How to fit food into your family life
It's easy to dislike Kelsey Banfield, aka the Naptime Chef. She is a stay-at-home mom-turned-blogger (thenaptimechef.com) who, according to her new cookbook, turned a realization that she could make dinner while her daughter napped into a “fun and satisfying project.”
Any working parent who reads these words is forgiven for a few nasty thoughts. If your child naps at day care while you are at work, it doesn't leave you a lot of opportunities to make dinner.
That was my first reaction to Banfield's book, “The Naptime Chef” (Running Press, 2012). But then I realized that this book is all about making time to feed your family well. If it happens to be during naptime, so be it. If it's early morning, before the rascals are awake, that's good, too. If it's after their bedtime (and you haven't crashed yet), fine.
Talk to working parents who cook and you'll hear a common refrain: They give up something to make family meals happen. It might be something fun (surfing the Internet, reading for pleasure, sleeping) or something that, before they had children, seemed “essential” (organized drawers, perfectly folded laundry, a weed-free garden).
“The point is, time is there,” Banfield writes. “Find where it is in your day and fit great food into your family life.”
Bottom line: It can be done. If you believe, as Banfield does, that it should be done, you simply have to find the time. Like most things worth doing, it may not be easy.
“The Naptime Chef” is chock-full of help in the form of recipes for main dishes, soups and stews, breakfast foods, breads and desserts. But the most impressive chapter is on side dishes. Nearly anyone can slap a chicken breast/pork chop/fish fillet/burger into a pan and come up with something reasonably edible without much fuss. But side dishes require effort. You can fool yourself that ketchup counts as a vegetable, but not for long. And a meal with some real vegetables feels like, well, a real meal.
Below are three side dishes that will complement that chicken/pork/fish/burger. These are so speedy, you may even have time for a quick nap.
Ÿ Contact Marialisa Calta at marialisacalta.com.