First Post

I joke that if my wife were doing the cooking, then we'd eat boiled spaghetti every day but with sauce as a special treat on Sunday. I've said this in front of my wife, a few times, and she does not protest. Necessity being the mother of invention, I do the cooking.

After repeated requests for this or that recipe, I make these recipes available en masse. Between chronic laziness and the sheer number of recipes, it will take some time to make everything available.

My selection criteria are straightforward: simplicity, nutritional content, and no processed ingredients. Healthy eating does not require excessive time and effort. One need only experiment and take the occasional culinary risk. Cultivation of the habit of label reading is essential. I also don't think that I would be able to cook as well or as healthily as I do without Google.

Whenever possible, ingredients are fresh, dried, or minimally preserved. I refuse to buy products containing corn syrup. I avoid beef for four reasons: 1) tender cuts are typically more expensive; 2) I don't know enough to confidently select beef cuts; 3) red meat is not particularly healthy; 4) the jury is still out as whether Creuzfeldt-Jakobs disease is transmitted by eating beef infected with Mad Cow disease. It is inarguable though that if one consumes very little, or no beef, it is a moot point.

As for my favorite cookbook. I'd have to say hands down that it is Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. The recipes are straightforward, nutritious, pleasantly exotic, and without processed ingredients, e.g., no Velveeta recipes.

As far as getting children to eat most of these things, if you won't eat them, they won't either. The easiest would be institute "new recipe night" once every week or two. If the children are involved in the selection process and in preparation, it is far more likely they will happily consume the fruit of their labors. There are also the obvious tricks of emphasizing the ingredients that they do like. Almost every child loves raisins, but may be wary of hummus. Tuna Salad #2 contains both as well as black olives, another ingredient popular with children.