Keogh - The School Year Survival Cookbook

Copyright 2017 Sweet Potato Chronicles

Photography copyright 2017 Maya Visnyei Photography

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisheror in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agencyis an infringement of the copyright law.

Appetite by Random House and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library and Archives of Canada Cataloguing in Publication is available upon request.

ISBN9780147530295

Ebook ISBN9780147530301

Editor: Bhavna Chauhan

Cover photography: Maya Visnyei

Food stylist: David Grenier

Prop stylist: Catherine Doherty

Published in Canada by Appetite by Random House, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited

www.penguinrandomhouse.ca

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For Scarlett, Esme and Julian, the reasons for all those lunches.

A s you can tell from its name, this cookbook is all about helping parents manage feeding their families through the devilish challenges of the school year. But it was actually born on a book tour for our first cookbook, How to Feed a Family. During trips to multiple cities, interviews with journalists (often parents, too), radio call-in shows and book signings, we talked to a lot of parents. And while the reaction we received to How to Feed a Family was enthusiastic, conversations about food and family usually ended up in the same place: Buthow?! Parents in that school phase, in particular, were stressed about the volume of food that has to be shopped for, made, packed up, served, hopefully eaten, and cleaned up. And as kids get older and busier with activities, things just get tougher.

Its a landscape we know very well. Now that all of our kids are in school, were living there, too. How do you get breakfast into kids, make it to early morning cross-country practice with a lunch packed and some snacks for the tiny window between school and ballet class? Oh, and then get everybody home for dinner and homework? Even worse, some families schedules dictate dinner on-the-go, so meals for an entire day need to be ready to roll the day before. Add working parents, with their own hectic schedules, to the mix, and its rough.

We started to feel like a cookbook that speaks to parents of school-aged kids has to be as much about the how as the what, when it comes to food. We wanted to answer the questions of how to get organized, create a plan and how to get the most out of your time in the kitchen. And when we floated the idea of a school year cookbook that would take it all on, the reaction from friends and strangers alike was always the same: I need that book right now.

And so, friends, here it is. Alongside our hard-working recipes youll find the strategies we know youll need to pull off the school year without losing your mind. Weve road-tested every bit of this book, from setting up an efficient pantry, to creating fast and delicious dishes you can cook ahead for the week, and it all absolutely makes a difference to sanity levels. Otherwise, we wouldnt have been here to write it. In our experience, using all of these strategies in concert gives the best results; however, even meal planning and baking a batch of muffins on the weekend will make a big difference to your stress levels.

As youre using this handbook for survivalwere hoping it will be dog-eared and sauce-splattered soon!there are a few things we invite you to keep in mind.

GET ORGANIZED. There are lots of tips in the book about how to tackle food, but the bottom line is leaving as little to chance as possible. Like planning your annual Thanksgiving dinner, thinking and preparing as much in advance is the best defense against the hurricane of responsibilities that is your weekly life. Initially, it will feel hard, like more work than less. But you got this! Just like you learned to nail bedtime, this will all become routine. And youll find the shortcuts (thank you, pre-made mixes from heaven) to make it run like clockwork. If youve never tried meal planning, expect to become evangelical after the first couple of weeks. Youll save time, money and stress.

NUTRITION COUNTS. Weve not only thought about what to give your family, but in what amounts, why and when. As parents we all worry (some of us obsess) about our childrens nutrition. Its why weve woven nutritional information throughout the book. However, its not just eat carrots for vitamin A; we give you the tools to help you pack the most nutrition into all of your meals. From breakfasts that fire the brain for learning to lunches that hold off the 2:00 p.m. slump, we worked with a dietician to make sure the meals were making not only feed a family but fuel them. So let go of your worry and just refer to our guides to help stack your meals with nutrition. Also, check out our section for active kidswe know there are a lot of families that cope with the challenge of children who barely have time for a meal between intense practices and games.

HOW THE RECIPES WORK. We wanted to make our recipes as easy as possible for you to use. So, of course weve highlighted those that are vegetarian, fast, portable and great for your active kids. In addition, we put a spotlight on which ones can be made ahead and stored in the freezer. But we also took a whole new approach to writing our recipes by creating and incorporating the Get Ahead stage. In this page note, we pull out the step or steps in the recipe you can do in advance. Then, when you go to prepare the dish, this important feature reduces the recipes total time, helping you get dinner on the table quicker and easier. We thoroughly understand that there are days when the dividing line between peace and chaos can come down to a precious 15-minute window. And, like we said, your absolute best defense for a busy week is identifying where you can get ahead, so we wanted to do some of that work for you.