting to be healthy, and I was one of the few people in my family that didn't drink soda. And you know, in high school, I decided I was going to be a vegetarian, which really created some controversy, I have to tell you, that people are household or will friends in my household. Hmm. Because, you know, what are we going to make for Jill? We don't want to make for Jill, you know, she's not What do you mean? She's not a turkey happy turkeys not meat, you know, it was this is in 1980 something Right, right.

Andrea Heyman 05:23 So you're, you're pretty ahead of the curve back then to declare yourself as a vegetarian.

Jill Green 05:31 It was not easy. And, you know, sort of went in and out of that vegetarianism as a young adult. And then, when we had kids, you know, really, we were living in Maine and made this commitment to think just when I got pregnant, what am I taking into my body? How is that going to impact the baby that I'm growing in my body, and then when when he was born, and we, I would say food is a huge, I think I can still obsessed with her. And I think I've passed that on to my kids in some way. And, you know, our household Yes, there are some junk food now. But when we started, I was so worried and controlling all the food that that came into the house, and I made my own baby food, you know, I was nursing and had just some real, rigid approaches to the food that that my kids were eating sometimes. And I remember my first Born's first birthday, Jacob's first birthday, I made a homemade carrot cake with, you know, like a buttercream icing. And everybody was saying, you know, enjoy this little guy, because it's the only sugar you're ever going to get, you know, out of making fun of that, but, you know, kind of mellowed out along the way, but wanted that my kids to have good eating habits, and wanted them to appreciate food, the flavors of foods, but to have a good positive relationship with it and kind of recognize that being too over the top wasn't wasn't going to work. And early early, I started to involve them in cooking. And, you know, trying to come up with what do we want to make for dinner? What, you know, what should we have for this meal? And what do you think about this? What what's missing on your plate? You know, how many colors do we have? And that kind of thing. And that, you know, different kids have different personalities? They've taken it in different directions, but I think they all have a real firm grounding in what is healthy. They know when they're making a choice that it's not and that that moderation. And that space is okay. Which is right. But they all love food. Right? And you're never really felt bad. experiencing that. Yeah. So it's interesting.

Andrea Heyman 08:07 I, I never heard you talk about yourself that way that you felt like you were really more controlling when the kids were younger? Do you think it was that first birthday party? That was a turning point? Or was it more of a gradual shift?

Jill Green 08:26 It was gradual. And I think, you know, with your firstborn, you're really Oh, yes. It was everything fine. Oh, yes. With the TV show, right? He watched no TV, we curated everything that came into his life, right? It's true. And, and then they you get a little older and they're exposed to us and you realize, I can't, I can't just protect. And if I limit them in that way, they won't know how to navigate when these other options are put in front of them. I think that just started to hit me. As as Jacob got a little older. And as we had the second and you seen other mothers and see myself in that and oh, gosh, is that? Is that what I'm doing? Here? Yeah. And you know, and being more, I think maturing and developing in that way. And having more balance in my own life, more moderation in my own life and with myself being kinder to myself. So it was sort of an evolution and kind of as your parenting. Andrea Heyman 09:41 Let's say your parenting skills overall probably evolved. It really carried over to how you parentid around food, I guess you could say, Jill Green 09:52 Yeah, for sure. So you you've really bring up a lot of things that are important to me. And that is like to talk about too. Andrea Heyman 10:01 So, first of all, how like, it seems like it brings you a lot of pride that your kids are adventurous eaters, but also understand the importance of balancing foods. And that healthy food is really nourishing for them. Jill Green 10:20 I am like, I love it. I remember recently, we were somewhere and someone was serving some things to our family and another family and my daughter, Allie, sort of whispered to me, I'm so glad that you feed us healthy food. Because what was being served was really not Yes. Right. Something else? And I, you know, she has taught me I mean, I can't like, why are you buying things from home? Why can't we get this thing and but, and here she was, you know, acknowledging the effort and the love, right? Because it really is about loving them, wanting them to be healthy.

Andrea Heyman 11:03 I remember once my mom saying to my kids, she probably said it more than once. But I remember once that they really paid attention. And my mom said, you know, not every house, do you get home cooked meals pretty much every night of the week. And they were kind of like, really, they just that's their norm. And that's what they expect. But I think as they've gone, gotten older and spend more time at friend's houses, they see that, that our habits are not the same as everyone else's habits.

Jill Green 11:41 So true. Yeah. All right. So I love that you get your kids planning meals, what are their go to requests? Like if you ask them right now, what they probably asked for? Oh, okay, so, Jacob, it would be complex, I'm sure. And he would say, I don't know, what am I really in the mood for? And he would go on this whole riff because he is my foodie of the kids. It's like he is too you know, so what did we make recently, we ended up making, he wanted like a Mediterranean themed meal. And we did you know, pasta with his like, olive and butter sauce. And then we made like a precis salad. Like he likes the fresh he's gonna want bazel in it for sure. Allie will want a salmon with potatoes every time Joshua wants my homemade macaroni and cheese ah yesyes. Well we're Chicken Chicken like chicken bag Chicken. Chicken bag chicken

Andrea Heyman 12:55 Tell the listeners what chicken bag chicken.

Jill Green 12:57 This is everybody's favorite. Quick everyone's favorite. I say what do you want for Friday night dinner. It's chicken bag. So chicken bag is a whole chicken. smothered smother so you cannot see any of the chicken and paprika. Then sprinkled with some garlic powder put into a Trader Joe's paper bag. Now it has to be Trader Joe's Whole Foods. Trader Joe's paper bag with something about the weight of it are the chemicals that are on it because I was nervous about that. I'm like what chemicals are leaching into the chicken. And you roll it in there and you put it in an aluminum pan or you know a roasting pan in the oven on for 25 for one hour and 30 minutes. It is perfect every time.

Andrea Heyman 13:52 You have taught me about chicken in the bag. And I have to say it's been a while since I've made it but there's literally nothing easier.

Jill Green 14:01 That is hundred percent foolproof. It's so good. Except that I was way recently. And my husband Dan went to make it. He caught the oven on fire. We did that once. So that has never happened. I mean, I've been making this for 10 years. It was our oven. Something's wrong with the oven. But I was blaming him when it was like What do you mean you're caught it on fire? What did you do we like

Andrea Heyman 14:30 So we caught it on fire once when we didn't tuck the bag, the opening of the bag underneath the chicken and tuck it under there firmly. And kind of the ends of the maybe the ends of the Trader Joe's candle caught a touch something or whatever. Yeah, we had some ashes in there. It was not so good. So you guys have a really busy household with three kids and two parents with careers. How do you divvy up the responsibilities? Between grocery shopping, meal planning, food preps

Jill Green 15:06 That has also evolved, I would say that the majority of it still rests with me. And I think because I think about it the most. Awesome, great, right? You know, I'm like planning meals, you know, two weeks in advance. But the as the kids have gotten older, we have tried to share that and we had assigned evenings. So especially before COVID, I would say we were, you know, in any given week, my dad arrived might not be getting home in time for dinner. And so the kids had an assignment. So like, you know, Monday was Joshua, Tuesday was Jacob, Wednesday was alley Thursday was Dan Fridays with me. And the kids, you know, their meals, we'd have to keep, you know, with the frozen chicken nuggets, and some, you know, easy, like, totally nice and things like that pasta, that's often what they would end up making. But it's been a challenge to engage everyone in actual planning, you know, thinking, uh, hey, exact same problem. Sorry, for interrupting No, it is. And yet, they'll say, Well, what do we plan that? or Why didn't you get this? I see what, you know, on Sunday, when I'm walking around the house saying, Okay, what do you guys want this week for dinner? Or what are you thinking, you know, but And so, in the COVID, in the COVID, you know, I've turned to this instacart thing, which I'm loving. I haven't I haven't slipped over to that so much. Easier than like, the like, I tried to do pea pod at one point like this. This is just easy. And I, I find that they're, I'm able to engage them because I can go around and say, Okay, I'm getting ready to place this order. And thinking about this for the next two meals. What do you think? And then they're giving me feedback. Jacob, has taken an active role she loves to cook. And so he's now saying, Can you get these five things? Because I want to make this I say, Oh, well, why don't we do that for the whole family? You know? And so there's a lot more engagement and from him. Dan is more last minute. Right? So if it was his night to cook and I was out instead of telling me in advance what gotten for the week, or actually looking in the freezer to see what we have that might be made, right? He is swinging by grocery on his way home grabbing stuff to throw on the grill. Right? It's kind of impromptu last minute, right?

Andrea Heyman 17:58 Yeah, we've got some similar things going on as well. I can rely absolutely rely on Gabe, my 16 year old to cook a couple nights a week. And he is really good about it. He's very creative. And everything he makes ins like he is the best cook in the house for sure at this point in time. But he doesn't plan it out. drives me nuts. So you know, I only like to get groceries once a week, especially in the COVID you don't really want to be hopping out to grocery stores so much and it's a pain. So I'll ask him, he doesn't do it. He doesn't give me ideas. So I'll I will make a plan and then say, okay, it's Monday night. Can you make black bean burgers and salad? And I'll give him a recipe. And he'll say, I can do it better than that. And he will. Yeah, yeah, la No, lately, it's like she sees something on tik tok, and says, Oh, I want to make this but it's more like, the last minute thing. Like, she wants to make it and she will make it but we don't have the ingredients for that at that point in time.

Jill Green 19:21 So yeah, I think this COVID situations really changed everything. Because before it would be I would shop and say, Okay, here's what I bought for the week. This is what you could do on your nights, you know, and they're gone. And they had to deal. But now, as soon as it shipped, there was this almost this unspoken expectation that I was just going to be making dinner every night. Like the whole schedule, right out the door. And I had to like rein everybody back in to say, I can't do this every night like somebody else has to take some responsibility. So now we're splitting that up more, but we than having this whole. We were calling it COVID cooking with Jacob. He and I coming up with you know, we we tried. We did homemade Chinese dumplings like me, the dumpling, Joe ourselves we did homemade from scratch ravioli. We he has been making sourdough bread amazing lately delicious, like out of the soil. And it's a crazy process. Yeah, he has the patience to, to do that kind of baking stuff like I'm a cook, right? I throw things together, experiment, but you can really do that with BP. He can follow and measure and he gets really, you know, scientific about growing the yeast and it's very fun. So I know you guys have done a fair amount of traveling. Have you picked up other cuisines? And, you know, cooking styles from different regions? Absolutely. You know, when Dan and I did our year of traveling, he was writing as a travel writer and I was leaving the law for the year to go to the strip and people would say, you know, what, what are you going to do? And I said, I'm going to eat?

Andrea Heyman 21:18 Of course you are. J

ill Green 21:21 And boy did I eat? You know, we were all over Southeast Asia, the flavors there the freshness, and it was so different right than anything here. And so for sure, you know, bringing in, you know, cilantro, and gingers and the lemon grass and things like that. I never would have experimented with by myself, I don't think and but going and, and eating the foods there. So bringing a lot of Asia with us that definitely and the kids, we expose them to that very early on. They love Vietnamese food. They love Thai food and Japanese food. That tastes like the Indian food. I don't I don't make it often. But I don't. Okay, I I bring in some of the spices. Like I wouldn't make a dish that someone would call Indian per se. But I bring in the curry flavors into other places. Because I love the flavor. So like when I mean cauliflower roasted, I often do it with curry powder. And if people like what is only curry and it's there are people that will say, I don't like curry. I'm like, well, you just ate it and you loved it. And the other one is Moroccan. We are you in Morocco. We went we did our honeymoon in Morocco. And we just love the food. I mean, one of my favorite chicken dishes that I you know, sort of made up but it's sort of based on hygiene. And I just do you know the chicken and there's cumin What is it? What is it? You're? Yeah, what's that? So tajines RVs it's a pottery that shapes like the top with a bowl. I know what you mean. Yeah. And so they cook it in that. And so it eats all the flavors and everything in it. And so often it will have like preserved lemon and olive chicken carrots, and will serve it on goose goose. But those those flavors, just love and so I'll make a chicken, you know, put it in, I put tomato, mushroom, and olives. And then I do the cumin site, you know, all person, maybe garlic, onion, and it's one of my go to absolute favorite yummy dishes, but it's sort of a riff on it. Yeah, so I'm listening to your talk. And I'm realizing probably a very small percentage of the time you're actually following a recipe. Correct? Is that true? Yeah. Yeah. So it's almost like you start out with a concept, or might read about a concept or tried something somewhere and then you make your own Jill version? Yes, that's exactly. And I love like, I love to find a recipe. And then just try to figure it out, like do it myself. Like I'm not actually following, you know, to a tee. Like when I was going to have a dinner party, which you know, used to be every week. You know, the weekend before I'm in bed, you know, one of the nights with my cookbooks or my or, you know, like my food and wine magazine or something and helps me I'm putting together a menu and You know, I love it. I love that whole planning process of it. But I think when work got so busy, and it started to be more of a chore, Mm hmm. I wasn't enjoying it in the same way. But I'm kind of back to that, I will tell you this. Thank goodness. We've been getting food and wine. And you know, I was looking at it this morning and saw this beautiful. The God take on a Cobb salad. But the chicken It was like chicken thighs with cumin on it, and avocado and just like beautifully done. This, I need to make this. So this is happening. I work and then I got on instacart and I got all the ingredients, and they got delivered to my house. Yay. I'm gonna make it for dinner tomorrow night that says nasty. So you mentioned your weekly dinner parties. And it's definitely true.

Andrea Heyman 26:01 You are really famous for bringing people together and having fantastic gatherings. Have you modified those? Are you really not having much company lately? How's it feeling for you?

Jill Green 26:18 It's hard, we are not having company. You know, we've had my in laws. But in but socially distant and so it's hard to really create a, like a feeling of mealtime, you know, you know where you really can be together fully. But we've we've tried and you know, we've done it outside. And we've had some beautiful meals together. But it doesn't, it doesn't quite feel the same. What has changed though also is the kids are older and have that better appreciation for food. And so just cooking for them like I can be more creative. It's they don't, it's not I'm making this like beautiful meal for all the adults. And on the side. I'm you know, the kids that have something right, that's a little plainer or right even though I tried never didn't want to be that person, like I really tried to say like, this is what's for dinner, and you're gonna have to try it. You know, it's challenging, and they have appreciated it. And so we have had some really fun, even for Passover Seder, which of course, was happened virtually. I said, I'm making everything you did all the things that I would normally make. Wow. And we had a lot of leftover foods. I'm going to try not to do it in such huge quantities. And I'm like, I want the filter fish thing that I usually make. I want the three salads that I always make First, the first Seder, you know, yeah, so it's tradition there. And if you hadn't have done it, the kids would have noticed Probably, yeah, they would have said, Where's the such and such a salad? They do notice. And I think it's like when you go the extra effort. It's hard, but everybody appreciates it. And I feel like back then back. That would have been back in April. That was when we were still we still hadn't adjusted to the new normal. And I feel like you gave them a piece of stability and something to rely on by giving them that regular traditional meal, even though it was probably quite an effort for you. Thank you, you know that it meant a lot to do that. The meal and the wholesale, you know, because they were like, Well, why don't why are we doing this? Like because we're doing and we've been having Shabbat in the dining room with just us and we're even bringing out the China. That's great. Because we're like, well, what we should do this, this, this is what we do. We're important to her. So now we're not so much. But we wouldn't have normally in the summer, right? You'd be eating at the pool. Right? Right. So what leftovers do you have in your refrigerator right now? Right at the moment, I think we have a very little bit of salmon left that was made earlier in the week that I've had for lunch with salad every day. And also, there's some leftover. One of the dishes that we made it for our Mediterranean night is a dish that Dan learned when he was in Italy right after college where you take cherry tomatoes and you cut them in half and you put them drown them in olive oil with chunks of garlic and a lot of these little and you roast it So the tomatoes just break down. And you have this oil with obviously, and then you drain it. So sort of just excuse me a little bit of oil and some of the other stuff and you toss that pasta. And we also save the oil, because then it has lives in it. Yeah. And that's phenomenal. So when Jacob and I were making it, Dan was wasn't here. But we made it and instead of putting it on plaster, because we had the butter sauce that we were doing on the hospital, it was like oh, butter parsley and lemon was so delicious. Unlike the fix the far not the far poly the what are the thick noodles? Part of pepper a deli? Yes. And instead we had bread, some metallic ciabatta or something that we did we're dipping into the tomato with the garlic.

Andrea Heyman 31:00 Oh, actually, when you were describing it, I thought you were gonna say that this was a topping for bread or like a spread.

Jill Green 31:10 Yeah.

Andrea Heyman 31:10 Sounds really divine.

Jill Green 31:13 And then Jacob. You know what would be so good because we were making the Caprice a salad. It's like, Well, why would it? Why don't you ever cook the tomatoes when you put them on there? It's like, I don't know. Yeah, why don't we? So we took those tomatoes with the basil and garlic and put it on the fresh mozzarella still. Oh, yeah, I bet that was Yeah. Yeah, you have definitely passed on the food enough. It's a good thing. You did.

Andrea Heyman 31:42 That's a good thing. Great. All right. So what are you making tomorrow? Tell me remind me You said you were making something I think it was.

Jill Green 31:51 They called it a tropical Cobb salad. But it's you know, greens and I got some micro greens because I wanted to do some like butter lettuce and micro greens and chicken thighs and a chopped up cooked with like cumin and probably lemon. I don't even know what the what the recipe says. But that's what it looks like to me. And then red onion, avocado, mango and a salad and I was going to do do that for the main dish have a schema this red key masala that they make because Alli is now pescetarian she has declared herself pescetarian so she won't eat the chicken. So I'll she loves this. You know the red Kima and I do avocado tomato and cilantro. As like a salad with the red Hema delicious. They use like soy sauce. Go tomorrow. Yeah. She loved it. So it will do that and probably a piece of fish for her later, but and we'll have Kala and I think that was the like a light meal.

Andrea Heyman 33:03 Sounds perfect. Nice. Well, I thank you for coming on. You have a lot of I know that the listeners will just hear your enthusiasm about food and you provided some really good ideas too. And I can't wait for the time that you can have company again. I wish that for you.

Jill Green 33:30 Thank you. Well, you'll be the first one I invite

Andrea Heyman 33:32 . I will never say no to that. Thanks, Jill. Have a good night.

Jill Green 33:41 You too.

Andrea Heyman 33:44 Don't you just love chill, you can totally tell that she is a food lover appreciates all flavors and cuisines. I love that she gave us some really good ideas of food preparation. And it made me hungry just listening to her. Chill also has a free method of getting kids involved at all ages and all levels of interest. So I welcome you all to come find me on Instagram, at adventures in feeding my family or on my Facebook group page of the same name. Monday's a feature or recipe of the week. And each of my family members rates the dish so you can see what our favorites are and what our less favorite wishes are. I know your time is valuable and I appreciate you joining us for the podcast. We'll see you next time.