ENDORSEMENTS

“As a neighbor and friend of Liz Edmunds, The Food Nanny, I can say that she practices what she preaches and cooks! Liz has always had unbounded energy directed daily to her family, attempting to make mealtime—which can be filled with chaos and frenzy—into an enjoyable interlude of fun, conversation, and connection. I endorse Liz and her book because she takes the key ingredients of life—friends and family—and mixes them into a daily tradition of mealtime. These are vital nutrients to keep family and mealtime thriving.”

—Debbi Fields, Founder, Mrs. Fields Cookies, and mother of five daughters

“There is hardly anything more lovingly bonding in a family than mealtimes together with good home-cooked food, good conversation, and good moods.  'The Food Nanny' helps families make these important family times yummy!  I recommend this book for every family—especially those who think they don't have the time or talent to cook great dishes.”

—Dr. Laura Schlessinger, International Radio Talk Host and author, Stop Whining Start Living  (HarperCollins)

“For years I watched Liz Edmunds manage her large family from a distance and have especially been interested in the delicious meals she prepares for everyone she knows! I love her easy management plan for keeping dinnertime at home a huge priority, which in turn helped keep her family close and created wonderful memories.

“In my profession of counseling, I have used Liz’s ideas for those that need the extra help in simplifying and encouraging family gatherings around mealtime. Mothers or caregivers who have tried her easy method of planning have experienced immediate results. Dinnertime is fun and doesn’t require a lot of thought about what is for dinner. More emphasis is placed on getting everyone together for meals than what the actual dinner is going to be, because those decisions are quickly made with the ‘theme’

for the night. Liz’s meal themes have been a positive strategy that I use to encourage family structure, communication, and a more stress-free home environment. The simplicity of it makes it so valuable to share with meal planners of all ages.”

—Shauna Bradley, LCSW,
Park City, Utah

“I met Liz 36 years ago when our sons were six months old. She invited us over for dinner that week. That was the beginning of a very special friendship that always included great meals, lots of laughter, and kids. One of Liz’s recipes for leftover chicken and rice became such a staple at our house that the kids just called it ‘Liz’s Chicken.’ She has a great recipe for French bread that got me into bread and roll making.

“Sitting down to good food with your family is a way to celebrate, sort out, talk over, and manage all the good and bad things that happen in normal families.“

—Ann Luther, product development manager for a nationally distributed wholesale bakery, Groton, Massachusetts

“When I saw firsthand Liz’s passion for eating dinner together as a family, I knew this was what American families could use. Her creativity, her fun recipes, and her easy preparation make any dinnertime a delight. When you use Liz’s plan, your family will get good nutrition, enjoy wonderful variety, and increase your quality of dinnertime. Her plan will help you create family memories that will last a lifetime.”

—Dian Thomas,
Professional Speaker,
Author, TV Personality
www.CampingWithDian.com
 

WHAT THE MEDIA IS SAYING

Edmunds offers up a collection of 200 classic family favorites in this terrific home resource. Virtually every classic dish is represented, from Chicken Pot Pie, Pot Roast and Tuna Melts to Buttermilk Waffles and Apple Pie, as well as a few surprises like Sopapillas and even French Baguettes... dishes for varying tastes and skill levels. Even those who have never set foot in the kitchen will be able to put a meal together quickly with her easy-to-follow guidance. Classic American Lasagne, for example, calls for jarred sauce and prepared lasagna noodles, but also offers recipes for the noodles themselves and a Bolognese sauce for cooks so inclined. It's this distinguishing approach that makes the book suitable for honing skills and self-challenging....It's impossible to fault Edmunds broad, deep and crowd-pleasing collection.
~ Publishers Weekly

Deciding what to make is always the most wearisome part of preparing a meal. But unlike other books that offer only good-looking recipes, this cookbook offers a revolutionary template for scheduling fun food themes for each night of the week—Monday is comfort food night, Tuesday is Italian night, Wednesday is fish night, and so on. With readily available ingredients in mind, this handy collection also provides fun and delicious recipes appropriate for every theme—hungry kids will look forward to a family dinner at home, especially when they know what to expect! Complete with tips to help every parent get organized, equip the kitchen, supply the pantry, involve other family members in the preparations, and forge family bonds around the dinner table—this book arrives family-tested and kid-approved.
~ Independent Publisher (www.independentpublisher.com)

Mother of seven and cooking class teacher at Sur la Table in Salt Lake City offers "fun, easy, consistent" meal planning organization. Concepts include a "mapping out" schedule, family time at the table, and salad toppers such as caramelized nuts that hit that crunchy "sweet spot."
~ forewordmagazine.net

The Food Nanny Comes to the Rescue at Dinnertime
This no-nonsense Mary Poppins brings togetherness to the table. Liz Edmunds, a Utah mother and grandmother, knows a thing or two about planning dinner. She developed a menu plan with guidelines 30 years ago out of self-defense, to make feeding her seven children and husband an enjoyable family activity — and to make cooking a meal her favorite time of day. Her template for stress-free mealtimes has garnered her the nickname "The Food Nanny." ...more
~www.grandparents.com

The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner is a wonderful resource for families wanting to reclaim the family dinner hour. It's also a good resource for tweens interested in helping out around the kitchen...more
~tweenparenting.about.com

Deciding what to make is always the most wearisome part of preparing a meal. But unlike other books that offer only good-looking recipes, this cookbook offers a revolutionary template for scheduling fun food themes for each night of the week—Monday is comfort food night, Tuesday is Italian night, Wednesday is fish night, and so on. With readily available ingredients in mind, this handy collection also provides fun and delicious recipes appropriate for every theme—hungry kids will look forward to a family dinner at home, especially when they know what to expect! Complete with tips to help every parent get organized, equip the kitchen, supply the pantry, involve other family members in the preparations, and forge family bonds around the dinner table—this book arrives family-tested and kid-approved...more
~www.foodreference.com

“Wow, Mom! Great dinner!” That’s a phrase every home cook loves to hear and one I heard often as I tested recipes from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner. This new cookbook professes to be a lifesaver for the stressed, rushed parent in need of a quick and tasty meal and it does not disappoint...more.
~Feathered Quill Book Reviews

...Equal parts meal-plan-minded cookbook and mentality check, it's replete with tips for grocery shopping with ease and creating dinners people of all ages can look forward to. As if that's not enough, the book also dishes up conversation starters to get familial juices flowing....more
~The Chicago Sun Times

Gather Round the Table Podcast...
Make Dinner...Make a Difference

__________________________

From HomeTalkCafe and Publishers Weekly...

Liz Edmunds is listed as one of ten cookbook authors who might be the next household name:

Rapid Rise
By Lynn Andriani
Publishers Weekly
9/15/2008

"Cookbook powerhouse Clarkson Potter will have its biggest fall ever this year, with new books from Giada De Laurentiis, Ina Garten, Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray totaling a combined first printing of more than two million copies. But simmering just below the “big four” are legions of imitators, and it's only a matter of time before the next generation of cookbook stars break onto the scene. Giada and company may own bestseller lists, but as Rux Martin, executive editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, says, “Until recently it was all Food Network, Food Network, Food Network. Now you don't have to have a TV show to be hot. It's personality, personality, personality that sells.” Here, 10 cookbook authors who aren't quite household names—but, with a little luck, might be soon....

Liz Edmunds, aka the Food Nanny, The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner: Easy Family Meals for Every Day of the Week (Palmer/Pletsch, Sept.)
Age: 57
Reminds us of: A down-to-earth Sandra Lee
Signature dish: Arugula pizza with buffalo mozzarella and cherry tomatoes
Bio: Edmunds and her husband raised seven children; she now teaches cooking classes at Sur la Table and consults with families about meal planning. For this, her first book, she landed an interview at Parade.com.
Why she's got it: Edmunds's recipes are for everyday food with a focus on hearty, nutritious meals. “I want to get my message out there and get people excited about how easy this is to do. Cooking for your family on a consistent basis will make your life so great.”

http://www.hometalkcafe.com/article-rapid-rise-8779.html

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6595905.html

From the Salt Lake Tribune
October 1, 2008

Learn how to prepare a home-cooked meal with The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner

WHAT THE MEDIA IS SAYING

Excerpts from an interview in Diet Detective
Read more at
http://www.dietdetective.com/lose-weight/
liz-edmunds.aspx

Diet Detective: Why is family dinnertime so important to you?

Liz: Preparing dinner was the most important thing that I did for my family each day. Dinnertime kept us close. We bonded. It was the most natural setting where we could sort out and talk over the day’s events. I could look my kids in the eye each night and see how they were feeling and see how their life was going. We laughed and cried at the dinner table. We learned table manners. We learned the art of good conversation. We forgave one another. We came together each night in a “celebration” of sorts to have some peace and strength in numbers and of course good hot food to feed our hungry stomachs and souls. Dinnertime was the lifeblood of our family. Nothing was more important.

Diet Detective: If you had to choose the most important factor in getting your kids to eat healthfully what would it be?

Liz: Eating at home at least five nights a week is a big part of eating healthfully. A variety of home-cooked foods on a consistent basis is much more healthful than all the other alternatives. When kids are presented with a variety of foods every night from a young age, they learn to eat a variety of foods, rather than resorting to unhealthful choices because “that’s all there is.” This is the beauty of my theme-night plan. It makes it easier to put good, healthy food on the table night after night after night.

Diet Detective: What makes your methods different than others that have attempted to tackle the “getting your kids to eat more healthful” conundrum?

Liz: I like to serve at least two or three vegetables along with whatever I am making. Give the kids a choice of vegetables, such as corn and green beans, mixed. That was a favorite. Peas, carrots, broccoli is another. They will be sure to like at least one of these. As they see adults and other siblings eating most vegetables, soon they are willing to venture out and try other vegetables. I never make meat the most important part of the meal. Eat less meat and more vegetables, grains, rice, potatoes, pasta, and you’re on your way to eating healthy—all with portion control. I also fix one main course each night, with everyone expected to eat what is on the table. I never had a child say, “Can I make a sandwich or have some cereal; I don’t like this.” My dinners are foods that families will eat and love!

________________

From the Park Record
Park City, Utah, October 28, 2008

Supermom Turned Food Nanny Takes on Family Dinner

Edmunds caught the cooking bug at a young age. "My mother was a wonderful example," she says. "She had dinner on the table every single night." When Edmunds became a mother herself, she began to tweak her mother's recipes and started building the collection of recipes that would eventually be incorporated into her cookbook, The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner, which was published last month.

In 1981, Liz and her husband, Steve, a retired Delta Air Lines pilot, built a cabin in Woodland with the intention of using it as a summer getaway. The family ended up staying for three years, and after a brief stint in Texas, they returned to the cabin and made it their permanent home.

For nearly 30 years, Edmunds was a fulltime homemaker and mother of seven (the oldest is now 36; the youngest, 20). Most days, she had fresh-baked cookies coming out of the oven as the kids arrived home from school. All of her kids knew how to cook by age 12, and oftentimes they helped prepare nightly meals. Getting involved in the kitchen gave them a sense of purpose and responsibility, she says. Edmunds got her kids to look forward to dinners at home by implementing "theme nights." Friday was make-your-own pizza night, Saturday -- grill night and Sunday -- family traditions. Instead of going out and spending money at pricey restaurants, the kids got excited about enjoying their favorite foods at home.

News of Edmunds' culinary talent and knack for getting kids to eat dinner at home spread around the neighborhood in no time. Soon she was visiting other families' homes, counseling parents on the importance of family dinners and reforming meal plans. Her exuberant personality, upbeat attitude and passion for family meals were contagious. Edmunds helped countless relatives, friends and neighbors plan their own theme nights, design menus based on their tastes and budgets, and gain confidence in their cooking skills. Her ideas for theme nights, especially, were a hit.

The barrage of praise and pleas to share her wisdom made Edmunds realize that she was onto something. Her kids helped her come up with themes for the remaining nights of the week: Monday became comfort food night, Tuesday Italian, Wednesday fish and meatless, and Thursday Mexican. Edmunds continued to share her vision with others and vowed to do her part to bring every family home for dinner. "The rest was history," she says.

The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner includes 200 family-friendly recipes divided into categories according to themes. From comfort food classics like Beef Stroganoff and Pepper Jack Potato Soup to healthy favorites like Roast Salmon with Vegetables and Pear Gorgonzola Salad, readers will find something to please even the pickiest eaters. Edmunds' plan for consistent family dinners includes mapping out a one-to-two week menu plan, making a comprehensive, organized grocery list and choosing theme nights that fit family preferences. With effective planning and a little advance preparation, Edmunds swears that any mom or dad can emulate her example.

In addition to being the go-to girl for meal planning, Edmunds has lots of budget-friendly tips for families that are curbing spending in light of financial troubles. She stresses that no matter what your budget, there's always a better alternative to fast food. Edmunds recommends going through your recipe collection and picking out dishes featuring in-season produce and less expensive types of meat. If you can't afford fresh fruits and vegetables, stock up on canned and frozen varieties, she says. Buy ingredients for make-your-own pizza in bulk and use them over and over to make delicious pizzas at a fraction of the cost for delivery. Edmunds suggests taking advantage of coupons in the paper and noting which items are on sale before planning menus.

A crusader for family bonding and open communication, Edmunds also provides "table talk" topics and conversation starters throughout the book to promote significant discussions that include the entire family. "Nothing was more meaningful to our family each day than the consistency of having dinnertime together," she writes in her book. "I believe it played the biggest role in keeping the communication between family members wide open."

Edmunds' oldest son, Dave, who is the Summit County Sheriff, agrees that the stimulating conversations between family members were just as, if not more important than the food. "I always knew that when I came home from school, there would be something good to eat on the table and my mom would be waiting to talk to me about anything," he says. "It was my mom's personal touch that made each one of us, and in turn the entire family, better." The ability to discuss anything provided a huge comfort and security to all of us, he says.

The quintessential stay-at-home mom turned careerwoman has a lot on her plate these days. Since the cookbook's publication, she has been on a whirlwind nationwide promotional tour. A Food Nanny show is in the works, and Edmunds plans to resume teaching classes at Sur La Table in Salt Lake in 2009. But don't assume that her newfound fame will go to her head. The most important thing for Edmunds is spreading the message that anyone can make family dinner a kitchen staple. "Everyone deserves to be able to sit down to a hot meal," she says. "At the end of the day, we all need to be able to sit down, relax and take a load off. All it takes is planning."

Liz Edmunds, The Food Nanny, consults with families in their homes about meal planning so the family can eat together at home. Here are notes from her happy clients:

I am so thankful to have had Liz help me get started cooking. I have always wanted to be able to cook good meals for my family, but never knew where to get started. I would try to cook and get overwhelmed and frustrated. Liz made it so easy. She encouraged me and gave me confidence. Her recipes are easy to follow and are so delicious. She has such a cute and energetic personality. Thank you, Liz, for all your help. I can’t wait for more recipes. 

—Tamra Heaps


Thank you so much for all of the helpful information you provided for me and my family. I’m excited about cooking for the first time! Being a mom of an active one-year-old boy and a wife to a hard-working husband, [I think that] time together is valuable. Although all the recipes are wonderful and the food tasted so good, it is the lessons and ideas you gave me that I cherish the most. I never realized how important it is to sit down for a meal and just talk to one another. It is so easy to get caught up in all the activities and responsibilities of everyday life. The tools like the grocery list and the helpful advice on planning your weekly meals have given me a great place to start. Not only did you give me wonderful recipes, but you gave me something more valuable—conversations and quality time spent with my family for years to come that I might not have had. I will forever be thankful for your help and I know you will have continued success for years to come.

—Jennifer Anderson

Thank you so much for all of the helpful information you provided for me and my family. I’m excited about cooking for the first time! Being a mom of an active one-year-old boy and a wife to a hard-working husband, [I think that] time together is valuable. Although all the recipes are wonderful and the food tasted so good, it is the lessons and ideas you gave me that I cherish the most. I never realized how important it is to sit down for a meal and just talk to one another. It is so easy to get caught up in all the activities and responsibilities of everyday life. The tools like the grocery list and the helpful advice on planning your weekly meals have given me a great place to start. Not only did you give me wonderful recipes, but you gave me something more valuable—conversations and quality time spent with my family for years to come that I might not have had. I will forever be thankful for your help and I know you will have continued success for years to come.

—Jennifer Anderson
 

The food all turned out great. Ben loved all of it. The menus are great. I love already knowing what I’m going to do. I think the whole idea is great. It was really good how you would show me how to do something and then have me do it. That is what I really needed—to just do it. I have watched people cook, but I need to do it. Then that shows me that I can at least try. So it was really good for me. Thanks so much for coming and helping. We loved it!

ONE MONTH LATER...I want to let you know that I am still cooking. Really, it has totally changed how we do dinner. Thanks so much for your help. I have tried almost all of the recipes you gave me and they are all great. I can’t wait for your book to come out!

—Lara Harris
 

I do not know what I would do without this cookbook. It changed my family’s life and love of dinnertime.

—Dayna Brand

Not only did you give me amazing recipes and taught me some great cooking skills, you have laid a foundation for my family. I have always believed that sitting down at the table together as a family is so important, but you have given me the kick-start I needed! I can rely on your recipe plan and it takes the stress out of the day-to-day cooking. I can now enjoy cooking without wondering about the next night. Travis has commented constantly on how nice it is to come home to such a great dinner. Some of our favorite recipes are the BBQ pizza, macaroni and cheese, and three-cheese manicotti—yum yum! Now that we have started our family, I feel lucky to have such a great plan for the future when it comes to cooking!

—Ashley Miller

I truly appreciate the time you took to come teach me how to cook. I also want to thank you for teaching me how to make a menu for my family. I love it and it saves time and money. I really enjoyed how patient you were with me. I can’t wait till your book comes out! Thank you.

—Claudia Fierro

You are a talented lady, Liz. You have an air about you that lifts the room. You made me feel excited about going to the grocery store again. I am so excited about the theme nights. What a way to keep dinnertime from getting boring to me or the family. I really liked the different flavors in the foods we chose. I am so excited about the French bread and the sopaipillas. You also gave me a renewed hope for my family. Thank you so much, Liz. I really can’t wait till your book comes out.

—Melissa Merrill

Not only has The Food Nanny saved dinner, she has saved my family! She taught me that if you wait till 4:30 p.m. to decide what is for dinner, it is too late. Procras-tination is one of many reasons my family has lived off of chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese. We now follow the Food Nanny’s dinner schedule and my entire family is so much happier and healthier. They are now excited to see what is for dinner and to spend time together as a family. The recipes are so easy to follow and seriously so good! I have always been too intimidated to make breads, and the Food Nanny’s bread recipes are seriously the greatest in the world. They are easy, cheap, healthy, and taste a million times better. Our family will forever be in debt to the Food Nanny!

—The Kjar Family

This book is an incredible “tool” that can be used by anyone to change and enrich their own and their family’s lives. It is a simple, yet revolutionary, idea. This tool can be used to eliminate frustration at dinnertime and to strengthen families all the way around.

What I see as the real benefit of this book is to help young mothers get organized and excited about being modern-day homemakers. In most cases, society has stripped them of the tools that they need to succeed. Many do not have a role model they can emulate. I see this book as the missing “tool” that can be used by these mothers, who have the desire but don’t know how to begin. It will help them get organized and inspired until they catch the vision of modern homemaking. As their confidence grows, they can then adjust and modify it to fit their own family’s needs.

— Stephen Edmunds,
    The Food Nanny's Husband

David A. Edmunds says...

My mother seemed to intuitively understand that her homemade delights could alter her children’s consciousness. The most profound of her concoctions was her bread. I don’t know what was better—the smell of her bread as it permeated throughout the house, or the anticipation of tasting it. I never ate a sandwich with store-bought bread; my friends were jealous beyond belief. To this day, I coerce my wife into making homemade bread, to capture feelings of warmth.

My mother’s homemade delights stimulated conversations about future dreams and aspirations. I know my mother’s cooking influenced our family in a deeply profound way. Any mother has the capability of creating such an environment for her children; all that is required is the desire. 

Katie Edmunds Bunker says...

My memory of my mom calling us to dinner and everyone running for the table comes back to me vividly. Now I have two small children and I want to do it all—just like my mom! My menus are planned two weeks in advance. So I get my shopping done and don’t stress every day about dinner. I have been writing on my calendar (which hangs on my kitchen wall) each day’s meal. My husband refers to it often and looks forward to coming home for tacos or fried chicken or whatever night it happens to be.

My mom’s program works! I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way. It has made my little family’s life so great. My baby even eats what we’re having for dinner each night. I use a baby food grinder and she loves all the new flavors from each meal!

Emaly Edmunds Brand says...

The best memories of my childhood are sitting in the kitchen watching my mom cook. Even though there were some meals that I looked forward to more than others, I think dinner every night made me feel secure. It made me warm from the inside.

I really think sitting down to the table every night together as a family and talking about the day or week’s events with everyone, even when I was mad at a sibling, kept our family close. Dinner is still what keeps our family gathering at my parents’ house as often as we can. My husband loves when I take the time to make dinner, and I have no doubt that I want to do the same as my family grows.
 

Stephen "Brent" Edmunds says...

When I think back on my childhood, I could mention many things my parents did to help me learn and grow. One of the first things I would talk about is dinnertime. As a parent now myself, I look back with a new perspective, and I can see how important that time was for me as a kid.

Consistency: I knew every evening when I got home there was going to be a good meal. I never wondered if there was enough food, or whether I needed to fend for myself. I was so certain about this that I never hesitated to invite a friend, and I could usually give my friends a “warning” about what the menu was, because my mom followed the theme nights.

Health: As a kid I never cared how healthy the food I ate was, so I am so grateful my mom did. Every night we had a variety of foods that included some kind of vegetable and of course we had to drink our milk. My mom was by no means a “health nut,” but the meals we ate at home were a lot better than any fast-food diet.

Conversation: I don’t think enough could ever be said about the time we spent as a family eating dinner and doing the dishes. Around the table we learned how to talk as a family, which is probably the single best thing a family can learn to do. And by doing the dishes we learned, through lots of fighting and crying, that you have to do some work and help each other too.

Joey Edmunds says...

When I was growing up, nothing was better than to be around my family every night. I was so lucky to know that there was going to be a home-cooked meal on the table. I took it for granted. Kids love schedules and they love food even more! When I was in high school all of my friends would beg to come over for dinner because they said their mothers didn’t make meals for them. Now that I am a father, I can see how important it is to have home-cooked meals for your kids because they need them, and also it is a great time to talk to your kids and actually be a part of their lives.

Aimee Edmunds Heiner says... 

I have such happy memories of dinnertime. It made my day, when I was feeling tired or hungry at school, to think about what night it was. With my mom’s theme nights we most likely knew what we were going to eat that night. I don’t know how my mom did it day in and day out. She said it was her theme nights that kept her going.

I remember how lucky I felt to be at the dinner table with all of my siblings. Our dad was

gone a lot, but he made up for the time he was gone when he was with us. Dad always made dinnertime such a happy time when he was home. And the one thing I loved about my mom was that she usually saved our best or most “expensive” meals for when my dad was home.

I am now using the theme nights, and my husband is so appreciative of my home cooking and the way I am sticking to our food budget. He loves knowing that each night after a hard day’s work he will have something good and hot waiting for him. He didn’t have that when he grew up so it means a lot to him now. I have two kids now and I am happy to be able to keep the dinners coming on a consistent basis with my mom’s meal plan.
 

Lizi Edmunds Heaps says...

In my family, dinnertime was the time of day that all of us would get to hang out and have fun. We would sit at the dinner table and talk about our days. My parents would go around asking all of us what happened that day. It was always such a fun quality time that I would cherish, because I loved being around my siblings. And I would always look forward to the dinners. Without fail my mother had an amazing meal. I now know the meals were not “amazing,” but they were good. My mom did everything for us and still found time every night to make sure we had a hot meal on the table. My friends always loved coming to my house because they would always say, “Your mom is such an amazing cook.”

Dinnertime is a special time that families need to bond together. I’m so thankful that I had a mom and dad that taught how important home-cooked meals are. I know that dinnertime is what keeps families close.