"Every story and every memory from my childhood is attached to food," Dawn Lerman writes. "As far back as I can remember, there was an invisible wall that separated me from my dad, a distance that I could never completely penetrate. His closest relationship was with the bathroom scale – his first stop every morning and his last stop every evening. The scale controlled his moods, our days, what we were going to eat and basically ruled our family life."

It is a known fact that our relationship with food starts at a very young age: what and how we eat is often determined by our environment and our upbringing. Our eating habits and tastes are cultivated by our family members’ relationships to food, for better or worse. Dawn knows this first hand. The author of the New York Times Well Blog series, "My Fat Dad," shares her food journey and that of her father, a brilliant copywriter from the "Mad Men" era of advertising at Leo Burnett and McCann Erickson, in her new book, MY FAT DAD: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Family, with Recipes (Berkley/2015; Trade Paperback/$16.00).

Dawn spent her early childhood in Chicago constantly hungry as her ad man father—responsible for such iconic slogans such as "Fly the Friendly Skies," "Coke is It," and "Leggo My Eggo"—pursued endless fad diets from Atkins, to Pritikin, to The Sleeping Beauty Diet, to The Rice Diet. At 450 pounds at his heaviest, he insisted Dawn and her mother adopt to his saccharine-laced, freeze-dried food plans to help keep him on track.

By five years old Dawn had lived on shakes when her dad was on the liquid Metrecal Diet, broth when he was on the Cabbage Soup Diet, only apples for days at a time when he was on the Israeli Army Diet, and prayed beside him after he read the book, I Prayed Myself Slim.

Dawn’s mother never cooked and she witnessed her mother eat only one real meal a day—a can of tuna over the kitchen sink—while talking on the phone.

As a child Dawn felt undernourished both physically and emotionally except for one saving grace: the loving attention she received from her maternal grandmother, Beauty. Dawn spent every weekend with Beauty, and their time together instilled in Dawn a passion for cooking for oneself and others as she learned that the best food is prepared with the freshest ingredients. When she was with Beauty, Dawn learned to enjoy the adventure of picking out vegetables for a hearty soup and spent hours precisely rolling out dough for the perfect strudel. When Dawn’s father took a prestigious new ad job in New York City with McCann Erickson when she was in the fourth grade, Beauty’s culinary education continued as she sent Dawn a recipe card every week with a twenty-dollar bill. Beauty’s recipe cards became Dawn’s life-line as she navigated Manhattan on her own.

MY FAT DAD is as much a coming of age memoir as it is a recipe collection from Dawn’s upbringing and culinary adventures in New York City. Recipes in the book feature some of her grandmother’s favorite traditional Jewish dishes, Dawn’s healthier interpretations and creations, many gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan. Some of the recipes found in the book include:

Beauty’s Chicken Soup

Aunt Jeannie’s Russian Borscht

Creamy Cashew Butternut Soup

Duke University "Fat Farm" Approved Parchment Paper Salmon with Leeks and Lemon Slices

Sweet Potato Hummus

Crispy Mushroom Latkes

Baked Beet Chips

Low Carb Chocolate Crepes

Mock Pecan Pie

Flourless Blondie’s

Macrobiotic Apple Pie

Cottage Cheese infused Strawberry Pancake Sandwiches

Her father’s life-long struggle with food, along with her grandmother’s love of cooking fresh foods, led Dawn to become a well-respected nutritionist and NY Times blogger. Today her dad is a healthy 210 pounds and vegan.

Dawn believes that "everyone has a food story to tell. My Fat Dad is mine." As we focus on healthy eating and new food choices in the new year, My Fat Dad provides everyone with a great story and healthy and delicious recipes.

"My Fat Dad is an exploration of the many ways food shapes our connection to family. It also includes many delightful recipes."

"A quasi-memoir cookbook that will have readers laughing, crying, and nodding all at the same time...Lerman is engaging."—Booklist

Dawn Lerman is a board-certified nutrition expert, founder of Magnificent Mommies Wellness and a contributor to the New York Times Well Blog. Her company Magnificent Mommies provides nutrition education to student, teachers and corporation. Dawn counsels clients on weight loss, diabetes, high blood pressure, ADHD and other diet-related conditions. She is a sought-after speaker and consultant and lives in New York with her two children.

For more information about Dawn, go to www.DawnLerman.net.

1 (2–3 inch) fresh organic ginger root, peeled and coarsely chopped

½ organic onion, chopped

1 tablespoon ghee or oil of choice

6 garlic cloves, chopped

1 cup sliced mixed raw mushrooms—shiitake, portabella, maitake

Water, or you can use 64 ounces of vegetable broth

1cup organic dried Shiitake mushrooms

½ pound tofu, diced

¼ cup organic miso paste (There are many types of miso to choose from. I like sweet white miso—this is a paste not a powder—and you can add a little more if you like a strong miso flavor)

1 head of roasted garlic cloves, peeled and mashed

2 organic carrots, chopped

1 teaspoon of salt (preferably a truffle salt or good-quality Himalayan salt) or more to taste

In a stockpot, sauté the ginger and onion in the ghee until the onion just begins to sweat. Add the raw garlic and raw mushrooms and cook till browned. Then add the water or broth to the pot and bring to a slow boil. Add the dried mushrooms and tofu and then lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the shiitakes are fully reconstituted.

While the pot of mushrooms is simmering, ladle about 6 ounces bowl of the broth into a separate bowl and add the miso paste to it, stirring until dissolved. Next, add the mashed roasted garlic to this mixture. Once thoroughly combined, add the garlic-miso mixture back into the pot. Stir well and enjoy all the healing properties of this magic broth.

* Note: Miso is a traditional Japanese fermented soy or rice paste. Its healing power is often compared to chicken soup, especially when paired with immune boosters like garlic, ginger, onion, and shiitake mushrooms.

Yield: 12 cookies

8 tablespoons coconut oil or (put a tablespoon aside for greasing the baking sheet if you are not using parchment paper)

1 egg, beaten or (flax eggs- one tablespoon of flaxseeds whipped with 3 tablespoons of warm water. Let sit in fridge for ten minutes before using)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons nondairy milk

1/3 cup maple syrup

½ cup almond flour (plus additional, as needed, for thickening)—if you have a nut sensitivity you can use oat flour

1¼ cups oat flour (you can make your own oat flour by blending oats in a blender)—if you are gluten free use gluten free oats
Pinch of sea salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ cup strawberry jam or preserves (½ teaspoon of white chia seeds can be mixed into the jam for an extra shot of omega 3’s and fiber)

Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

½ teaspoon of flax seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the oil, egg, vanilla, milk, and maple syrup and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix together the flours, salt, and baking powder. Then combine the ingredients from both bowls and mix together with your hands until they form a sticky dough. If the dough feels a touch dry, you can add a splash of water to thin it. And if it feels a bit wet, you can add a touch more oat flour. Roll the dough into balls with your hands; I like mine to be 1½ to 2 inches across. Place them on a parchment paper–covered or lightly greased cookie sheet, flatten them slightly with your palm, and push a thumbprint into each ball. Add a dollop of jam or preserves into the thumbprint. Bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly brown on the bottom. Let cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar (if desired) before eating.