How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy, Balanced Diet: with Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time, Even if You Have a Tiny Kitchen, Only Three Saucepans (One with an Ill-Fitting Lid), and No Fancy Gadgets---Unless You Count the Garlic Crusher

by Gill Holcombe

Overview

The name says it all: This is the cookbook for anyone with a busy life and a tight budget.

In today's world it is easy to find yourself short on time and money. Cooking for your family while working fulltime seems nearly impossible. But Gill Holcombe proves that with healthy ingredients and stress-free recipes you can feed your family of four for less that $45 a week.

Filled with simple, wholesome and nutritious recipes, this brilliant little cookbook will save you from spending hours slaving over a hot stove or spending a fortune at the supermarket. It is a must-have kitchen companion for the modern family.

How to Feed Your Whole Family includes:

· Over 200 recipes for all types of meals

· Straightforward ingredients list

· Clear instructions and advice

· Updated weekly shopping lists

· Budget-friendly menu plans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312599508
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/27/2010
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

GILL HOLCOMBE lives in Northern London. Her second book, Fish Pies and French Fries, Vegetables, Meat and Something Sweet: Affordable, Everyday Food and Family-friendly Recipes Made Easy, was published in July 2009 and became an instant UK bestseller.

Read an Excerpt

How to Feed your Whole Family a Healthy, Balanced Diet

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By Gill Holcombe

St. Martin's Press

Copyright © 2007 Gill Holcombe
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-312-59950-8

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CHAPTER 1

Wake up to breakfast

Breakfast wasn't very exciting when I was a child; toast and cereal just about had it covered in our house, so once I started going to work early in the morning I dispensed with breakfast altogether and ate a couple of Kit Kats on the bus. Then I left home and breakfast became a cup of tea and a cigarette, followed by another cup of tea and a cigarette at the office. In fact, I didn't really take breakfast seriously until I was pregnant for the first time — and then it was a struggle to keep down one Weetabix.

Lots of people, especially children, dread eating first thing in the morning, but endless research has shown how important breakfast is. Having witnessed the effects of going without food on tired, listless, and irritable kids, I agree that getting them to eat something before they leave the house makes a huge difference, not only to their happiness and well-being, but to the way they behave and perform at school, so it's worth getting into good habits as soon as you can.

There's nothing wrong with toast and cereal of course, but there are plenty of alternatives, so try and make breakfast a bit more interesting and less of a chore by making changes and finding out what your children like, what they don't like, and what they wouldn't eat if it was the only thing between them and total starvation.

If you want them to eat something they haven't tried before and you're not sure how they're going to react, give them the chance to try it first on the weekend or during the holidays, rather than on a school morning when you're pushed for time and already have a hundred-and-one things to worry about.

EVERYDAY BREAKFASTS

* * *

Cereal

* * *

I think it's fair to say you can separate cereal into two camps; the goodies, made entirely from whole grains with little, or no, added salt and sugar, and the baddies, which contain a lot of extra sugar, and in some cases as much salt as you'd find in a bag of chips.

I suppose any cereal has to be better than nothing because they all contain added vitamins and are eaten with milk (and if you get into the good habit of not giving children extra sugar from the very beginning, they'll never miss it). There's nothing to stop you reading the labels on every box in the supermarket if you feel like it but, as a general rule, the less fancy looking the cereal, the healthier it's going to be. Anything frosted, flavored, colored, coated in honey, or mixed with chocolate chips and other bits and pieces is certain to contain some or all of the things you want to avoid, so here's a quick guide to your best bets.

OATMEAL All oatmeal, any oatmeal; from a box, from a bag, or an individual package. There shouldn't be any added sugar in oat cereals, even the ones aimed specifically at children, and now quick-cooking oatmeal can be made in the microwave you don't even have the bother of cleaning the saucepan afterwards.

KELLOGG'S all-bran Greatly improved since the days when it tasted exactly like minced cardboard, but if you still can't bear to eat it on its own (I can't), make a delicious fruit and bran loaf instead (page 177).

SHREDDED WHEAT The bite-size version is especially good for kids, and this is one cereal that doesn't go soggy in the milk.

MUESLI With or without added sugar, there are so many healthy ingredients in muesli, does it really matter?

WEETABIX Make it more interesting for children by pouring on a fruit smoothie, or milk flavored with a spoonful of Nesquik, rather than plain milk.

Fruit

* * *

If you haven't eaten fruit for breakfast before because you're worried you'll be starving long before lunch, give it a try; I bet you find a good helping of fruit (especially with yogurt) fills you up far more effectively than a bowl of soggy cereal.

In fact, fruit is a really easy option at breakfast time, especially in the spring and summer months, and I've found that even children who don't normally favor fruit often find a few slices of banana with a small spoonful of yogurt and honey less daunting than a piece of toast or a bowl of cereal. Not only does it look more inviting, it's nice to have something sweet when you've got a dry, early morning taste in your mouth. (If you're worried about brushing your teeth too soon after having fruit, eat a small piece of cheese to neutralize the acid in your mouth and protect the enamel, then wait a couple of minutes. The same rule applies anytime you've eaten food containing a lot of acid; I always gave my children a piece of cheese after a marathon sweet-eating session — of which there were many — and it seems to have worked for them so far.)

Just a few slices or chunks of fruit, or a combination of fruits, such as banana, apple, pear, melon, kiwifruit, grapes, or berries, with live-culture yogurt (plain or fruit) and a teaspoonful of honey drizzled over the top.

Half a grapefruit or an orange cut into segments and sprinkled with very little sugar. Put the fruit under the broiler to melt the sugar and take the chill off if you like, especially in the winter when cold fruit isn't so appealing. (If you buy the sweeter varieties of grapefruit you shouldn't even need to add sugar.)

Jarred prunes. Soft, sweet, and easy to eat. Most ready-to-serve prunes I've come across aren't even particularly wrinkled, despite what their bad reputation suggests. (Eat five, then if you do "Tinker, Tailor" with the stones, it always come out "rich man.")

Fruit smoothies. The possibilities are endless (see Chapter 7: Can't Cook? Don't Cook!).

Cake

* * *

Cake is the answer to a parent's prayers on those cold, dark winter mornings when it's an effort getting out of bed on time, no one fancies fruit, and you don't want to make anything more complicated than a cup of tea. When you think about it, plenty of Europeans with far fewer health problems than we have in this country eat cakes, croissants, and jam for breakfast all the time, and I don't see a problem as long as children have a small glass of milk or fresh juice with it.

Bran loaf, rock buns, fruit and muesli muffins, bread pudding, apple, ginger, carrot, or plum cake (see Wholesome Cakes in Chapter 8: Let Them Eat Cake) or cheese and zucchini scones (page 166) all do the trick.

Eggs

* * *

Eggs are so versatile, and in their simplest forms they only take a very few minutes to cook.

Boiled Eggs Everyone has a theory on the best way to boil an egg, and now there's more than one gadget on the market to do the job for you. Assuming you're not spoiled enough to have your butler produce six boiled eggs in a row for you to choose from, all you have to do is start with cold water, a teaspoon of salt, and a drop of vinegar in the smallest saucepan you've got; then bring to the boil and simmer gently for 2½ minutes for a very soft boiled egg, with the white just firm and yolk very runny. If you're doing several eggs at once and everyone likes their egg a different way, follow the same procedure and remove all the eggs from the water at the same time. Eggs continue to cook in their shells, so take the tops off the soft eggs immediately; anyone who wants a harder egg can wait another two minutes while they eat a piece of toast, before taking the top off their egg.

Poached Eggs I've tried poaching eggs in the microwave as well as in a pan specially designed for the job, but I still think the easiest way by far is just to break the egg into a cup and drop it straight into a saucepan of lightly salted, gently boiling water; about 2 minutes for a firm white and soft yolk, 3–4 minutes for a firm yolk.

Open House Eggs Warm enough oil to just cover the bottom of a frying pan; cut a hole in a piece of bread with a cup or glass and put both pieces of bread into the pan. Break an egg into a cup and drop it into the hole in the slice of bread. After a couple of minutes, flip everything over and fry for another couple of minutes. Squeeze tomato sauce onto the egg, replace the circle, and serve.

Scrambled Eggs Add a good splash of milk to make the eggs go further (for me, scrambled eggs without milk are too rich anyway) and for speed, scramble them in a large, nonstick, shallow frying pan — as opposed to a regular, deep-sided saucepan — with a tablespoonful of melted butter.

Avocado Sandwiches

* * *

Mash an avocado (or two, according to how many sandwiches you want to make), spread on buttered brown bread and cut the crusts off. Avocados are the perfect good mood food; nice and easy for little mouths to swallow first thing in the morning.

Pancakes

* * *

If you can't bring yourself to make batter and get a pan dirty before breakfast on a school morning, make a stack of pancakes in advance and freeze them.

To Make about a Pint of batter (6–12 pancakes, depending on thickness of pancakes and size of pan)

4–5 very heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1 cup (250 ml) milk

1. Sift the flour into a bowl or a large measuring cup (4 cups plus), make a well in the center, add the eggs and about half the milk, start whisking with a small hand whisk or fork and gradually add the rest of the milk. Thin with a little more milk if necessary. Transfer the batter into a measuring cup with a lip or a batter bowl, which will make it easier to pour into the frying pan.

2. The secret of perfect pancakes is a very hot pan and no surplus oil sloshing around, so warm enough oil to cover the bottom of the frying pan, then pour the excess oil into a clean cup so it can be used again, and give the pan a quick wipe with a paper towel.

3. Pour in enough batter to make a pancake, tipping the pan as you go to get the bottom of the pan covered as quickly as possible.

4. As soon as the surface of the pancake is completely dry, run a knife around the edge and turn it over, or toss it by holding the pan away from you, shaking the pancake towards the far end as far as it will go without falling out, and flipping it over in one deft movement. Pour a little more oil from the cup into the pan after every couple of pancakes, heat thoroughly, then wipe the pan almost dry with paper towels.

To Freeze

1. Make the pancakes as described above, layer them with wax paper or plastic wrap when they've cooled (which only takes a few minutes), then put the whole lot in a large ziplock bag and freeze.

2. No need to defrost them; place each pancake on a plate — or two pancakes on one plate, a little apart — and microwave on high for 1–2 minutes.

Also Try ...

Peanut Butter Pancakes.

I thought of making pancakes with peanut butter as a way of adding protein, otherwise pancakes can be a bit lightweight when you've got a busy day ahead and no way of knowing when you'll be able to eat again.

I use smooth peanut butter — it blends easily with the batter in seconds — but I don't see why you couldn't use crunchy peanut butter instead if you prefer it.

1. Make the batter in the usual way, with a bit less milk, and use a fork to whisk 2 teaspoons of peanut butter into the mixture at the end — roughly 1 teaspoon per 1 cup (250 ml) of batter. (Add more milk if the batter needs thinning.)

2. Make pancakes in the usual way and serve with slices of banana and maple or golden syrup.

WEEKEND BREAKFASTS

* * *

Unless you're super-efficient and get up at the crack of dawn, some breakfasts are better left until the weekend.

Eggs Florentine

* * *

Make a cheese sauce in the usual way: Mix a heaping tablespoon of flour with about 1½ tablespoons (25g) of melted butter in a saucepan, cook for a minute, then add approximately 1 cup (250 ml) of milk and a handful of grated cheese and whisk continually until the sauce thickens. Keep the sauce warm and cover with plastic wrap or a couple of tablespoons of milk to prevent a skin forming. Wash and cook the spinach, preferably in the microwave in a casserole dish with a lid, and poach the eggs in boiling water. Serve the eggs on a bed of spinach with the cheese sauce poured over the top.

Hash Browns, Bacon & Beans

* * *

As an alternative to broiling or frying, place bacon on a lightly greased baking sheet with sides at the top of the oven and cook at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes — no need to turn it over. If you're making hash browns, fry them lightly on both sides and finish them off in the middle of the oven, while warming the canned baked beans with tomato sauce up in a lidded casserole dish at the bottom. Needless to say, homemade hash browns are infinitely superior to their supermarket equivalent (page 210).

The Healthiest English Fry up Possible

* * *

Cook sausages in the oven in a very large ovenproof dish (preferably Pyrex, it's easier to clean), adding the bacon about halfway through the sausages' cooking time. Put the baked beans and canned plum tomatoes in a casserole dish, cover, and bake at the bottom of the oven for 10 minutes after you put the bacon in. Half-fill a large saucepan with boiling water from the kettle and put it on a low heat while you make toast. Poach the eggs in the boiling water for a very few minutes, by which time everything should be ready — and that's it!

Also Try ...

Baked Apples (Page 139), Kedgeree (Page 73), and Cheese & Onion Tomatoes (page 91).

CHAPTER 2

Little gems and tough cookies

Feeding your children good food is every parent's obligation. In fact, we all come from a long line of parents who fed their children, so why now, when we're swamped with so much advice and information about our food and the number of fat grams and calories it contains, does hardly a week go by without another deeply depressing story about morbidly obese children whose parents can't, or won't, stop feeding them a nonstop diet of processed rubbish?

Apparently American teenagers are the first generation to be less healthy than their parents, and I read recently that increasing numbers of children are becoming anorexic, some of them, unbelievably, as young as six-and seven-years-old.

But maybe it's not surprising that kids are resorting to starving themselves when so many adults are permanently stressed out and preoccupied with food. If the parents are anxious and confused — withholding treats with one hand and feeding their children processed rubbish with the other — while their teachers search their lunch boxes for illicit chocolate cookies and bags of chips, what are they supposed to think?

Constantly subjected to images of size zero models and the idealistic, unrealistic zeal of humorless healthy-eating gurus on one hand; continually bombarded by the message that junk food and carbonated drinks are cool on the other — is it any wonder that going without nourishment altogether is starting to seem like the only alternative to obesity in the minds of impressionable young children?

But despite this grim picture, you can count yourself lucky that you don't need to be an expert on anything to feed your children a healthy, balanced diet with very little money and hardly any time, even if you have a tiny kitchen, only three saucepans (one with an ill-fitting lid), and no fancy gadgets unless you count the garlic crusher. Although it sometimes feels like an uphill struggle, whether your children are little gems who eat whatever you put in front of them, tough cookies who seem to leave more on the plate than you put there, or, like most kids, a combination of the two, cooking real food is nowhere near as exhausting, tricky, or unrewarding as some people make it out to be.

Finally, and speaking from experience, it doesn't matter where or how you live, feeding your children good food and laying the groundwork for the healthiest possible future is something that every one of us has in our power to get right.

FUSSY EATERS

* * *

There can't be many children who don't go through a fussy stage, whether it's one type of food they don't like, food generally (heaven help you), or a particular time of day when they don't seem to want to eat anything.

Whatever it is, it's not worth losing your temper over; all that does is frighten the child and make the situation worse. Be prepared to be patient, even if you're feeling anxious, and remind yourself that the important thing is to encourage your children to eat, and eventually enjoy food, without turning mealtime into a battleground, because if that happens you really will have trouble on your hands.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from How to Feed your Whole Family a Healthy, Balanced Diet by Gill Holcombe. Copyright © 2007 Gill Holcombe. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction,
Getting Started,
A Word About Weight Loss,
Basic Pantry Ingredients,
Herbs and Spices,
Preparing Vegetables,
Notes,
1: Wake up to breakfast,
2: Little gems and tough cookies,
3: Make dinner, not excuses,
4: Quick fixes,
5: The joy of soup,
6: Join the pudding club,
7: Can't cook? Don't cook!,
8: Let them eat cake,
9: Not only but also,
10: Weekly menu planning,
Index,

Editorial Reviews

This first book by Holcombe was published in the United Kingdom in 2007 and quickly outsold titles by Nigella Lawson and Gordon Ramsey. Holcombe presents simple recipes that anyone can prepare, even those on a budget. Working families will find over 200 recipes for meals to throw together in the middle of the week, e.g., One-Step Pasta, which includes pasta, frankfurters, corn, sugar snap peas, oil, tomatoes, and cheese. Library marketing.

Library Journal