Sleep, Prepare, Eat

Kelsey
Banfield is a foodie mom on a mission. Originally from New York but now settled
in the Connecticut ‘burbs, Banfield was a dedicated home cook long before she
became a parent—her daughter Daphne is now four. Frustrated by the meals she
was making on the new baby’s timetable, and inspired by her dad’s stress-free
meals growing up, Banfield reworked many of her favorite recipes so that the
bulk of the preparation could take place during her daughter’s naptime—thus,
the Naptime Chef was born.

Debuting
this month, The Naptime Chef: Fitting Great Food into Family Life
(Running Press) seeks to help parents enjoy prepping meals for their families
without reducing the kitchen experience to a daily chore. Her message is quite
simple: if you enjoyed cooking before kids, you should be able to enjoy it
after, too. “It’s not supposed to be daunting. You can cook during your
downtime—find your own time and make it work for you,” Banfield explains.

It’s
this ability to restructure recipes into nap-length segments that makes
Banfield’s new cookbook such a boon for parents. Flipping through, you’ll find
that each recipe—from Apricot-Mustard Glazed Ham to Grammie’s Seven Layer Bars—comes
with a “naptime stopwatch” which lets the likely harried home cook know how
much prep and cooking time they need to set aside.

Overall,
Banfield’s food philosophy goes against many of the common trends in cooking
for kids—the first being that parents need to adjust the types of foods they
make in order to get dinner on the table in record time. Secondly, Banfield
prefers to be inspired by fresh ingredients and favorite flavors, while
foregoing freezer cooking—preparing huge batches or food once or twice a month
that can be popped in the oven or microwave at dinnertime. Though she does
recommend having some good meatballs or sauce in the freezer for an occasional
off night.

While
so much of The Naptime Chef’s mantra is about cooking in one’s downtime, during
a child’s snooze or while little ones are at school, Banfield also tries to
involve her daughter in the kitchen when the opportunity presents itself. “Now
that she needs to pack lunches for school, we’ve worked together to brainstorm
sandwiches,” she says.

The key, after all, is enjoying the process of cooking as well as the food.

For more recipes from The Naptime Chef, check out her regular
contributions to our Yummy Delicious blog on www.newyorkfamily.com.

Naptime Stopwatch: 20 minutes prep time,
50 minutes bake time
Makes 8 to 10 servings

I
assemble this at night after Daphne is asleep and let it chill in the fridge.
With a healthy drizzle of warm maple syrup and a dollop of whipped cream, a
slice of this sweet berry custard is just the thing to get our day started.

INGREDIENTS

1. Butter a 13 x
9-inch baking dish.
2. Cut the challah
into 1-inch-thick slices and arrange them in the baking dish so that they are
overlapping.
3. In a large bowl,
whisk together the cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon and salt until
blended.
4. Pour the egg
mixture evenly over the bread. Using your fingers, press the bread down to
immerse it in the egg mixture.
5. Cover the baking
dish with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours,
or overnight.
6. Preheat the oven
to 350F.
7. Remove the
plastic wrap from the baking dish.
8. Tuck
three-quarters of the sliced strawberries between the bread slices and scatter
the remaining berries evenly on top.
9. Place the baking
dish on a cookie sheet and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the top is
lightly browned, the bread has absorbed all of the liquid and the custard is
puffed up.
10. Remove from the
oven and cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving with a drizzle of maple
syrup.