cover image The Family Cooks: 100+ Recipes to Get Your Family Craving Food That's Simple, Tasty, and Incredibly Good for You

The Family Cooks: 100+ Recipes to Get Your Family Craving Food That's Simple, Tasty, and Incredibly Good for You

Laurie David, recipes by Kirstin Uhrenholdt, photos by Quentin Bacon. Rodale, $27.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-62336-250-8

In this cookbook, environmentalist and film producer David (The Family Dinner) offers an "antidote" to America's unhealthy love affair with the "three amigos" of sugar, salt, and fat. With chef Uhrenholdt, David created easy, from-scratch recipes to get families off the merry-go-round in today's "food-carnival environment." Breakfasts feature porridge, granola, eggs, pancakes, and smoothies like the green apple almond milk Green Genie. For lunch, she provides recipes for crunchy cabbage-stuffed whole-grain quesadillas and a BLT with shitake "bacon." A section titled "Soupersalads!" includes a peppermint green pea soup, as well as salads with grains, nuts, and homemade dressings. Dinner showcases chicken, cod, pasta, and bean/grained-based recipes. Also featured are kid-pleasing sides like roasted cauliflower popcorn and a healthy coconut-mango pudding. With advice on training kids' palates, David busts the myth of the "picky eater" and explains how to "shop like a pro" and decipher nutritional information on industry labels. Essential guidelines for keeping the kitchen a safe, fun, and productive family place are included along with tips for avoiding waste and managing trash. For David, eating at home with the family is at the heart of the new food revolution; her essays celebrate our "inner homesteader" and might even prompt the resurgence of table conversation. (Apr.)