Padma Lakshmi Talks To Shine! Yahoo

Padma Lakshmi recently interviewed with Yahoo! Shine to talk about being a single parent.
Here are excerpts the Top Chef host had to say:

On being a single parent: “One thing I’ll say, in truth – I am a single parent. But I don’t feel alone at all in parenting my daughter.”

On parent Twitter etiquette: “I never tweet about my daughter. Never. I just want to be respectful of her privacy. My job as a mom is to know when to open my mouth and when not to.”

On her post-pregnancy body: “It’s really hard. I wasn’t like those girls who give birth and are back on the runway. I am normally a size 4, so I went up ten dress sizes in six months.”

On advice for entertaining with kids in the house: “Choose a menu with most items that you can prepare ahead of time and then one or two dishes that you will finish off just before or during the party. Then you can enlist guests to help – and also kids! Kids love to help and they can, as long as it doesn’t involve knives or heat. They can toss a salad for you. They can fold the napkins. That makes them feel like it’s their party, too.”

On combining your family life with your social life: “You make it clear if it’s an adult party or is it a child’s party. If it’s an event with children and you do have wine there, you want to be very responsible. You want to make sure there’s a lot of food.”

On entertaining on a budget: “What’s good for the wallet is also usually good for the body. Rather than do a big beef roast, you can make a stew. It has chunks of meat in it but if you slow cook it, you can use cheaper cuts of meat. You can add a lot of root vegetables, which stretch the budget [and portions] a lot farther. You can wind up feeding twelve people instead of six.”

On “Top Chef: Texas!”: “We are bigger than ever. We have a lot of great guest judges this season. Patti LaBelle and PeeWee Herman and Charlize Theron, and all these great chefs and Nathan Myrhrvold.”

I'm a fan of the show so will be watching Top Chef Texas!