Feeding a Family by Sarah Waldman

Keeping with the spirit of yesterday’s post, today we have an equally lovely title devoted to feeding families and doing it well. Sarah Waldman’s Feeding a Family: A Real-Life Plan for Making Dinner Work, with Healthy Recipes and Tips for Involving the Whole Family delivers 40 seasonal meals, 100 recipes, and loads of tips and strategies to make weeknight dinners work.

A nutritionist and mom herself, the author,  lays out all the tools needed to break out of the mealtime rut and put nutritious and delicious dishes on the table no matter how hectic our schedules may be.

With suggestions for including older kids in mealtime prep, tips for feeding baby, and ideas for extending ingredients for “tomorrow’s dinner,” Feeding a Family is a cookbook that includes the whole family.

Recipes include a gorgeous Leek, Red Potato, and Feta Galette, Sweet and Sour Potato Salad (no mayo yes!), Tomato, Peach, and Red Onion Panzanella, and Diner-Style Smashed Beef Burgers. With these and other recipes and meal plans, you will tackle and defeat the dinnertime doldrums. The Roasted Carrots with Honey Butter and Chicken Thighs with Barley, Chard and Mushrooms were hits when I made them a few months back. I subbed rice for the barley (picky husband) but followed everything else to the letter and it was delicious.


Special thanks to Roost Books and the author for sharing the Slow Cooker Indian Butter Chicken with Sweet Peas with us today. Be sure to head over to our contest page to enter our giveaway for five copies of this book open to members in the US and Canada.

 

SLOW COOKER INDIAN BUTTER CHICKEN WITH SWEET PEAS

serves 4 to 6

I encourage you to make this meal your own by choosing toppings and sides that are your family’s favorites or that need to be eaten up. You know the ones-like that last sprinkle of nuts taking up precious storage space and staring at you, longingly, from the cabinet. I typically boil up some rice and toast slivered almonds with a handful of flaked coconut, but warm naan bread is another good accompaniment.

KIDS CAN: Little hands can use child-safe knives or kitchen shears to chop cilantro for the garnish.

  • 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken pieces (thighs and/or breasts)
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1-inch piece fresh gingerroot, peeled and finely chopped
  • 2 teaspoons curry powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • One 6-ounce jar tomato paste
  • One 13.5-ounce can full-fat coconut milk
  • 3 tablespoons plain full-fat Greek yogurt
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1½ cups sweet peas (thawed if frozen or blanched if fresh)
  • Cooked basmati rice, for serving    

Toppings optional:

  • Chopped fresh cilantro
  • Toasted coconut flakes
  • Toasted slivered almonds

1. Cut the chicken into 2-inch chunks. Fill a 6-quart slow cooker with the chicken, onion, garlic, ginger, curry powder, cinnamon, cumin, and salt. Stir to combine. Add in the butter, tomato paste, and coconut milk. Mix again. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours until the chicken pulls apart easily with a fork.

2. Before serving, stir in the Greek yogurt, lemon juice, and peas. Allow everything to heat through, then serve the butter chicken over a bed of basmati rice. Top with cilantro, toasted coconut, and toasted slivered almonds, if desired.

FOR BABY: Indian Butter Chicken is very tender and can be easily shredded with two forks. Mix in some rice and you have baby’s meal.

TOMORROW’S DINNER: NAAN ROLL-UPS

Toast a few pieces of naan bread, spread on a thin layer of mango chutney, then spoon some leftover butter chicken on top. Roll up the naan and serve with a big salad.

Add this recipe to your Bookshelf (click the blue +Bookshelf button).

From Feeding a Family by Sarah Waldman, © 2016 by Sarah Waldman. Photographs by Elizabeth Cecil. Reprinted by arrangement with Roost Books, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc. Boulder, CO. 

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15 Comments

  • Kristjudy  on  August 3, 2017

    This would be a great addition to my cookbook shelf.

  • sgump  on  August 4, 2017

    Tips for getting dinner on the table during hectic times? Lots of great things can be prepared from eggs–and quickly, too.

  • PennyG  on  August 5, 2017

    I do all my advance meal prep on Sundays to streamline weeknight cooking!

  • RSW  on  August 6, 2017

    cook once use 2 or 3 times.

  • Ordinaryblogger  on  August 7, 2017

    I prep on sundays! I usually make a big soup and cut up veggies.

  • lhudson  on  August 9, 2017

    With 4 grandchildren this book would make a great addition to my cookbook collection and one I am sure to use.

  • love2chow  on  August 9, 2017

    Wash vegetables, spin dry and wrap in dish towel in tupperware in fridge to store. Then they are all ready for a quick stir fry.

  • JenJoLa  on  August 9, 2017

    Slow cookers are great for busy times.

  • FireRunner2379  on  August 12, 2017

    During sports season the kids are always pulling us in multiple directions. Dinner time is very important to me, so I do a lot of the food prep while they are in school and finish everything right before we're ready to eat.

  • LaurenE  on  August 13, 2017

    Do prep for meals for the week ahead of time so the components are ready to throw together in an instant.

  • t.t  on  August 13, 2017

    I love my slow cooker. Or there's always "breakfast for dinner"…

  • vinochic  on  August 15, 2017

    prep and freeze when there is extra time…

  • KarenDel  on  September 2, 2017

    My biggest tip is learn to use a pressure cooker, and prep on weekends

  • tarae1204  on  September 7, 2017

    Sometimes breakfast for dinner is just the thing. Its also helpful to make extras of everything from chopped onions, caramelized onions, lemon juice, etc., to have on hand, and puff pastry in the freezer

  • bstewart  on  September 8, 2017

    I always make a quick schedule for what goes in/out/on when.

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