Awesome Eats: 5 Family Faves

recipes by Rozanne Gold

As a professional chef for more than 30 years, one of my goals has been to find the place where "simplicity meets health" in both restaurant kitchens and at home. I never want the notion of healthy eating to be at odds with great cuisine and so have spent years dedicated to helping chefs, home cooks, and busy moms put it all together in the simplest way imaginable.

My approach is always to use fresh ingredients only as demonstrated in my new cookbook for teens called EAT FRESH FOOD: Awesome Recipes for Teen Chefs (Bloomsbury 2009). The book was conceived with, and for, a new generation of young chefs who are determined to eat better and are interested in teaching their moms how to cook healthfully, too.

Other times I use only three ingredients per recipe (not counting salt, pepper or water) to create dishes that are exquisitely balanced and exuberantly flavored. Surprisingly, these recipes are exceedingly healthy as evidenced in LOW CARB 1-2-3 (Rodale, reprinted 2010) where the dishes are far more than the sum of their parts and are low in carbohydrates and calories, too.

Here are a handful of my favorite family recipes that express the idea that the best dishes in the world are often the simplest, and the healthiest.

• Very Fresh Vegetable Soup with presto pesto
• Mac-and-Cheese with Cauliflower and Creamy Red Pepper Sauce
• Eggless Caesar with Toasted Pecans and Green Apple "Croutons"
• Crunchy Wasabi-Lime Salmon with Red Cabbage and Sugar Snaps
• Asian Chicken with Scallions

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