February 2008
Full Plate: Feeding the Whole Family
When I became pregnant with my first daughter, I created a rigid set of standards framed in “always” and “never” regarding post-breastfeeding food and nutrition. I vowed to always make my own organic baby food, never use processed sugar, always choose soy or rice milk over cow’s milk, never serve refined wheat products. Food was categorized as “good” or “bad,” and I became the self-appointed Food Police.
It took me several years to realize that I was so concerned about doing everything “right” that I had forgotten one of the most important ingredients in building a solid foundation for a lifetime of healthy eating: the joy and the celebration of healthy and nutritious food.
In the newly revised third edition of Feeding the Whole Family: Recipes for Babies, Young Children and Their Parents (Sasquatch Books, January, 2008), Cynthia Lair, noted Seattle nutrition instructor and cookbook author, shares her own journey to finding balance as her daughter Grace entered “the world of cupcakes and pizza.” Lair emphasizes that “finding the right balance of foods to feed yourself and your family is not a destination but rather an enlightening and unending process … too many rules about dietary restrictions can be overwhelming and create tension.”
Lair’s nutritional philosophy offers a bright and positive approach to cooking and health for the family. Educational without being preachy or punitive, Lair hopes that Feeding the Whole Family will continue to “demystify health and nutrition” by providing understandable and straightforward explanations of why whole foods are good for us and how we can easily make incremental changes in our eating choices. Full of delicious new recipes for the whole family, the updated cookbook also offers thoughtful and practical advice on buying organic foods, creating an efficient kitchen, children and healthy eating, and how to make time to cook and share meals with our families despite our hectic schedules.
Accompanying the new edition of Feeding the Whole Family is the Web site www.cookusinterruptus.com. The brainchild of Lair and director Brad Huskinson, www.cookusinterruptus.com combines Lair’s passion for whole foods cooking with her years of experience as a professional actress. The resulting videos (also posted on YouTube.com) are instructional yet simple, and often hilarious. With a calm, Zen-like demeanor, Lair demonstrates quick and easy methods for cooking fabulous dishes while offering such sage advice as the importance of thoroughly drying your tofu before it meets hot oil so that it won’t spatter and “burn your eyes out.”
Musician daughter, Jane, and semi-retired husband, Steve, pop in and out of the videos, creating comic relief and a zany interpretation of a busy family kitchen. Is it a cooking show, a nutrition class or an improv performance? The answer to all three is a resounding “yes!” After all, where else can you learn to make a quick and healthy peanut sauce and get an answer to the burning question: will a rubber spatula survive inside a roasting turkey?
When asked about future projects, Lair takes inventory of her past, embraces the present and looks toward the future with delicious contentment: “I’ve been so schizophrenic in my life – teaching at Bastyr University and the University of Washington, lecturing, writing cookbooks,” explains Lair. “And then there’s the other side of me that couldn’t live without acting and doing improv. Being able to bring these things together at this point in my life is heaven … it’s just heaven.”
For information on classes and lectures and how to purchase books by Cynthia Lair, including Feeding the Young Athlete (Moon Smile Press, 2002), visit www.cookusinterruptus.com or www.feedingfamily.com.
Cynthia Lair also performs improv theater the first Saturday of the month at The Edge on Bainbridge Island. For more information, go to www.theedgeimprov.com.
Riki Mafune is a Seattle writer and nutritionist and mother of two.
Recipes
Tomato Basil Soup
When I was a child, tomato soup was one of my main comfort foods. It is simple to make. The nightshade plants, such as tomatoes, are thought by some to affect calcium stores negatively. Perhaps that is why they are traditionally paired with calcium-rich dairy. The food company Muir Glen makes a “fire-roasted” canned tomato that is yummy to use in this recipe.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoon. extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 14.5 ounce can chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon honey
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup finely chopped fresh basil
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Heat oil and butter in a 4-quart pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic
and salt and sauté until onions are soft and translucent. Add stock,
tomatoes and honey and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes to marry flavors.
Let soup cool slightly and put half of it into a blender with sour cream. Blend until smooth. Transfer to another pot. Blend the other half of the soup and add. Warm blended soup. Add basil and pepper before serving.
Preparation time: 25-30 minutes
Makes four servings
Sweet Rice Timbales
This elegant looking mounded rice looks like you spent hours when you didn’t. Lovely served next to grilled fish and vegetables, with fantastic flavors used to achieve nutritional balance!
Ingredients:
1 ½ cup brown rice
½ cup sweet brown rice
½ teaspoon sea salt
3 cups water
2 tablespoons mirin (seasoned, rice-based wine)
2 tablespoons brown rice syrup
2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
2 teaspoons toasted brown or black sesame seeds
Rinse and drain rices. Place rice, salt and water in the pressure cooker. Lock cooker. Place on high heat and bring up to pressure. When pressure gauge rises and is firm, you will hear a gentle, steady hissing sound. Lower heat and time for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from heat and allow pressure to come down naturally or drizzle cold water over the top. Allow rice to cool slightly, until just warm.
While rice is cooking put mirin, syrup and vinegar in small sauce pan and heat until flavors marry and mixture is warm. Pour over warm rice and stir to combine.
Place sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat and stir constantly until they begin to pop and change color. Set aside.
Oil a small ramekin or cup. Pack rice into the cup until it is as dense as possible and the top is level. Invert and place on a plate. Garnish the top with toasted seeds. Repeat with remaining rice.
Preparation time: 55 minutes
Makes six to eight timbales
For babies 6 months and older: Blend some of the cooked sweet brown rice with some breast milk or formula. Fresh rice cereal for baby!
Nori-Wrapped Wasabi Salmon
This recipe is a compilation of one by Mary Shaw and one published in the Fall 2001 Desert Dining Guide from the En Fuego restaurant in Arizona with a few twists of my own. By wrapping the salmon before baking, it stays very moist and tender. The nori adds unusual flavor and bonus minerals.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped herbs: any combination of thyme, basil, garlic,
parsley, mint
Salt and pepper
2 8-ounce salmon fillets
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon wasabi powder
2 sheets of nori (edible seaweed)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Mix oil, herbs, salt and pepper. Rub salmon with mixture. Mix mustard and wasabi together. Spread on nori. Place salmon face down in the middle of the nori sheet and wrap like a package so that fish is fully covered. The nori will stick to itself and the fish. Place wrapped fish in a slightly oiled baking dish. The general rule for fish is to cook it 10 minutes for each inch of thickness. The nori will lightly flavor the fish and seal in the juices.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Makes four small or two regular servings
For babies 6 months and older: This dish is lovely served with Sweet Rice Timbales. Reserve some of the cooked rice and puree with water to make cereal for baby.
Recipes are reprinted, with permission, from Feeding
the Whole Family (third edition) by Cynthia Lair (Sasquatch Books,
2008).
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