Blog Posts by The Editors of EatingWell Magazine

What's your favorite thing about fall? The answer for me is an easy one: it's soup-making time again!

I'm well-known in my circle of friends for my stellar soups. Whenever we have a party and it's cool out, it's pretty much a guarantee that soup will be on the menu. I even made 3 different ones for my birthday party last year.

Here are my 5 favorite soups starring fall produce.

Antioxidant-rich collard greens and fiber-packed black-eyed peas have a starring role in this nutritious Collard Green & Black-Eyed Pea Soup (recipe follows). There's no need for loads of ham or salt pork-just a small amount of bacon gives it a wonderful smoky flavor. You can skip the bacon and substitute vegetable broth for chicken broth for a great vegetarian dish.

Borscht is a simple beet soup typically made with beef broth and garnished with sour cream. We give it a kick with horseradish. For a vegetarian soup, use vegetable broth instead.

Our cheese- and beer-lover's potato soup,

To me, carrots are a humble vegetable. However, the Greeks once thought carrots were the secret to great sex. And the vegetable's amorous reputation followed it to Rome, where the emperor Caligula fed nothing but carrot dishes to the Roman Senate so he could watch them "rut like wild beasts."

Unfortunately for the Roman Senate, and any of us who want to find foods to boost our libido, carrots' powers in the bedroom have yet to be proven. On the other hand, the pigment that makes carrots orange-beta carotene-is the same compound the body converts to vitamin A, a vitamin essential for vision, healthy skin and the immune system. Get your fill of vitamin A and give your plate a splash of color with these delicious carrot recipes.

Chili-Roasted Carrots (recipe follows) - Roasted with chili powder and cumin then tossed with cilantro and lime juice, these carrots are bursting with zesty flavor. Serve them with simple roast chicken or pork.

Carrot Salad with Honey-Lemon Dressing

Most of the "water cooler conversation" around our office this time of year is about back to school. (Check out the recipes and tips in our new Back to School Guide!)

Wonder what it's like to chat about food with award-winning author and food activist Michael Pollan? Thought-provoking. At least that's what it was like for me when I interviewed Pollan, author of The New York Times bestseller The Omnivore's Dilemma (Penguin, 2006), for our latest issue of EatingWell Magazine. (Find out what one food Michael Pollan won't eat in our exclusive podcast.)

We were talking, in part, because a young reader's edition of The Omnivore's Dilemma is being released in October, allowing Pollan's thoughts on America's food system to reach a whole new generation of eaters. Here are a few interesting snippets from our interview (read the full article here).

Pollan on the single most important thing we can do to reduce childhood obesity:

Stop drinking soda. Or at least return soda to its place as a special-occasion drink. There are too many children in America who are drinking soda all day long and are consuming 1,000 calories a day in the form of liquid

Every fall, when I was growing up in western Pennsylvania, my parents took me and my younger brother, Angelo, apple picking. We'd usually go in late September, always on a Sunday. Angelo and I loved picking-but even more, we loved the savory apple recipes and sweet apple treats that my mom made with the bushel of apples (roughly 45 pounds) stored in our downstairs fridge.

My favorite was my mom's apple squares-sweet apple filling spread thin inside two layers of flaky crust (see recipe below). But I also loved her apple crisp (see EatingWell's version below) that she made when my parents' friends and their kids came over after the high school football games that took place just down the street from my house.

When I moved to Vermont seven years ago, my husband, Jon, and I restarted the apple-picking tradition. This is the second year we'll be taking our little boy, Julian. Just as I remembered it, apple picking is good family fun. And I still appreciate having a bounty of

I'm trying to eat more vegetarian meals, so I'm obsessed with beans. And the bean recipes I've been making have made it incredibly easy. I thought I would feel less satisfied without having meat as part of my dinner, but beans fill me right up. Since they're packed with fiber I never feel hungry after a meal. And my wallet isn't suffering either-a can of beans is much cheaper than a pound of chicken or beef (and a pound of dried beans is even less expensive!). Now that's what I call satisfaction.

Here are a few of my favorite vegetarian recipes with beans:

Southwestern Corn & Black Bean Salad (recipe below) - Here's a great make-ahead dinner-and leftovers are welcome for lunch the next day. If you make it ahead, don't add the salt and pepper until just before serving. That way, the salt won't render the vegetables soggy and the pepper won't lose its bite. Make it a meal: Scoop up this salad with warm corn tortillas.

Bean Bolognese - Fiber-rich beans stand in for the beef

I like to say that my favorite food group is cheese. I know cheese is not an actual food group, but it's so delicious it ought to be. Even though it can be high in calories and saturated fat there are still ways to enjoy cheese as part of a healthy diet. Plus, all cheese is a rich source of calcium, so sampling the abundance helps to strengthen your bones. (Try these 20+ recipes for bone health.)

I was inspired to offer the following recipes and tips for healthy ways to enjoy cheese after I recently went to the Vermont Cheesemakers' Festival, a special five-course cheese dinner. Here are some pictures from the festival:

An impressive spread of artisan cheeses! Photo Credit: Vermont Cheesemakers' Festival / Adeline Druart

A monster wheel of Grafton Village Cheddar Cheese. Photo Credit: Vermont Cheesemakers' Festival / Adeline Druart

In addition to trying lots of delicious cheese, I got to meet some cheese makers at the event. It was really awesome and so are

If you're looking for a way to make your food dollars and your cooking efforts go further, think cheap chicken dinners. A whole chicken can go a long way. Once a month, my husband and I buy a fresh chicken from a local farm. Sometimes I roast it whole and use the leftovers in another meal the next night. If I don't want to cook the whole thing at once, I divide it up so we can have the breast one night and the legs another. Because I think this fresh local chicken tastes so amazing, I get really excited about the delicious chicken recipes we can make with our special purchase.

Here are some of my all-time favorite chicken recipes, from simply roasting a whole chicken to a quick, easy recipe using convenient boneless, skinless breasts to a great recipe for leftover chicken.

Use a whole chicken in:
Pan-Roasted Chicken & Gravy (see recipe below) - A cast-iron skillet is the perfect vessel for a simple roast chicken. Almost every side dish, be it vegetables, legumes, pasta or