MOMMA CHEF

It happened for years. Home cook and mother of three Karen Nochimowski would whip up a dinner for family and friends only to be pinged the next day with multiple requests for the recipe. Nochimowski was happy to comply. But the response to her Honey Curry Chicken, (chicken thighs baked with honey, mustard, and curry powder) sent requests to new heights.

“Everyone wanted that recipe,” Nochimowski laughs. “It’s so easy to make and smells so good. So, I thought to myself ‘Instead of copying and pasting the recipes into emails, why don’t I just start a blog?’ Who knew that the blog would lead to a cookbook and put me on a philanthropic path to running a soup kitchen and food pantries?”

Launched in 2017, mommachef.com was designed to help busy moms get healthy food on the table without a lot of fuss. Within months, the number of followers pushed past 35,000, prompting Nochimowski to hire professional design and marketing help. Invitations to write recipe columns for print and online media quickly followed.

Nochimowski’s 6-minute Dinners (and More!): 100 Super Simple Dishes with 6 Minutes of Prep and 6 Ingredients or Less is fresh off the press from Page Street Publishing, with gorgeous food photography by Toni Zernik. The goal throughout? To help moms lacking kitchen experience develop the confidence to cook quick and delicious meals.

“I had so many frazzled moms tell me cooking was a nightmare,” she says. “With these recipes, I am showing them, ‘You can do it!’”

Nochimowski’s intuitive knack for quickly mixing flavors and ingredients to create something delicious is practical, not gourmet: “I want recipe prep to be stress-free and speedy, and the result to be both healthy and tasty, so you can move on to enjoying the people you prepared it for.”

As a result, she doesn’t shy away from using prepared ingredients to dress healthy proteins and vegetables. Her popular Old-Fashioned Braised Brisket works its magic with onion soup mix, ketchup, and a bottle of chili sauce. That said, Nochimowski’s use of spices and ingredients from a variety of cultures takes her recipes beyond Americana to include dishes such as Coconut Curry Mahi-Mahi, Miso-Glazed Cod, and Sriracha-Honey Wings.

With Momma Chef ’s Soup Kitchen and Little Free Pantries, Nochimowski’s impact has extended beyond the home kitchen and into philanthropy. “As fulfilling as the blog and recipe development have been,” she says, “I feel like this philanthropic work is really where Momma Chef was always headed.”

The seed for this work was planted years ago, partly because Nochimowski’s boys had an unusual way of celebrating their birthdays. “They would ask for grocery store gift cards and buy ingredients to host a soup kitchen at Beth Emet Synagogue in Evanston,” she recalls.

Launching her own soup kitchen required much more preparation. “I dove into months of research and networking,” she says. “I created a business plan, held fundraisers, and designed menus to feed more than 100.” Finally, in 2018 Nochimowski launched Momma Chef ’s Soup Kitchen at Congregation K.I.N.S. in Chicago. Every Tuesday, the kitchen provides a hot, five-course meal to-go for anyone who comes by and delivers 70 meals to two Chicago shelters.

This philanthropic endeavor is very much a family affair. One winter, Nochimowski’s 14-year-old, middle son Tal hosted a coat drive at his school so that he could hand out warm outerwear along with food at the kitchen. Her youngest son, Aiden, 11, now has his own set of knives and takes pride in using them to prepare the fruit salad alongside a cadre of volunteers.

Meanwhile, eldest son Oren, 18, is the director of Momma Chef ’s Little Free Pantry Movement, stocking Momma Chef pantries at Chicago’s West Ridge Community Church, Evanston’s Beth Emet Synagogue, and the South Side’s New Beginnings Church and Beth Shalom Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation. At each location, little kiosks, (inspired by the Little Free Libraries that offer free books to passersby) are filled with nonperishable goods free for the taking.

Monetary donations to Momma Chef and a percentage of cookbook sales help fund the work, along with provisions donated by local grocery stores and the Greater Chicago Food Depository. “But we also need volunteers,” Nochimowski explains. “I work with volunteer coordinator Karen Ecanow to gather help at the soup kitchen. It takes more than 600 volunteers per year to prepare and serve meals.”

Prior to the pandemic, there were waiting lists of volunteers ready to help but those lists have dwindled. “We’re trying to build them back up,” Nochimowski notes. “Everyone who has helped tells us it’s been a meaningful experience. I tell anyone who is interested the same thing I tell moms in my cookbook, ‘You can do it! Here’s how. Just give it a try.’”

For more information, visit mommachef.com.

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GRAB-AND-GO BREAKFAST EGG MUFFINS
(GF, LC, NF, SF, V)

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh vegetables, such as broccoli or spinach
• 1/4 cup shredded cheese, such as sharp Cheddar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat a standard 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, lightly beat together the eggs, milk, salt, and set aside. Divide the vegetables and cheese among the muffin cups. Pour the egg mixture into each muffin cup over the vegetables and cheese, filling each one about three-quarters full. Bake uncovered until golden brown and cooked through, about 20 minutes. Whip up a batch of these savory muffins on Sunday night, and you’ll have a week of easy breakfasts for your kids as they scramble for the school bus.

Tips
The vegetables do not need to be cooked before adding them to the muffin pan. Try adding some fresh herbs, such as chopped basil or dill. If you have picky breakfast eaters, let them choose the veggies and cheese, and have them put the ingredients in the muffin cup. It’s an easy and fun way for kids to “cook.” Plus, kids are excited to try the foods that they cook themselves.

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EASY-PEASY HUMMUS
(DF, EG, NF, V)

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Serves 6

Ingredients

• 2 (15.5-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained (reserve liquid from 1 can)
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon seasoning salt

In a food processor or blender, add the chickpeas and the liquid from 1 can of the chickpeas, the olive oil, lemon juice, tahini, garlic, and seasoning salt. Puree until smooth and well combined, about 2 minutes.

Tips
If serving this to guests, sprinkle the hummus with a dash of paprika. This can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. This recipe is nut free, but it is not sesame free as the tahini contains sesame.

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AUTUMN BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
(EF, GF, NF, SF, V)

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Serves 8

Ingredients

• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 cups cubed butternut squash
• 1 box (32-ounce) vegetable broth
• 2 cups of water
• 1 (8-ounce) package low-fat cream cheese
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and sauté the onion for 3 minutes. Add the butternut squash, mix, and cook for 2 minutes more. Pour in the vegetable broth and 2 cups of water. Partially cover the pot and cook for 45 minutes until the butternut squash is very tender. Remove from heat, add in the cream cheese and brown sugar, and puree in batches in a blender, food processor, or with an immersion blender until smooth.

Tips
Before serving, sprinkle cinnamon and chopped pecans on top
(first make sure there are no nut allergies). If you want to make
the dish dairy free, use 1/2 cup of your favorite dairy-free milk.

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LEMON-HERB SALMON
(DF, EF, GF, LC, NF, SF)

Want to cook a fabulous weeknight meal and make your family smarter? Choose salmon, the DHA darling of the sea. DHA is all kinds of good news for our brains—boosting memory, improving cognitive functioning, and staving off depression. This recipe tops the list with its sweet-and-spicy flavor profile. Here, a Mediterranean-style marinade with a strong lemon base balances the sweetness of the brown sugar and the bite of the chili powder. My number one tip here: use a timer. This salmon will be A+ perfect after baking for precisely 20 minutes.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

• 1 1/2- to 2-pound salmon fillet
• 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 cup Mediterranean-style herb marinade, such as Lawry’s Mediterranean Herb and White Wine marinade

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray, and place the salmon fillet skin side down in the dish. In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, salt, and chili powder. Rub the spice mixture all over the top of the salmon. Pour the marinade evenly over the salmon. Bake uncovered until the salmon is cooked through, 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Tips
If you can’t find the Mediterranean marinade, you can make your own using 1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon dried basil, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

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HEARTY BEEF AND VEGGIE STEW
(DF, EF, GF, NF, SF)

This is a delicious beef stew without all the fuss.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
Serves 6

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 pounds beef stew meat, cubed
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 large carrots, peeled and diced
• 3 medium-sized potatoes, diced
• 2 cups tomato juice
• 2 cups beef broth

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and set a rack in the lower-
middle position. In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over
medium-high heat. Add the cubed stew meat, and sear for about 3 minutes per side. Remove the pot from the heat, and add the carrots, potatoes, tomato juice, and beef broth. Stir everything together, and cover the pot. Carefully put the pot in the oven, and cook for 2 hours or until the meat is very tender. Remove from the oven, and season with salt to taste.

Alternatively, you can make this in the slow cooker: First, sear the meat in a pan with the olive oil per the instructions above. Then add the meat, carrots, potatoes, tomato juice, and beef broth to the slow cooker, and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours, until the meat is very tender.