Tables Turn on Father’s Day for UA Nutritionist

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Ralph Lane is usually the person in his family who does “all the food preparation,” he proudly says. But, the tables turn on Father’s Day for this father of four and University of Alabama professor of nutrition when his wife and children prepare some of his favorite foods.

For an accomplished cook and nutritional expert like Lane, it’s not the traditional meat and potatoes on dad’s day.

“On Father’s Day, I do get a respite from the kitchen. My wife, April, has a recipe for chicken enchiladas that I really enjoy, and she prepares a Mexican meal with refried beans, rice and fresh veggies,” Lane says.

From his perspective as a dad and a food expert, Lane says on this Father’s Day, homemade food will be appreciated by dads everywhere.

“My daughter usually makes me a ‘scratch’ cake,” he adds. The sweet treat being a yellow cake made from scratch, sometimes with icing.

And, even if families and kids are not into cooking, it doesn’t take much expertise to “put a steak on the grill, bake a potato and open a bag of salad,” Lane says, for an easy, tasty Father’s Day meal. As a nutritionist, Lane says these “bag salads are a boon, they are excellent and can keep upwards of two weeks if unopen.”

Lane, professor of human nutrition in The University of Alabama College of Human Environmental Sciences, says the recipe for chicken enchiladas at http://southernfood.about.com/library/comm/blbb77.htm is one of his Father’s Day favorites.