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The Looneyspoons Collection: A Giveaway!

A little while back, I wrote about David Chilton, author of The Wealthy Barber and The Wealthy Barber Returns. (And did you hear the news that he’s going to be one of the “dragons” in the next season of the Dragons’ Den? I think he’ll be fantastic!) In the most recent book, he details how he came to publish massively popular Looneyspoons cookbook with sisters Janet and Greta Podleski.
 
cookbook-looneyspoons-first
Published in 1996, Looneyspoons broke publishing records.
 
 
Actually, he devotes a whole chapter to tell the story of how the three of them came to be working together. I found the whole thing fascinating. Greta and Janet approached him out of the blue and just bowled him over with their enthusiasm and energy. They had given up everything — including financial stability — to create their cookbook. He writes:
At this point, I really wasn’t sure what to make of the dynamic duo. On the upside, they had an infectious attitude and loads of personality. On the downside, they were nuts, possibly certifiable. (p. 63)
When I heard Chilton talk in person, he told this same story. In the same fashion. And Janet and Greta Podleski were sitting two rows behind me! The sisters were laughing — clearly, they shared his sense of humour!
 
 
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Janet (left) and Greta (right) Podleski.
 
 
He concludes the chapter about the Podleski sisters like this:
They also serve as outstanding examples of one of the most underestimated, yet key, ingredients to success: Be nice! They treat people with kindness and respect at all times. No matter how busy they are, they still find the time to return all of their calls and emails personally. (p. 66)
I thought that was a sweet thing to say. Considering that the sisters, in addition to the cookbooks, now have their own food line available in Costco and television show on The Food Network, I thought it was likely a sweet exaggeration as well.
 
GourmetChickenBurgers
One of Janet and Greta’s food products.
 
 
And then I get an email that starts with:
Hi Julie! My name is Greta Podleski …
Holy cow! It’s true — the sisters do their own outreach and personally email little ol’ bloggers like me?! I love it. I usually get emails from PR companies on behalf of their clients, not the actual clients. I replied right away. The woman is a celebrity in my world, and I don’t even cook!
 
 
Long story short, the sisters have just released a new cookbook called The Looneyspoons Collection, which they like to refer to as “TLC.” Greta asked if I would like a copy to review and one to giveaway to my readers and I said “yes, please!” as well as asked her if I could do a Q&A with her.
 
My review copy of TLC, with hand-written note from Greta.
 
JULIE: I am terrible in the kitchen. (Long-time readers might remember my 4 Ingredientsseries.) I am somehow both anxious and uninspired at the same time. But I really want my children to love cooking since it is so important to a long-term healthy lifestyle. Do you have any tips? Perhaps what sparked your love of cooking? 
 
GRETA: My love of cooking was sparked by my mother, who made a home-cooked meal every night for her 6 daughters, despite working full-time in tough physical labour jobs. She was a GREAT cook and she encouraged me to participate from a very young age, even if it was just holding the electric mixer while she added eggs to the cake batter. Eating the fruits of your labour is fun! When kids join mom in the kitchen and feel that they’re helping prepare dinner, they’re more likely to eat it. Even if they make a mess, it’s important to get kids in the kitchen!

JULIE: Okay, the truth is that I am not only anxious and uninspired, I am a disaster. I’ve literally burned boiled eggs before. Do you have an easy recipe or two that you could suggest for me?

 
My special talent: Burning hard-boiled eggs! 
 
 
GRETA: Many of our chicken recipes are simple and family-approved! In particular, a chicken thigh recipe called “Sticky Chicky” is delicious and hard to mess up. For a treat, our warm banana bread pudding with chocolate chips is pretty much foolproof and a hit with kids.
 
BananaBlueberryMuffin2LR
A photo of TLC’s Bananaberry Bombs
 
 
JULIE: Of all the recipes, which three are your personal favourites?
 
 
GRETA: I love our Moroccan quinoa salad, roasted sweet potato soup with orange and ginger, and our pork tenderloin recipe called “Marla’s Maple Pork” which is a fan favourite. It’s simple enough for every day and delicious enough for company! Janet, on the other hand, has a sweet tooth and loves my new gluten-free brownie recipe and chocolate peanut butter fudge.
 
EasyPeasy2LR
 
JULIE: Your TLC include full nutritional values and calorie counts, but all of your cookbooks have been really popular with women I know who are looking to shed a few pounds. Have you always cooked with “lightness” in mind?
 
 
GRETA: We’ve both been very physically active our whole lives and have always cared about what eat, with the exception of our childhood, of course, when we gulped jugs of sugary Kool Aid while scarfing back entire bags of chips! Janet is a registered holistic nutritionist and truly believes that “you are what you eat.” But we aren’t fanatics. We follow the “80/20” rule: 80% choose whole, natural, unprocessed foods, home-cooked meals, foods with lots of fibre, lean protein, good carbs, low sugar, etc. 20% of the time, eat what you want. You’ll find that as time goes on, you’ll crave the healthy stuff, not the junk. We promise! Healthy, nutritious foods make you feel better, look better, have more energy, and keep your weight down. Who doesn’t want that?
 
The Looneyspoons Collection
Win your own copy of TLC!
 
A Giveaway for Coffee with Julie readers!
 
Greta and Janet will send on Coffee with Julie reader a copy of their new cookbook The Looneyspoons Collection (TLC)! This cookbook is by far my favourite of all of their cookbooks because it’s full-colour, with lots of photos throughout, which makes it more fun for me when I’m picking out recipes for Hubby to cook ;).  Don’t despair though, it’s still full of their corny jokes! It retails for $34.95.
 
To enter: Leave me a comment below and tell me why you’d like to win this cookbook.
 
Logistics and fine print: To enter this contest, you have to follow the entry instructions (which are easy, so come on!) and leave a valid email address when you enter your comment (it will not be published, it’s just for me to reach you if you are the winner). I will randomly pick a winner on Thursday, April 5th around noon (when I take my lunch at the office). 
TLC’s Yammin’ soup (roasted sweet potato).
 
p.s. I am having trouble getting the line spacing on this post correct. It’s kind of driving me ba-zurk but I can’t figure out how to fix it, and I’m not going to re-type the whole thing from scratch. So, you’ll pretend you didn’t notice, okay? Thanks!
 
Edited on Thursday April 5th to add: We have a winner and her name is Heather! (Heather wrote: “Please let me win the Looneyspoons Collection!  We have 2 full time jobs and twins that just went from tweens to teens so suppertime is always busy. I have a repertoire of 3 suppers and need to take the pressure off my husband making dinner.  Help me please!  (P.S. I saw David Chilton speak in London, ON about 20 years ago and love the entrepreneurial story of the Podleski sisters.”)  Congrats for being the randomly selected winner of this awesome collection of recipes! I’ve been really enjoying my copy and I’m sure you will too! For those that did not win, my mom emailed me to let me know that the TLC collection is available at Costco for the great price of $19.99! Go grab one!

Comments

  1. Hi Julie, I’d like to win this cookbook because I’ve adopted elements of a Looneyspoons recipe for tomato sauce as my go-to sauce for ages but haven’t had the cookbook! I think it was an old roomate’s cookbook and I’d love to have my own copy. :)

  2. Hi Julie, I have just discovered Janet and Greta -(I saw them on a talk show) they are amazing, I would love to have the LONNEYSPOON Collections. I have just found them and you on Facebook, enjoying your blog!:)
      

  3. I’ve been a fan of this series for many years now.  My original Looneyspoons was well used and loved.  I rave about their recipes all that time and have created many Looneyspoon fans and here I am doing my best to encourage everyone to try them again.  I was lucky enough to get a signed copy.  One of these days I would like to meet the sisters to thank them in person for the amazing job they have done with all 4 books and making so many of them family and friend specials.

  4. Why do I want to win? Simply put, I need some ideas for un-boring dinners that meet these three rules – quick, nutricious, easy on the budget.

    • Hi Mary! Thx for joining the giveaway! I have the same needs as you — and ingredients that I actually have in the cupboard! Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

  5. I don’t think I’ve made myself known before, but I do like to stop by your blog from time to time- so thanks :)
    I’d like to win this book- my husband and I decided (again) that we should start eating ‘healthy’… but it’s hard to come up with ideas sometimes! We do have one of their books, and the recipes are good and simple ( which helps when cooking with a baby around!). It would be fantastic to be able to browse through and pick from a greater variety of their yummy recipes. Plus, their ridiculous puns remind me of a good friend who lives far away- and the thought makes me smile. 
    Does that answer the question? Sort of? Basically- more easy healthy meal ideas + smiles =why I’d like this book.

  6. Hi Julie! I keep saying I want to cook more, and yet I keep getting stuck at the entering the kitchen phase. I would love this book with the hope that it would inspire me!

  7. Stephanie says:

    I’d like to win because I’d love to try out some new recipes from TLC. I have the original with some well-loved classics, but it’s always fun to try new ideas, too! I’m especially curious about the GF brownies as my niece was just diagnosed with celiac disease. Thanks!

  8. Jennerknit says:

    Help inspire me for dinners!! Would love to win this book! :)

  9. I just love your book, made many recipies from it and winning a book would mean that I can give it to a friend-family so it would be one person person that would be able to enjoy healthy recipies and helthier life

  10. i’d like to win this book – i love cooking and would love the extra-inspiration, especially with the health-conscious recipes such as the ones featured. can’t wait until the summer when i put my chef-hat back on and start experimenting in the kitchen!

    p.s. your line spacing looked fine to me!!

  11. HollyStar says:

    I’m always on the lookout for fast, easy and delicious recipes as a mom of three boys four and under.  The Morroccan Quinoa Salad sounds awesome; perfect for my wheat-averse sister who is also a new mum.  My lovely and loving husband has forbidden me from buying any more cookbooks but he didn’t say anything about winning a new one!!!  

  12. I am a faithful watcher of Janet and Greta’s show. They make it all look so easy and fun. I would love to win their Looneyspoons collection cookbook as my husband and I have some health issues that we really need to change, and this cookbook would be a great encouragement and a big help to us. We get in a rut sometimes when it comes to what to make for dinner that’s quick, easy and nutritious at the same time and it would be great to have some new recipes that would do that for us.

  13. I’d love to win this cookbook.  I love finding and using new recipes and I’m sure this cookbook is full of new ones to try! I love that this cookbook is full of photos-I love seeing what the finished product should look like.

  14. neighbour says:

    I have been a long-time fan of the Looneyspoons cookbooks and have all 3 previous books.  They have been my ‘go-to’ recipe books since I got married and figured I better learn to make something more elaborate than KD!  I am excited that this book has photos since the other 3 books really didn’t inspire visually and yet the recipes still made me want to try them.  Just baked the ‘bananaberry bombs’ (substituting chocolate chips) this morning and only have 2 left from the dozen!  My family is looney for Looneyspoons!

  15. I love new recipes so this cookbook sounds like lots of fun to use

  16. I’m cooking more ‘real meals’ for my baby and I’d love to have some new recipes to try out with lots of flavour but low on bad fats.   I want her to have a healthy appetite for good food.

  17. I’d like to win this cookbook so I can become a better cook in the kitchen! I want to fall in love with cooking again.

  18. I’m a new reader of your blog and I would like to win the cookbook because I want to feed my family more healthily! I love to cook but have become uninspired. Thanks for the chance!

  19. Please let me win the Looneyspoons Collection!  We have 2 full time jobs and twins that just went from tweens to teens so suppertime is always busy.  
    I have a repertoire of 3 suppers and need to take the pressure off my husband making dinner.  Help me please!  (P.S. I saw David Chilton speak in London, ON about 20 years ago and love the entrepreneurial story of the Podleski sisters.)  

  20. Valerie Sagle Conway says:

    I just discovered your blog recently! I would love to win a copy of the TLC cookbook. I’ve been really inspired by Janet and Greta’s recipes! When I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease 2 years ago, I had to rethink how I chose and prepared food. Their Eat Shrink and Be Merry cookbook was such a great tool for learning to prepare healthy, flavorful meals. And their unique sense of humor, throughout their recipes, is a nice touch too! :)

  21. No exaggeration my Looney Spoons cookbook is the most used, splattered with gunk cookbooks. Love their recipes and their fun, easy to read style. I would be absolutely thrilled to win their new collection.

  22. I would love to win the cookbook so I could wow my husband who does most (okay all) of our cooking!

  23. Don’t give it away. I love this new cooking fad you’re on. 

  24. Carolynk says:

    Hi Julie,

    I love your blog :)
    Last Year I hit a big milestone, yes the dreaded big 4-0.  I decided I wanted to make a big change in my life by eating healthier and losing some weight.  I have the first Looney Spoons cookbook and would love to add their latest cookbook to my collection.  I’d love to have some new recipes.  Since I started making healthy food changes, my whole family has benefited and now we’re all eating healthier.  My children haven’t complained at all.

  25. Jennifer M says:

    I have been a fan of the sisters for many, many years. I had the original cookbooks but somehow, when we moved 7 years ago, they never re-surfaced. Those books helped me to loose weight back then, that I have kept off since by continuing the good eating habits. I learned that good, healthy and light food can be tasty too! I would love to win these to replace those books that disappeared somewhere. Thanks!

  26. Marianne T says:

    I have heard about these ladies and their cookbooks for years, but have never actually given one of their cookbooks a try.  I’d love to win the cookbook, because I’m trying hard to start cooking more meals and things from scratch and to vary what my family is eating.  I’m on an extended parental leave for a few years and I figure if I don’t get into the habit of doing this kind of thing before I go back to work full-time in 2 more years, I’ll never find my way to doing it!

  27. Looneyspoons are dyn-o-mite!  My monster-in-law (I mean mother-in-law) left her copy of “Looneyspoons Collection” at our house and my wife, Cassie, loves it.  But the mother-in-law will be back to get it soon.  We’ll be “looney” without it!    

    Tim 

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  1. […] their successful and fun cookbooks, the Podleski Sisters now have their own food line available in Costco and they host a television show on The Food Network Canada called Eat, Shrink and Be Merry, where […]

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