your child HEALTHY EATING
The Well-Stocked Pantry
Needed dinner five minutes ago? Fill your shelves with these ingredients and you can pull
together fast meals and speedy snacks, and even do a little entertaining. BY DEBBIE KOENIG
Iteach a cooking class for new moms, all about feeding your family with a baby around. When students gather at my kitchen table, their infants snoozing in slings or
banging measuring spoons on the floor, the first lesson is
always about the pantry. This is where meals are born. If you
don’t stock the building blocks for a quick, healthy dinner, it’s
all too tempting to order takeout, which is guaranteed to
drain your wallet while padding your rear end.
Your pantry may include some choices that—admit
it—shouldn’t be there. It’s tempting to buy packaged foods
that give you a shortcut, even if they’re loaded with salt,
added sugar, the unhealthy kind of fat, or (gasp!) all three.
Plus it’s hard to resist a child who is pleading with you from
the shopping cart to purchase a snack you know is empty
calories. But you don’t have to compromise your family’s
health for convenience sake or for munchies with kid appeal.
To find the perfect mix of healthy, family-friendly, and
easy-to-use items, I took my own shopping list and asked
dietitians and chefs known for good-for-you cuisine to add
their favorite must-have-on-hand pantry ingredients. The
result: dozens of great products that may be new to you.
Let me take you on a shelf-by-shelf tour.
Healthy-Cooking Basics
WHI TE WHOLE
WHEAT FLOUR
Made from a special
variety of wheat, this
flour tastes and looks
like all-purpose but has
three times the fiber.
Swap it into any recipe.
LOW;SODIUM
CHICKEN BROTH
Kitchen Basics no-salt
version has the least sodium.
Simmer peeled, cubed
potatoes in it, then mash
with a bit of butter and milk.
SOY SAUCE
You need it for stir-fries and
Chinese dishes, but Philadelphia
chef Katie Cavuto Boyle, R.D.,
also splashes it in dressings, soups,
and burgers. One of the lowest-sodium picks: House of Tsang.
SPICES
Liven up a ho-hum dish with
these kid-friendly, no-cal
picks: cumin, coriander,
turmeric, cinnamon (they’re all
mild), and fennel (it tastes like
licorice), says Modern Spice
author Monica Bhide.
VINEGARS
Start with balsamic and rice
wine. For chef Cat Cora’s
dip, mix 2 Tbs. each rice-wine vinegar, olive oil, and
plain yogurt plus 1 tsp. Dijon
mustard, 1 Tbs. orange zest,
and 2 tsp. orange juice.
OILS
Of all the healthy kinds, canola
and extra-virgin olive oil are
the most essential, says chef
Ming Tsai. Go for flavor-neutral canola when sautéing
and baking. Save the pricier
olive for sauces and dressings.
GARLIC ;ONIONS
A cool, dark pantry is
the ideal place to store
these. Just separate
onions from potatoes,
since the gases they
release will speed the
spoilage of both.
MARKO METZINGER. STYLING BY LAURIE RAAB.
68 December 2009 Parents
