Posts Tagged ‘cooking’

It’s no secret that we’re an unhealthy land and children in this country continue to suffer the consequences. In 2008 Jessica Seinfeld showed us how to hide healthy ingredients in kid-friendly foods to help boost their daily intake of key nutrients with her book Deceptively Delicious.

She has found her way back to the kitchen to provide healthy and satisfying recipes for the whole family. Double Delicious!: Good, Simple Food for Busy, Complicated Lives provides guidance and inspiration to busy families who want to make their meals both nutritional and appealing.

The book includes an aisle by aisle guide to making better decisions at the grocery store to boost the nutrients in our daily food. “When faced with hundreds of products on the supermarket shelves - many outright unhealthy and some masquerading as healthy - smart shopping becomes almost like a search-and-rescue mission.” She enlists the help of Lisa Sasson, a nutritionist in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, to develop shopping guidelines that are easy to understand.

She provides many inventive recipes including these that we can’t wait to try: Salmon Burgers, Creamy Whole-Grain Risotto, Scrambled Egg Muffins, Caesar Dressing, and Doughnut Cookies. Recipes are complete with nutritional information, estimated preparation times and nutritionist Joy Bauer contributes helpful tips throughout the book.

Start with the Chicken Cannelloni and Frozen Banana Pops, your family might actually thank you.

Available at Amazon.com

When it comes to keeping fit and healthy, we’ve all been known to try the latest fad diet,  even a detox regimen from time to time. But for our children, maintaining a healthy weight should follow the better philosophy of “everything in moderation.” Now comes a healthy way of eating that even your kids will green-light.

Enter a practical color-coded guide that’s NOT from the Department of Homeland Security, where green = go (nutritious), yellow = slow (eat in moderation), and red =uh oh (only for occasional treats). Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right: The Food Solution That Lets Kids be Kids is by Dr. Joanna Dolgoff, a pediatrician who specializes in helping kids manage their weight. She created the color-coded plan to help combat the continuing health crisis of childhood obesity. Here are the highlights:

- No foods are off limits.
- Children get the nutrients they need to grow strong, healthy bodies.
- Busy parents can use sample menus, meal plans, and delicious recipes.
- Eating out is a breeze with an index of more than 1,000 color-coded foods.
- Those at an ideal weight benefit from vital nutritional information to maintain that weight (adults and kids.)

Kids can have fun with recipes such as fruit pizza, maple-roasted sweet potatoes, and frozen yogurt pops. In addition, the book provides chapters on exercise, snacking and handling special occasions (birthdays, holidays, and other celebrations.)

Who knew the traffic light was good for something besides sneaking in text messages or applying mascara!

Available at Amazon.com

For many of us, survival depends on avoiding our kitchen. Rather than give our Viking range a workout, we take full advantage of restaurant deliveries, take-out and prepared (often overpriced) food from the local gourmet market. So the idea of giving up all of that is nothing short of frightening. But that’s exactly what one twenty-something in Brooklyn did.

Blogger and author Cathy Erway wanted to save money, consume less and eat more renewable sources. So she embarked on a culinary adventure in sustainability, chronicling her experiences in a blog, Noteatingoutinny.com. Swearing off restaurants, Erway took to communal dining, trash diving and dating sans the restaurant scene.

Her recently published memoir/cookbook, The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove, expands on her journey. The book is filled with recipes and stories of her two-year “experiment.” Bottom line: She was eventually reminded of the simple pleasures of cooking her own meals and sharing with friends.

Get going. Your stove awaits …

Available at Amazon.com

The all-chicken nugget diet isn’t exactly ideal, but it’s the only thing he’ll eat. “Vegetable” is a dirty word, but you’ve got to get some beta-carotene into the little bugger.

Add a little nutrition without the kids noticing. Hip Hip Puree does ready-made, frozen, organic vegetable purees. While making your own from scratch sounds nice, becoming a junior Jessica Seinfeld just isn’t in the cards. Packaged in single serving (1/2 cup) pouches, these purees in four varieties (carrot, broccoli, sweet potato and cauliflower) can easily be added to sauces, side dishes or desserts. Try Hip Hip’s recipes for banana bread (with cauliflower) or muffins (with carrot), or start building your own yummy creation.

Mind your Ps and Qs (peas and quinoa).

Available at hiphippuree.com.

Your DCs will not be destined for a life of takeout — if only you could figure out what to make for dinner.

The Everything Organic Cooking for Baby & Toddler Book features 300 recipes that will show you how to prepare yummy meals, from avocado banana mash to chicken enchiladas, for ages 4 months and up. Tips on how to shop economically, find the best produce (and know if foods really are organic) and what to eat at each age give ample nutritional navigation. Co-authored by a “mom-cook” who developed recipes for a son with multiple allergies, and a specialist in pediatric nutrition, the book is an easy-to-follow guide to eating healthy.

No menu needed.

Available at amazon.com.

What’s for dinner? It’s a question you ask yourself every day, as the challenge to come up with something new — and easy — casts a spell over the kitchen. Even opening a cookbook feels like too much work after the day you’ve had.

Relish menu planning service was founded by two moms who know the value of a good meal plan. For a minimal monthly subscription, you get access to healthy, kid-friendly recipes and their related grocery lists (think Chicken Divan instead of chicken nuggets). One section is devoted to freezer meals, for those defrost-and-go weekends.

Now if you could only find someone to do the cooking…

Visit relishrelish.com.