This is my fourth Annabel Karmel book so you could say that I’m somewhat of a fan. From weaning to the stage we are at now, (where we all eat the same) her recipes have always been such a great source of inspiration.
When your little ones are babies you tend to cater more for their particular dietary needs and it’s often a bit of a faff making separate meals for babies, children and adults. So it’s always a great time saver to be able to make family meals that everyone will sit down and eat.
We actually eat a little earlier than we used to as a couple but we like to now eat with the kids. It’s easier than making dinner twice and it’s also nice to all sit down together to have a chat and eat the same foods together. I find that the kids always eat much better if we’re with them – they’re less greedy and they’re more likely to finish their plates!
Annabel’s latest book is all about ‘Real Foods That Kids Will Love’ and it’s jammed packed with 100 recipes designed to suit toddlers up to adults! They are foods that look just like what you would expect from a normal cookbook and are great for encouraging your children to try new things.
There are lots of ideas for snacks and meals that are quick to prepare and I love the meat free and vegan section too as we like to go meat free from time to time.
All of my kids like to help me in the kitchen but I’ve found that Georgie really LOVES to get involved. She’s eager to do everything for herself (but I have to draw the line at her putting things in the oven!) and I’m keen to let her be as independent as she can – after all, she’s a great little helper with emptying the dishwasher.
For our first recipe, we decided to make a lunch time snack and we chose some bruschetta’s. Something that is fairly simple to prepare but meant that Georgie could get hands on and assemble herself.
I sliced up a ciabatta loaf and then let Georgie brush on some olive oil before we popped them in the oven for a few minutes to turn golden brown.
I then diced up some chicken breast and let her mix in some pesto, mayonnaise and chopped cherry tomatoes. She thoroughly enjoyed the whole mixing process and then carefully spooned the mixture onto the slices of ciabatta. To finish she sprinkled some basil on top of each slice.
Here are some more of our favourites from the book…
We love the healthy ‘fast food’ section and the kids love the novelty of stacking them in some colourful pots we have.
These oat, raisin and sunflower seed cookies are wolfed down within no time, once the batch comes out of the oven (and I’m responsible for them not sticking around long either).
We are yet to try these but I’m keen to make them soon, as I’ve made variations of them before. The chocolate orange flavour sounds delicious and I love that they’re sugar free too.
The book has a nice mix of quick, easy and most importantly, healthy recipes as well some tempting sweet treats – because you just have to have them too don’t you.
The book is so beautifully illustrated and it’s hard not to want to try all of the recipes out. We’re definitely going to work through this book to try most of them out though.
It might be hard work getting little hands involved with the cooking, but we’ve really enjoyed rolling up our sleeves and creating some dishes together – mess and all!
Nb. Collaborative post.
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