David Laurie - The family cooks: 100+ recipes to get your family craving food thats simple, tasty, and incredibly good for you

With these delicious recipes that celebrate flavor and seasonality, Laurie David gives parentsa simple roadmap for bringing children into a new and lasting relationship to food. All families shouldhave this wonderful book in their kitchen!

ALICE WATERS, owner of Chez Panisse restaurant and caf, founder of theEdible Schoolyard Project, and the author of The Art of Simple Food I and II

A dream come true for busy parents: fun to read, gorgeous to look at, and delicious to eat.The Family Cooks will make your kids ask for seconds and build great eating habits to last a lifetime.How great for the price of just one book!

HARVEY KARP, MD, creator of the DVD/book The Happiest Toddler on the Block

Mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities in this book does not imply endorsement by the author or publisher, nor does mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities imply that they endorse this book, its author, or the publisher.

Internet addresses and telephone numbers given in this book were accurate at the time it went to press.

2014 by Hybrid Nation Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

Book design by Kara Plikaitis

Photographs by Quentin Bacon

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data is on file with the publisher.

ISBN-13: 9781623362508 hardcover
ISBN-13: 9781623362515 ebook

We inspire and enable people to improve their lives and the world around them.
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To you (yes, you)!
For a life vibrant, as healthy, and delicious as the food you cook

So you never have to eat sugary cereal again

Healthy sandwiches to savor and wraps to pack

Nourishing and leafy meals that inspire

Addictively healthy

Weeknight or weekend, feed your family well from scratch

Beloved beans, a bowl of greens, and grains to please all palates

So you know whats in it

Berry berry good-for-you desserts (and chocolate too)

Use less, waste less and throw away less

10 mealtime conversation topics for the whole family

My favorite childhood memories revolve around our dinner table in the house where I grew up in Arlington, Virginia. This is where my two older sisters and older brother would plot future school elections, we all would chat about our lives, and each would bring a new word to the table. My favorite was ubiquitous. Those dinners gave me a lifelong appreciation of quality family time, good food, and a great vocabulary.

Once I had children of my own, I did everything in my power to preserve what seemed to be an almost antiquated tradition: family dinners. People werent eating together anymore because their lives were so hectic and overscheduled and so-called convenience foods were making it easy for each member of the family to grab something, nuke it, and call it a meal. At the same time, it seemed that every year I spent in TV news, the more time I spent reporting on stories about childhood obesity. Type 2 diabetes rates were skyrocketing. Military recruitment was more challenging because people were getting too heavy to enlist. As a nation, we were getting fatter and unhealthier by the minute. At the same time, the exercise craze was in full force, and store shelves were full of low-fat and healthier alternatives. What was going on?

This wasnt just a topic I covered on the news. I remember taking some students my daughter Carrie and I mentored from the Harlem Village Academies to the Union Square Farmers Market several years ago. It was the Saturday before Mothers Day and after we bought lilacs to take home to the moms, we walked around and looked at the bounty of fresh produce spilling over the wooden tables. Hey kids, I asked, Do you know what these are? as I held up a bunch of asparagus. They stared at me blankly. The same thing happened when I picked up mushrooms. One girl said she had never tasted a raw carrot. How could this be? These children were 10 years old! We went to my apartment and prepared some of the vegetables for lunch, where they got mixed reviews. But clearly these kids just didnt know much, if anything, about the foods they were eating on a regular basis.... and the foods they werent.

Slowly but surely, people started becoming more aware of the issue. After all, it was hard to avoid all the news stories and new studies about the obesity epidemic. But it was awareness of the problem... not the solution. And like many long-term issues, the national will to actually do something was nowhere to be found.

I decided we needed to lay it out in no uncertain terms. We needed to do for this issue what An Inconvenient Truth did for global warming. We needed Laurie David. Although I had only met Laurie once, I emailed and asked if she would join forces with me and director and producer Stephanie Soechtig to put together a documentary on childhood obesity. I believe it took her about three seconds to get back to me.... and we were off.

We have learned so much since that email exchange almost three years ago, and as we began to understand the causes of this global epidemic, we were shocked and infuriated. Then we felt triumphant. Because once we uncovered the causes, the solution became crystal clear. The single most powerful thing anyone can do to protect their health, to live a healthy life, and to have a healthy future is to go into their own kitchen and cook food themselves. Its really that simple.

The Family Cooks is going to help all of us do just that. I love to cook and I love making healthy dishes. But I need help! Im still learning about fresh ingredients and new ways to prepare real, unprocessed foods. Cooking together as a family is almost as important as eating together. Its educational and fun! So roll up your sleeves, throw on an apron (or not!), and lets get cooking!