Harper Collins

Fruit makes a great puree and a thirst-quenching smoothie, and is just plain fun to pick up for toddlers. You can always serve fruit raw, but the flavor intensifies if you bake it. This recipe applies to any firm fruit, such as apples and pears, and stone fruit, such as peaches, pears, plums and apricots. The can be frozen, although nutrients will be lost.

Many teething biscuits crumble and break too easily. These are a little sturdier and safer for baby to eat.

In this remarkably tasty side-dish vegetable, instant stock powder provides a long-cooked depth of flavor in minutes. The rich creaminess of the white beans transforms frozen spinach into a healthful and delicious version of creamed spinach. It's not just a side dish though: Use leftover "creamed" spinach as a sauce for pasta or grains (season a bit more heavily) or thin it with enough vegetable stotck to turn it into a soup.

I made a beet ravioli dish for the restaurant menu when we first opened, and it remained popular for quite some time. Our regulars weren't at all happy when we finally took it off the menu. On special occasions, such as Valentine's Day, we've brought back variations on that beet ravioli, sometimes using cookie cutters for hearts or other sweet shapes. If you can find them, candy-striped beets are beautiful and unique, or try using golden beets, or even a combination of all three.

If you're making these sweets for your kids, remember that chocolate (raw chocolate in particular) can be somewhat stimulating. To avoid turning bedtime into party time, it's safer to make these a daytime snack. For truffles with a completely smooth texture, a high-speed blender is preferable. Any other blender most likely won't puree the shredded coconut, so the truffles might be a little grainy (though still completely yummy).

When I tasted this sauce in Jerusalem a few years ago, I was reminded of how much I like the earthy taste of sesame tahini and the brightness of parsley—stems and all. Whip up a batch and toss it with grains and chopped carrots for a colorful salad, blend it with cooked chickpeas for a quick sandwich filling, or spoon it over microwaved kale or steamed broccoli florets set on a bed of brown rice for an entreé. The amount of garlic you'll need depends upon your taste. I like to start with two cloves and blend in more if needed—keeping in mind that the sauce's favor will be somewhat diluted when mixed with other ingredients. Refrigerate for up to one week. Thin as needed with additional fresh lemon juice—or water, if you're out of lemon.

Here's a tasty way to add excitement to your lunch bag. Stuff this flavor-packed mixture into pita with thinly sliced tomato and some lettuce or sprouts, and—if you're willing to offer tastes—be prepared for lunch-matets to ask for the recipe. Try to make this the night before, as it is even tastier after a sojourn in the refrigerator.

When it comes to flavoring, most recipes keep couscous firmly planted in the Mediterranean. But because of its mild flavor and versatility, couscous has tempted me to embark on taste adventures further afield. In this visually striking salad, couscous is flecked with another easily prepared ingredient: arame, an elegant, jet-black mildly briny sea vegetable used in Japanese cooking. Arame is ready to eat after a brief soak in water. Asian seasonings integrate the couscous in a memorable way. Use a food processor to chop the carrots and radishes while the couscous is steeping. Serve the salad on a bed of watercress, garnished with some cherry tomatoes or sliced kumquats.

Brandi, our fearless juice bar manager, contributed to this recipe, and I love the name. It really does feel like sunshine in a glass and is a great way to start the day.

My son's teachers beg me to make this cake for his snack day at school. It isn't too sweet, and it has a moist, dense texture from the carrots and pineapple. It's also one of my most popular cakes at weddings and parties. When I make it at home, I throw more things into the batter—for example, a handful of pumpkin seeds or toasted pecans if I have them lying around. The beauty of this recipe is that you can increase the spices or omit the nuts, and it will still taste great.

Goldies, my organic twist on a Twinkie, have become one of my most notorious treats. I like to bake these with an easy chocolate cake (which just happens to be vegan) as a base, as it's the perfect partner to the sweet, creamy filling and dark, almost Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache . For a chic finish, I brush them with gold metallic dust. To give the Goldies their unique look, you will need specialty baking pans. These pans are commonly sold as éclair pans, but since éclairs went out of style two decades ago, you may have better luck ordering them (and the wrappers if you want) online through cooking-supply stores such as kitchenkrafts.com, sugarcraft.com, or cakedeco.com.

My friend Melissa McDonnell is finishing up her architectural studies in Texas, but she always finds time to bake her famous ginger cookies. These cookies are chewy, hearty, and totally addictive. The dough does need to chill for an hour, so be sure to prepare accordingly. And keep a close eye on these—my husband is a ginger-cookie addict and stole almost half the batch while they were cooling.

Let the ganache cool to lukewarm before you use it. If it's too hot, it will simply absorb into the cake and disappear. Editor's note: This recipe is used to complete Sarah Magid's Goldies , an organic take on Twinkies.

I add sweet red peppers to this classic Indian dish. The brilliant red peppers and ivory-white cheese pieces look stunning against the glazed moss-green sauce.

This rich, delicate cake forms the basis for many filled, frosted, and glazed cakes. A good plain gênoise is hard to beat—it has an elegance that derives from its simplicity, and I even like them unadorned. Many recipes for gênoise add butter as an enrichment. Unfortunately, sometimes the extra manipulation the incorporation of the butter necessitates causes these light batters to fall. So I prefer to add a few extra egg yolks instead—they not only help enrich the cake, they also provide greater stability to the foam, ultimately making the batter easier to prepare. This recipe originally accompanied the Strawberry Roulade .

The fine, moist crumb of this cake makes it perfect for any type of filling or frosting.

This almost doesn't need a recipe because it is based on the classic proportions of a pound of each of the four main ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. I have played with the quantities a little bit so that the recipe doesn't make such a large cake. I like to flavor this type of pound cake with just a little vanilla—it keeps the flavor delicate and doesn't mask the lovely flavor of the butter. If you want more vividly flavored pound cake, try any of the variations.

Peanut butter goes well with more than just jam, and this interesting combination proves it. This is delicious with whatever fruit is in season.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this lunch. Store this tasty salad in a wide-mouthed thermal container, use several Bibb or Boston lettuce leaves to wrap around the salad instead of bread, and pack the nuts separately in a little plastic bag for sprinkling. For those who can take the heat, add a splash of Chinese hot oil or hot sesame oil to the salad.