Cooking With Kids: Kid-Friendly Cookbooks

Cooking With Kids

Posted by Matthew Amster-Burton, October 23, 2007 at 12:00 PM

I've been reading new kid-related cookbooks so you don't have to. First, the good news.

Nicola Graimes's Top 100 Recipes for a Healthy Lunchbox is petite (the book is about 6-inches square) and English. The author may also be petite and English, for all I know. The recipes have an emphasis on "healthy" but without resorting to unsavory stuff like low-fat cottage cheese or tub margarine. Surely my daughter Iris could be convinced to take Chicken Tikka Naan, Zucchini & Parmesan Fritters, or even Sushi Cones in her Hello Kitty lunchbox, although she would eat the contents of the sushi cone and leave the seaweed. There is a whole section on salads; if your kids accept salad in their lunch, please don't mention this in the comments. Top 100 is appealingly laid out and a bargain at $10 list.

Lauren Bank Deen's Kitchen Playdates is obviously written from years of experience of kids tearing through her house, prodding balls of dough, sprinkling toppings, and licking beaters. It's full of great tips, like: "When my kids make calzones, I find that they eat the bread and ignore the filling...with a long snake of stuffed pizza, they tend to eat the whole enchilada, so to speak." Iris and I are totally making pizza snakes soon. Deen is a cooking show producer who has worked with Bobby Flay and Ina Garten, and her recipes are bold and modern without being too bold and modern. Most kids I know would love Duck and Andouille Jambalaya, for example. Her Parmesan Shortbread is a version of one of our family favorites, icebox cookies made with cheese.

I like these books because they have the attitude that food is fun and it's a treat to get to share it with your family—although Top 100's endless nutritional information gets old fast.

Some other new books argue that food is medicine and it's your job to protect your family from the street drugs and slip them the good stuff. What fun! Next time, two such books, perfect for regifting to your favorite enemies. Care to guess the titles?

About the author: Matthew Amster-Burton lives in Seattle. His work appears frequently in the Seattle Times and Seattle magazine. He also maintains the blog Roots and Grubs. His favorite food is pad Thai.

6 Comments | Tags: books, cookbooks, Cooking With Kids, kids

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6 Comments:

love your articles... although I can't always tell when you are taking the piss. this adds to the fun though.

i8alot at 12:14PM on 10/23/07

I tend to think kid's cookbooks are some of the best. Personally own many--both the "healthy" & the ones that contain recipes the kids will actually eat :)

JEP at 12:22PM on 10/23/07

i8alot, I really do like these books, and I really do think my daughter would go for chicken tikka and naan in her lunchbox, since she loves both at home. Thanks!

mamster at 4:05PM on 10/23/07

You must be hinting to that horrid Mrs.Seinfeld book and it's predecessor- Deceptively Delicious and The Sneaky Chef. Both awful ways to get your children to truly enjoy food and the process of eating.

These books look like great fun- and no, my daughter doesn't like salad in her lunchbox either. She'll eat it from the school, and she'll eat it at home, but something about packing it into the box makes it taboo. Go figure.

ErikaWaz at 7:11PM on 10/23/07

Kitchen playdates sounds like something I should check out since we have those nearly every day. Oh and Izzy does like lettuce leaves in his lunchbox, either alone or rolled around roast turkey. Haven't tried putting an actual salad in there yet...it may happen.

izzy's mama at 9:29PM on 10/23/07

Erika, you are correct. Although I'll try to say something new about them, since they seem to be the talk of the nation.

izzy's mama, definitely check out Kitchen Playdates. It's a clever book that rewards rereading.

mamster at 9:39PM on 10/23/07

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