We’re all busy making plans for the holidays, starting with Thanksgiving. How are you celebrating this year? Are you making your typical sweet potato side dish, or are you preparing the entire meal from scratch, like me? How are you keeping your stress meter out of the red? My guest today has simple advice for adding ease, flavor, and a dash of good health to your Thanksgiving Day dinner--and beyond.

Jenna Helwig is the food director at Real Simple magazine and the author of four cookbooks; her fifth is coming out next year. She’s also the founder of a NYC-based personal chef services company called Rosaberry. When it comes to simplicity in the kitchen, Jenna’s got us covered. Today’s show brings lots of recipe inspiration, like Maple Sweet Potatoes with Spicy Pecan Praline and a Vanilla Sweet Potato Cheesecake dessert that I’m planning to make for Thanksgiving. Jenna has advice for staying grounded and grateful during the holidays, along with tips for streamlining your holiday dinner to-do list. If you love mashed potatoes, don’t miss Jenna’s easy hacks for adding fun, new flavors to your old favorites. Thanksgiving may look a little different this year, but Jenna is here to help us cope and cook delicious meals with confidence. 

 

Show Highlights:

 

• Get to know Jenna, her life in Brooklyn as she raises a teenager, loves cookbooks, and indulges in her passion for New York Yankees baseball
• Jenna’s books, blog, and her work at Real Simple and Rosaberry
• A glimpse at an average day in Jenna’s life
• Plans for Thanksgiving at Jenna’s house
• Maple Sweet Potatoes with Spicy Pecan Praline features roasted sweet potatoes and shallots topped with candied pecans and lime zest
• Jenna demystifies the under-appreciated shallot
• Vanilla Sweet Potato Cheesecake, which is made with cream cheese, eggs, vanilla, sweet potato, and a pie crust
• Five ways to add better nutrition and flavor to mashed potatoes: swirl in chimichurri or pesto, drizzle with pumpkin seed oil and top with pepitas, add Greek yogurt, blend with cauliflower, add roasted garlic
• Jenna’s tips for streamlining Thanksgiving: “Realize that not every dish has to be over the top, and make dishes ahead when possible.”
• Why pumpkin pie is Jenna’s go-to Thanksgiving dessert
• Tips for pursuing positivity during the holidays: practice password therapy and list thankfulness in threes
• How Jenna balances holiday indulgences with healthy hacks
• How we can take opportunities to be more intentional in the ways we celebrate holidays

Resources:

Mash Notes: Recipes from Real Simple featuring potatoes  

https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/maple-sweet-potatoes-recipe

Hear from Jenna's non-binary teenager. An essay about Rosen's gender journey can be found here:  https://www.parents.com/parenting/better-parenting/teenagers/teen-talk/im-a-teen-who-is-nonbinary-heres-what-i-wish-parents-would-know-about-gender/

 

Jenna's website: https://www.jennahelwig.com/

Follow Jenna: 

Instagram: @jennahelwig and @realbabyfood

Twitter: @JennaRosaberry

Jenna’s books: The Multi-Cooker Baby Food Cookbook, Baby-Led Feeding, Real Baby Food, and Smoothie-licious