Tamra Davis Cooking Show - Granola (Mom With Camera Makes Hip and Healthy Cooking Show)

I started making music videos in my twenties and made my first feature, Guncrazy, at 29. I then spent the greater part of my thirties directing features. It felt amazing to be one of a handful working female directors in Hollywood. By my 8th feature, I knew I was fast approaching the deadline for my body's ability to make a baby. I halted my career and focused on having a family with my husband, Mike D. of the Beastie Boys. I found out I was pregnant with our second baby when our first baby was only 12 months old. I was excited but also panicked. I really wanted to get back to my career and yet was sucked into the mama vortex; I wanted another baby. I realized, I was not going to be able to get back to work for a while...

I discovered television is a great way to deal with the chaos of new motherhood. I would put the babies to bed and get lost in a trashy reality show. Or watch the Food Network as a type of pornography for a mom who thinks about eating all the time.

The more I thought about food, the more I started to understand the depth of my responsibility to feed my two growing boys. I also found that my health was super important.
A mom can't afford to be sick.

It was a challenge to find a cooking show which featured food that I wanted to make for my family: healthy, organic, mostly vegetarian and most of all, easy. So what started out as an experiment in what happens when a filmmaker who is a mom winds up in a kitchen, ended with me making my own little reality cooking shows. No crew, just a camera, my life and a good recipe. A recipe has the structure and pacing of a perfect short film. It has a beginning (you shop or plan), a middle (you cook) and an end (you eat!).

I started putting these 3-5 minute shorts up on my website, TamraDavisCookingShow.com, and found a whole new audience of moms that were like me; looking for a healthy, easy and kid friendly alternative.

I really hope to inspire moms to make delicious, healthy meals for their families. I always wanted to put a camera in a woman's hand, now with my passion for children's health issues I want to put a pan in her hand too. Yes, I do believe many of our global concerns can be helped by the choice a person makes in what they feed their family.

Making these shows has allowed me to express myself as a filmmaker and reveal an insiders look into the life of a mom that finds fun in the challenges of feeding her loved ones.

Here is a show from my website TamraDavisCookingShow.com called Granola:

Granola

(Makes 6 cups)

I wanted to make granola because I kept hearing how granola was so fattening and I was eating this amazing granola from Kauai called Anahola Granola. It's fattening because most recipes have you adding a ton of butter or oil. I cut down on this by using apple juice. It made it just as crunchy and is so delicious and nutritious!

3 cups organic oats
1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or not)
1 cup chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans)
½ cup seeds (sesame, sunflower, pumpkin seeds)
½ teaspoon of salt
1/3 a cup of sunflower oil
½ a cup of honey or maple syrup
¼ cup of apple or orange juice
1 teaspoon of vanilla
sprinkle of cinnamon
1 cup chopped dried fruit (raisins, dried apricots, apples, etc...)

Heat oven to 350. Mix everything together except the raisins.

Lay the granola flat and even in a shallow pan (best is a heavy duty baking sheet with edges). Make sure the granola is not more than one inch thick or you may need to use two pans. Bake for about 20 minutes. Check and stir it up after about 10 minutes. Don't let it burn. Stir in dried fruit once it's cooled a bit. Serve with your favorite milk or yogurt. Store in an airtight jar.

*Bonus - Granola Bars - put 1 cup of granola, 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 tablespoon of flax oil, 2 tablespoons of honey in a food processor. After it's blended fine, add a few organic chocolate chips and form it into a shape on a Silpat that's sitting on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 375.

Comments

[sushi09]

beyond the cooking, its a lovely short film and one can see the 'fun' it is to cook with kids around. But really some of the comments about the 'safety' issues re. child on worktop are unjustified. Mine does that kind of thing all the time. She s 4 and is very aware of safety parameters. Of course one has to take some precautions but for the most part this is an adult world and the sooner children learn to adapt to it the safer they are ultimately.

[ValereP]

What fun! Couldn't help following the links to watch a few more shows. Reminds me of the precious times I had staying at home with my boys when they were little (also a year apart). They'd always be right in there measuring, stirring, cracking the eggs, or squishing the cookie dough. They are both in their early twenties now... and they still like to make a mess in the kitchen. Although they haven't really mastered the cleaning-up part yet for some reason, they're capable of putting together a decent meal... and are creative enough to do it even when only a sparse array of groceries on hand. Have fun and enjoy these times, Tamra... your boys will remember them like treasured traditions. Thank you for your wonderful shows.

[NoSandwiches]

also, have to agree with the other comments about the kids up on the counter. yikes! Pull up some chairs (turn them backwards so that they do not lean back while standing up.)

[NoSandwiches]

love the music.
I think you can expect more from the kids, however.
My three year old cooks with me at least once a week.
Every tuesday we make pizza dough, and we have made lasagna, cookies, and macaroni and cheese from scratch.

The key is to have a dumping bowl. You let your child measure into the dumping bowl, and if they spill and get too much, you just have them to it again (put back if appropriate)
He then transfers the item from the dumping bowl to the main bowl.

I also have one of those mixing bowls that have the arm that comes down....and we almost always use it so that he can participate by gently lowering the arm and moving the locking lever back and forth as needed (only mom gets to turn it on or off)

This evening we made cookies and I let him crack eggs for the very first time. He is now 3 3/4 and quite the competent and proud little cook!

[brandnewstuff]

wow how cool and fun- This I will share with my sister and hope her and all the other moms love this as well- BRAVO!

[Topfeeder]

Loved the video and you, your kids and the granola looked adorable. That music though, was horrible.

[mandycat]

Just a quibble: How come this appears addressed exclusively to "Mom?" Most fathers I know have the requisite number of hands, feet and fingers needed to perform cooking tasks.

Substituting "parents" for "moms" would be a good idea in future postings. Kids have a much better shot at staying healthy if the entire burden of their welfare doesn't fall on one parent only.

[caesarf]

This is fantastic Tamra-you are an inspiration.

[Kari Henley - Huffpost Blogger]

Hey there!
LOVE the video!
Fun, simple, engaging and the super man costume is the bomb.

what a fantastic way to give us a slice of reality tv and food network all at once!
I am inspired to check out your site and see some of your other installments!

[bellemeade]

I applaud your efforts to prepare healthy meals, but should those kids be sitting on a counter top? Near hot pots and pans? Just for the record, I know of a mother (not me) who set her child on a counter top and stepped away for ONE SECOND. He fell, suffered a subdural hematoma, and had brain surgery. Thank God he survived, after a very close call, but he had about 20 staples in his skull. He's 23 now and still has the scar. It's about five inches long. If Natasha Richardson can die after falling in snow, I think I'd think twice about a small child on a counter. They're your kids, but it just makes me nervous.

[JScott]

Yup I thought if she's so kid friendly there would be kids table/chairs in the kitchen, and it looks like the kids aren't really doing too much, but I admit they are well behaved not a candidate for Super Nanny.

[regulargal]

Would make a good show on the Food Channel. I liked the music, the calm voice over, the kids, and the recipe. Nice.

[smarttart001]

MMMMMMMMM......
I know exactly what we're having for breakfast tomorrow!
Thank you!

[2sunny]

You've got something going here, Tamra....
.this yiayia is recommending your video to my daughter (in-law).
What ease to watch, listen and follow along. Loved it !!