Daulter - The organic family cookbook: growing, greening, and cooking together

Published by Sellers Publishing, Inc.

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e-ISBN: 978-1-4162-0719-1

The Organic Family Cookbook 2011 Anni Daulter. Photographs by Alexandra DeFurio. Food styling by Anni Daulter. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form, by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Sellers Publishing, Inc. e-books.
December 2011

To my family as always, you have supported me and loved me through this process. Tim, I love you more than all the stars on a Big Sur night. Zo, Lotus, Bodhi, and River you are my heart and soul and my every inspiration. Zo, you are so creative and an independent thinker and I have come to admire you so much; Lotus, you are the most loving and thoughtful being and your smile lights up every room; Bodhi, you make everyone smile with your silly and warm nature; and River Love, you are the most peace-filled baby I have ever encountered and you teach me about pure joy.

This book is also dedicated to all the families who will enjoy the food and love that fill these pages. May this be our first meeting of many.

There is an old saying, The family that prays together stays together. I believe that the family that cooks together grows together, and that the family that cooks organically together grows healthy and stays that way together.

I met Anni Daulter when my daughter (now six years old, as this book goes into print) was nine months old. Anni owned Bohemian Baby, a fresh organic baby food company, and she made the most delicious foods for my daughter and lots of babies around Los Angeles. It was one of my first introductions to beautiful wholesome baby food, and Anni and I became friends. We have continued down a similar path of holistic parenting, living, educating, and cooking, and Anni has continued to be an inspiration to me. With my second child, Annis first book, Organically Raised, was my baby food bible. In her second book, Ice Pop Joy, she shows us how popsicles can be both nutritious and tasty treats. And now, with The Organic Family Cookbook, she takes organic, healthy, and inspired cooking to the next level.

Anni understands how to cook and share a good meal with those she cares about. She knows that at the heart of a healthy family there is a strong relationship to unadulterated ingredients that come straight from the earth, whether it be from your own garden, farmers market, or natural food store. In this day and age, where disease is the norm, food is truly medicine, and when a parent shows his or her child that the way to good health is through good food, an amazing foundation has been set. Anni understands this and shares it in this book. I have eaten Annis food, and I can tell you firsthand that it is high vibration food, high energy, and oh so tasty! It is an honor for me to write this foreword on her behalf, and I for one cant wait to go into my kitchen with my family and cook from this book. I hope you do, too.

Anna Getty, founder of Pregnancy Awareness Month, author, cook, educator, and mother.

C ookbooks are a labor of love, and each one has the heart and soul of its author. Right there on the pages is what we believe in, how we cook, what is valuable to us, and why. My first cookbook, Organically Raised: Conscious Cooking for Babies and Toddlers, was written from my passion about starting babies and toddlers off on the best possible culinary and nutritional foot possible. With this book, I have been asked to expand this vision to the whole family, so I can share with you how we do what we do. I hope that it helps you find joy and tasty foods in your own kitchen.

I enjoy cooking food that people like pure and simple and I want it to be healthy, fresh, and organic. What I have learned about raising a family in a natural way is that a whole lot of time needs to be put into it. Each child has his or her own way to be nurtured and each has something unique to throw into the family soup, so to speak. When we decide to cook fresh, from-scratch foods, it does take some time and thoughtful planning, but when you sit down to that meal cooked with such love and care, it makes it all worth it. The in-between moments with our families cooking, creating, and being together make up the goodness of life, and nothing tastes better than that!

I first want to introduce you to my family and myself, so that you feel like a friend of the Daulters by the end of this book. I have four kids and an amazing husband, Tim. I am an eco-minded mama who loves creating in every way, from babies to food to natural crafting. I love every minute of this life and deeply appreciate being given the opportunity to write books that may help make the world a slightly better place to live. I have always been drawn to nature and simple living and have found ways to translate those desires to my family life. I used to be a social worker, but when I found my love for food and cooking, I exchanged my career for a culinary adventure that has taken me down many roads, all of which have unfolded in ways I would have never expected.

My oldest son, Zo, is 13, a strict vegetarian, and very creative in the kitchen. In fact, he came up with the sauted banana recipe in the dessert section all on his own, and even helped style the photograph for this book! Zo was the spark that started me down this culinary path, and he recently told me that he wants to go to the Culinary Institute of America and become a chef one day. When he was born, I did not know much about cooking, but I knew I wanted to feed him fresh natural foods, so I became a mom on a mission. I taught myself how to cook and continued learning at places like Tassajara, a Zen Buddhist retreat, in Carmel Valley, California. It was in those mountain kitchens that I learned the concept and implementation of conscious cooking and mindful eating. I am grateful that these experiences have shaped how I feed my family.