Back with another gift guide!

I just bought myself another cookbook, which is outrageous since I have way more than I could ever use.  But I can’t help myself.  I keep seeing fantastic ones that I must have.

So, in light of that, I thought I’d give you my top 5 “family” cookbooks.  I use scare quotes here because some of them aren’t specifically aimed at cooking for families, but I find that many of the recipes can be great for kids.

Here goes!

1.  The Family Dinner, by Laurie David.

I confess, this is the one I just bought.  But already I love it.  It naturally makes a case for family dinner, although I was in no need of persuasion.  But what I love about this book is that it isn’t just recipes.  It’s also ideas for fun thought- and conversation-provoking questions that will make your dinner interactions a little more profound.  Every recipe also include a list of steps that kids can do to help with the cooking, and there are quite a few “green tips” throughout, which isn’t surprising considering Laurie David produced Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth.  She was, at one time, married to Larry David of Curb Your Enthusiasm.  She is no longer, and she includes suggestions for family dinners when couples are separated or divorced, which is nice, too.

2.  Clean Food, by Terry Walters.

Clean Food is full of eco-friendly and healthy recipes that are really delicious.  The book is arranged seasonally, which I love, because you can usually count on finding everything fresh and tasty if you are cooking within the season.  Everything is vegetarian, with plenty of recipes that include alternative proteins like tempeh or seitan.  And if you’re more of an American traditionalist, you can stick with the legume recipes– or the plethora of simple vegetable dishes.  One great thing about this book is that it includes yummy recipes for cooking foods you may have always wanted to try but never found the right recipe.  I always wanted to include more kale in our diet since it’s just about the healthiest thing ever, but it just tastes so… bitter.  Enter Roasted Kabocha Squash with Kale, and now your kale is paired with possibly the sweetest squash on the planet, and the two balance each other nicely.

3.  Bean Appetit, by Shannon Seip, Kally Parthen, and Carisa Dixon.

True confession: Shannon is a friend of mine.  But her cookbook is too awesome!  She’s even been on Good Morning America with it, so she’s got food cred.  She and her business partner Kelly opened a kids’ cafe in Madison, WI, and this book follows their restaurant’s philosophy: getting kids to eat healthy by participating in food production and making eating fun.  There are great recipes in here, but probably even better are the questions for the dinner table (“if you were a hungry caterpillar, what is the last food you would eat before building your cocoon?”), food-related games, and fun facts that will make kids laugh.  Chapters are arranged by themes, including a section for book-themed foods, picnic menus, global foods, and party ideas.  You’ll love their little bean mascot, too.

4.  Everyday Cooking with Dr. Dean Ornish, by Dean Ornish.

You may not know who Dr. Ornish is, but he’s famous amongst us health-neurotics.  He was the first doctor to discover that heart disease is reversible; that is, if you have clogged arteries and go on his meal plan, you can actually reduce the plaque in your blood vessels.  Before Dr. Dean, the conventional wisdom was that you could halt its progression, but not cure heart disease.  So he’s kind of like, a big deal.  His book is old news, but it’s probably one of the most-used books on my shelf.  His chili recipe is the only one I ever make (vegetarian, of course), and it gets rave reviews all the time.  A Caesar Salad recipe with nonfat dressing that actually tastes good!  Mushroom and spinach lasagna!  The recipes in this book stick to his healthy heart plan, which means they all have less than 10% fat in them.  That’s pretty low, and you may not want to eat like this all the time, but his recipes are so good you probably won’t even notice you are eating super healthy.

5.  Moosewood Restaurant New Classics, by the Moosewood Collective.

This is the latest of eight cookbooks that the collective (19 chefs strong) has produced, and it is chock–CHOCK!– full of great recipes.  Moosewood is a vegetarian restaurant in New York, but what’s nice about these recipes is that they are takes on all kinds of classics.  Tofu Sloppy Joes, Low-fat Latkes, Pad Thai, Cioppino, Bibimbap… and Big Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Yum.  There are over 350 recipes, so you definitely get your money’s worth.

So if you have a foodie on your list, or someone who has to cook for him- or herself or a family, you might check one of these out.  They are fab!

Happy weekend!

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