This Mother’s Day, chef, influencer, and cookbook author Caroline Chambers (who also goes by Caro) plans to take a girls’ trip to Spain — without her three young children. “What I’ve missed in my life since becoming a mother is time and space to be alone. Then [typically] I’ll go for a walk or play tennis with friends – and spend several hours reading by the pool. But this year I’m going to travel to Spain with my two best friends who are also mothers,” she says.
Your life has been busy with your super popular newsletter, What to cook when you don’t feel like cooking, which features easy-to-make recipes. She is also launching a new cookbook in August, this helps busy moms like her take the guesswork out of daily meal prep.
“I’ve gotten a lot faster and more efficient in terms of how I write recipes now; I think what people like about my recipes [is that] they are hacked. I reuse baking sheets in different ways in a recipe; everything is about minimizing time and mess,” he says.
She built a career deeply rooted in family and inspired home cooks and mothers to prepare quick, delicious recipes with “as little fuss as possible.” And she really doesn’t want any fuss on Mother’s Day. “I get anxious when I wake up… to a super messy house and ‘look mom, we made you breakfast’,” she says. “So my husband and I approach it differently; each of us has a day off. I go out with my kids in the morning, they make me Mother’s Day cards – but there’s no messy breakfast or breakfast in bed.”
But on a normal day, she loves having her kids in the kitchen with her. She dipped it three young children — now 5 years, 3 years and 20 months old — helping her prepare meals.
The secret to success in the kitchen is not being afraid to break some rules. “Before I had kids, I wanted Gordon Ramsay to be proud of my technique! But a mother with 30 minutes to prepare dinner doesn’t to need follow all rules; you don’t to need the perfect technique. Like, throw that carrot in the blender and press “pulse” five times instead of cutting it into perfect cubes!
She has a few tricks up her sleeve to help her kids feel more part of her everyday kitchen, including giving them a children’s knife to let them chop vegetables and fruits. “We make a lot of smoothies together. They love to bake (I don’t), so we make a lot of packaged mixes; but my biggest culinary trick is definitely the kid’s knife slicing celery. They always want to help and it’s great quality time. I let them start before they were 2!”
But getting your kids to eat dinner is another matter entirely. She says she tries to expose them to different foods, even if they end up rejecting them. “My 5-year-old son went through an insane and demanding phase and I felt like a failure; I did all the right things [in terms of introducing them to food] and I still expose them to everything. I’ll make dinner for George [her husband] and I might make something different for them, but I will always put mom and dad’s dinner on their plate too… even if they just take a bite!”, she says laughing.
She also suggests lots of meal prep and planning. “I work from home, so I slowly work on dinner all day. I will chop the onion at 10am between calls; I’ll have a long conference call and cut vegetables.”
Another hack: she keeps it stocked pantry with the basics at all times; the same goes for your fridge and freezer. “I do a meat subscription; as long as you have some grains, meat in the freezer, and vegetables like cabbage or carrots and potatoes, you’re fine.”
Salads are Chambers’ daily lunches, and sauces and dressings keep her family’s dinners fresh and different. “I make a lot of sauces with Greek yogurt: I mix cilantro and lemon juice; or harissa and lemon juice; even Greek yogurt and Cholula hot sauce,” says Chambers. “I always have crispy chili; I love that. I like this brand Red clay – it’s made with peanut oil and contains peanut pieces! Is so good! I love eating salads and have spent years making my own salad dressing – but with kids and work I don’t have the time. I recently discovered Kewpie sesame dressing, and now I’m back to eating salads every day because I found a dressing I love.”
It’s no surprise that Chambers gets a lot of questions from followers asking what to bring new moms to eat after giving birth, something she has a lot of opinions on. For her, the trick is to keep things easy, nutritious and prepared in smaller portions – the opposite of huge casseroles.
“I bring postpartum mothers a really nutritious soup,” she says. “I will freeze in 1- to 2-cup increments in Ziploc bags and deliver eight soups so they can thaw one at a time. Normally, you get 2 liters of soup, but this way she can enjoy one at a time over the months. That’s my favorite way to treat a new mother. I added a freezer section to my recipe database so it’s easy for people to cook for new mothers or people undergoing medical treatment.
Caro Chambers’ Off-Y Greek Salad
Serves 4 to 6
Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
Chicken:
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2 to 2½ pounds. boneless, skinless chicken breasts (you’ll probably have leftovers, but they’re so good!!!)
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¼ cup Greek yogurt
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1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
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1 tbsp. Greek seasoning (like Cavender’s)
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2 teaspoons. Dijon mustard
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2 teaspoons. kosher salt
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1 teaspoon. garlic powder
Red wine vinaigrette:
Salad:
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1 English cucumber
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1 red pepper
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1 orange pepper
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10 oz. cherry tomato or 1 large heirloom tomato
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1 very small red onion
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½ cup Kalamata olives
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⅓ cup full of fresh mint leaves
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⅓ cup full of fresh dill fronds (also known as greens)
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1 block (eight ounces) brine feta cheese (not crumbled feta cheese!!!)
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4 thick slices of sourdough bread
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Extra virgin olive oil
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Kosher Salt
instructions
FYI: Chicken marinade and red wine vinaigrette have many of the same ingredients! Remove all the ingredients and do not store them until you have finished making the marinade and vinaigrette.
Step 1: Let’s marinate the chicken! In a large Tupperware container or Ziploc bag, combine the chicken breasts, Greek yogurt, red wine vinegar, Greek seasoning, Dijon mustard, kosher salt, and garlic powder. Get in there with your hands and make sure everything is evenly coated. Refrigerate for up to 4 hours or leave the mixture at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Step 2: Now let’s make the vinaigrette. In a jar with a tight-fitting lid (or a bowl if you don’t have a jar), combine the extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, Greek seasoning, garlic powder, salt and the pepper. . (If you have a pitcher, you can shake the mixture until well combined; if you are using a bowl, whisk.) Set aside.
Step 3: Now we have some cutting to do! Chop the cucumber, red bell pepper, orange bell pepper, and cherry or heirloom tomatoes in half or small pieces (use a serrated knife for the tomatoes!). Cut the red onion into thin slices. Coarsely chop the kalamata olives, fresh mint leaves and fresh dill leaves.
Step 4: Mix all the vegetables and most of the herbs (leave a little of each herb for garnish) in a large bowl with about half the sauce to begin marinating the vegetables (Do not add salt yet as it will cause the vegetables to release too much liquid). Throw the bowl in the fridge.
Step 5: Preheat your grill to medium-high heat (400°F to 450°F).
Step 6: Cut 1 block of feta cheese into 8 slices. If you have time, place it on a small plate and toss with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, a drizzle of honey, a pinch of chopped herbs, and a pinch of Greek seasoning. This is completely unnecessary – just show off.
Step 7: Use the serrated knife to cut the sourdough slices. Place the bread on a plate and drizzle generously with extra virgin olive oil.
Step 8: Now onto the grill (see the notes section below if you are using an oven)! Go outside with the chicken, bread, tongs and a spatula.
Step 9: Cook chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes on each side (if using chicken thighs, cook for 5 to 6 minutes on each side) or until 160°F internally (breasts have so little fat that they will continue to cook later of pulls). turned off to reach 165°F) internally. To check all the chicken breasts, not just one! Transfer the chicken to a plate and let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
When flipping the chicken, use an overturned spatula (this way you gain more leverage) instead of tongs. The yogurt marinade can stick a little to the grill, so you’ll need to scrape it well to get the chicken off the grill.
Step 10: Grill the bread (with the lid open) for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, until dark grill marks appear.
Step 11: Cut the chicken into thin slices. Garnish with fresh herbs if you’re showing off. Season the salad with 1½ tsp. kosher salt. I like. Add more salt and season as desired.
Let everyone build their perfect dish!
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