This is a guest post by Pamela Salzman with PamelaSalzman.com. Her blog was introduced to me by Shawn (our FB Moderator). Pamela’s Instagram feed always leaves me feeling hungry, so I thought you guys would love a guest recipe from her today! :)
Hi, 100 Days of Real Food readers! I’m Pamela Salzman and I am guest posting today while Lisa and her family take some much-deserved time off. I am a Los Angeles based natural foods cooking instructor and holistic health counselor. I am a big fan of Lisa’s, and I share her mission of educating families about the importance of eating real food.
My Story
I was fortunate to grow up with parents who believed in cooking real food as much as possible, even growing fruits and vegetables at home. It wasn’t until I had children of my own that I became much more interested in nutrition and food as medicine. At the same time, I also realized how many of the parents I knew never learned how to cook from scratch and often relied on processed and refined foods for their family meals.
Years ago, I was in a cooking group with some friends where a chef would come to one of our homes and teach us how to cook 4-5 recipes every month. She was not focused on natural and unrefined foods, so I was always whispering to my friends, “I’m going to sub whole wheat flour for that” or “I think coconut oil would be a better choice.” Eventually the group asked me to take over the class because they were more interested in learning how to feed their families whole food based meals without stressing out and breaking the bank. That started my business, and I now teach cooking classes full time.
Picky Eaters
The emphasis in my classes is always on unrefined, minimally processed, seasonal food that is family friendly. Sometimes I’ll teach a recipe and someone will say, “My kid would never eat that.” But what I also emphasize in my classes is that creating healthy eaters is a journey. One meal or one recipe doesn’t predict a child’s future eating habits and isn’t a reflection on our parenting skills.
The path to creating healthy eaters is about modeling good eating habits, providing a wide variety of nutritious foods, and being a little flexible, too. I never make two dinners in one night because I don’t have that kind of time, and my kids need to get the message that they should be eating like their parents. My youngest child is rather picky, but every year he becomes a little less so, which encourages me to stay the real food course!
Fresh Summer Corn
This charred corn salad recipe was a big hit in my classes last summer as well as with my family and friends. Corn has gotten a bit of a bad rap the last few years because of the fact that field corn is almost always genetically modified, which means that it has been genetically altered in a lab to produce its own pesticides internally. But field corn is not what we put on the grill and eat off the cob — that is sweet corn. Although there is genetically modified sweet corn out there, most of it is not GMO. If you want to be sure you are buying non-GMO corn, look for certified organic.
This corn salad is the epitome of summer – a little char on the corn, juicy summer tomatoes, and a bit of smokey chipotle chili powder to highlight the smokiness from the corn. You can assemble this ahead of time and keep it refrigerated. My picky eater will happily eat this salad without the dressing or green onions, and I gladly oblige since that is an easy win-win for both of us.
I hope you enjoy this beautiful and delicious charred corn salad many times this summer!
Want to Save this Recipe?
Enter your email below & we'll send it straight to your inbox. Plus you'll get great new recipes from us every week!
Wow, this recipe is fabulous. My entire family gobbled it down and my husband said, “Can we make this weekly??” I am going to start bringing it to every potluck-type function. I made it exactly as written, only used frozen corn instead of fresh (3 cups, sautéed in a pan until it had char marks). Thanks for such a wonderful recipe that I will make again and again.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!!! Made this last night as a side dish with our steak! Freaking AWESOME! Definitely a keeper! Can’t wait to show it off to more as I entertain more family members and friends! A bit time consuming with the grilling of the corn, but absolutely worth it! I also made your sweet potato biscuits to go along with it.
I am doing your challenge at DTE.
I am gluten free – so what advise for looking at ingredients here when I avoid all wheat flour. Eg white rice flour, brown rice flour etc…
Wow! It looks so delicious. Plus my favorites in one dish? This is definitely a must try. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
The recipe looks amazing and I love that you incorporated corn! I will be checking out your Instagram, too!
This looks yummy!
I love your sentiment, Pamela, that creating healthy eaters is a journey. It’s so true for children (and also adults!). As I feed my 11 month old new foods, I have to coach my husband and mom to keep offering him the foods he didn’t seem to like the day before. Eventually, he warms to all of it– it just takes time.
Yum! It’s amazing what roasting can do to veggies. Roasted corn is better than candy! Thanks for this. I want to try it with some garbanzos. :)
“What the World Eats” by Faith D’Aluisio and photographed by Peter Menzel is a book everyone should take a look at. Photos from all over the world with a weeks supply of food…truly eye opening. It shows a typical family and how much it costs them for their food…also shows their living conditions. We are truly blessed here in first world countries.
Hi Lisa & Team,
I was wondering about food prices.
Can’t you create a small section to compare the prices all over the world? I mean…. followers of course have to write prices of their countries :)
I think it’s interesting for all of us to know the differencies between countries and maybe we can discover curiosities and weird things!
(f.e how much a bottle of whole milk, store bought, does it costs in the US?)
Thank you, I hope you enjoy my idea!
What the World Eats” by Faith D’Aluisio and photographed by Peter Menzel might interest you