How Tracy Pollan, Cookbook Author and Michael J. Fox’s Other Half, Spends Her Sundays

For Tracy Pollan, Sundays are about enjoying the city. “We’re super active as a family and get out and explore,” she said.

Ms. Pollan also likes to spend time with her mother Corky, and her sisters, Dana and Lori, with whom she wrote “Mostly Plants: 101 Delicious Flexitarian Recipes From the Pollan Family,” a cookbook published in April.

A follow-up to their first project, “The Pollan Family Table,” the new book is a collection of plant-centric recipes, most of which can be prepared in 35 minutes or less.

Ms. Pollan, 58, lives on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with her husband, the actor Michael J. Fox, 57, their daughter, Esme, 17, and their Great Dane mutt, Gus.

Their son, Sam, 29, lives in Los Angeles, and their twin daughters, Aquinnah and Schuyler, 23, live in downtown Manhattan.

DESIGNER COFFEE Normally, I’m up between 6 and 6:30, but on Sundays, I allow myself to sleep in and don’t get out of bed before 8. Michael is awake by 6:30. The first thing I do is make a cup of coffee in our Jura coffee machine. It was a huge splurge, but I use it four times a day so it was worth the investment. I also make Michael a cup.

ENDORPHIN RUSH I’ll head to Central Park for a 45-minute run. If it’s too cold, I’ll go to the gym in our building and do a mix of the treadmill, elliptical and some weights. I obsessively watch the news when I’m exercising, usually “This Week” and MSNBC.

BAGELS, EGGS, LOX By the time I’m done working out and showering, Esme is up, and one of the other kids is usually hanging around.

We all head out for brunch. Russ & Daughters is a go-to. It’s such a New York experience. I get the sesame bagel toasted with cream cheese and sometimes with lox. We get the potato knishes for the table.

Michael is also a creature of habit and gets scrambled eggs and lox, and Esme gets a bagel like me. To drink, we have coffee and orange juice. If we’re not there, we go to Sarabeth’s. I love their veggie omelets.

ART WALK We love going to museums, and we hit one of the many great ones in the city right after brunch. There is always a new exhibit to see.

We last saw Hilma af Klint at the Guggenheim and the Liliana Porter show at El Museo del Barrio. which was funny and made me smile. And we hit Andy Warhol, too, at the Whitney. The twins and Esme usually join us, and we’ll spend an hour or two at whatever museum we’re at. Afterward, we’ll walk around the neighborhood and window shop and people watch.

WINE AND CHEESE A lot of times, we’ll host a big family dinner. Before, we gather in our living room and open wine. It tends to be a chardonnay from France or California or a vermentino from Italy. We say cheers to each other and nibble on some cheese and crackers while we drink. I buy our cheeses from Eli’s, which has an amazing selection, and on Sundays, I put out four kinds.

VEGGIE-CENTRIC DINNER More often than not, my mom, sisters and I all cook together. Our meals are very vegetable forward. There’s always a big salad, and it’s a fun one with nuts and seeds and lettuces. We do a roasted vegetable like brussels sprouts or cauliflower and a grain like potatoes or rice or couscous. For protein, my mom makes an amazing roasted chicken or we make a chicken stew from our first cookbook.

IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR Around 7, we’ll sit down around our dining table and enjoy a nice, leisurely meal where we chat, laugh and connect with each other. We are all so busy during the week, and this is our time to catch up. Afterward, we all clean up together. One of the guys will usually park himself by the sink and wash the big dishes.

MIXED MEDIA When everyone is gone, I sit on our couch and read the Sunday Times. I get through most sections. Style, Book Review and Sunday Review are my favorites. Michael and I also turn on the news again and catch up on what happened that day. We are both news junkies.

EARLY BEDTIME I climb into bed around 9:30 and watch the news some more. Then, Michael and I will watch a show like “Escape At Dannemora” on Showtime, which is unbelievably engaging. Michael is a night owl and will stay up until 1 or later, but not me. By 10:30, I’m struggling to stay awake.