Recipe: Aduki Squash Stew

This savory recipe is one of our favorites for the colder months. It has four ingredients, takes only ten minutes to prepare and is full of nutrients. Aduki beans promote healthy kidneys and squash is great for balancing blood sugar. Cook this stew with Thanksgiving dinner and it will leave you with plenty of time to spend with your family and friends!

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The Whole Family

In a time when many families are dealing with single parents or two careers, longer working hours and children with numerous extracurricular activities, the fate of the shared, home cooked, family meal seems in jeopardy. Many of us have been raised on commercial or processed foods and we need to relearn the skill of nurturing through nourishment.

The importance of homemade food should not be overestimated. We all know that eating meals together increases the enjoyment of the meal, solidifies the family bonds and encourages communication among family members. Having a real person cook and prepare our meals is a crucial element in our well-being.

The benefits of eating meals with your family are numerous, not to mention the added nutritional quality of home cooked food. Honor mealtimes and try to share at least one common meal with your whole family each day. Children love the predictability of events that occur daily and they expand their vocabulary and social skills at the table. Eating together gives parents the opportunity to model good eating habits, such as choosing healthy foods, chewing food well and stopping when full.

Educating your children about food, taking them shopping with you, talking to them about what you're buying and encouraging them to help you with the cooking will increase their awareness about nutrition. Talk to your kids about how eating well can help them attain some of their goals, like clear skin, better concentration and improved athletic abilities.

It is also important to learn to bend the rules. Relaxing around birthday parties and other social gatherings will make life easier. Rules that cause a child to be uncomfortable are unnecessary and just as unhealthy as sugary cake.

Stock your cupboards and refrigerator with fresh, healthful, whole foods products. When all the food in your home is food that you feel good about serving your children, you can eliminate many problems around eating.

When your family eats whole foods, your family becomes whole.

Adapted from Feeding the Whole Family: Whole Foods Recipes for Babies, Young Children and Their Parents by Cynthia Lair, Moon Smile Press, $18.00

Success Story: Super Mom - Pam Pinto

I was a stay-at-home mom, home schooling my two daughters and providing healthy, organic food for my family before I found Integrative Nutrition. In 1989 my husband was diagnosed with cancer and I realized then that I needed to do something. I started reading all about food, doing health fairs and educating people about the importance of healthy eating. In 1999 I learned about genetically engineered foods and was freaked out by it. I was featured on the front page of the newspaper a couple of times regarding my concern for the labeling of GE foods. I even organized a group of concerned shoppers to meet with our Congressmen to ask about the GE labeling bill that had been introduced into Congress. When I saw the catalog for the school, I thought: THIS IS FOR ME!

My family decided to turn school weekends into family weekends. Every time I had school, my whole family came into New York City. While I was having a great time in class my husband watched the girls and took them to museums, the zoo, and central park. They were 4 and 5 years old and they thought it was the coolest thing. At night we saw shows and ate at many of the healthy and fabulous New York City restaurants.

I graduated this past May and it is phenomenal how much I am doing. I have private clients, teach cooking classes for adult education in my town, give health food store tours, write a health column in a local paper and am getting requests to speak everywhere. The Brownies just called to ask if I would give a group of 6 year olds a health food store tour and I have been invited to the local hospital to give a talk to new moms about feeding their new borns. Also, Easter Seals inquired about having me come to speak about health and nutrition. I do a lot of work with moms and love it because I know that the women I work with are changing what they feed their families. What I do affects so many people!

Before coming to Integrative Nutrition I was giving away all this information for free. Now I am certified and actually making money. I am also a much calmer person after going through the school. I learned to listen to and appreciate my family in a new way. I'm a better mother and a better wife. My husband and I are a team, raising our children in a healthy, loving home.

Pam Pinto

Certified Holistic Health Counselor

Nourishing Quote

The secret to feeding a healthy family involves loving good food, trusting yourself, and sharing that love and trust with your children.

Excerpted from Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family by Ellyn Satter, Kelcy Press