Kids' Fun and Healthy Cookbook

DK's newest cookbook, Kids' Fun and Healthy Cookbook, is a wonderful collection of recipes, quick lessons to make healthy kids’ food and interesting food facts. The cookbook includes food group basics, up to date information about healthy foods and nutrients, and pointers for planning healthy diets for kids. The book will make a great addition to a household looking for preschooler-friendly meals that also happen to be healthy.

What’s Great About the Cookbook for Preschoolers

Recipes. The book has 50 recipes that sound tasty but not too complex for preschooler palates. You’ll find new dishes like picnic salad and homemade breakfast cereal as well as kids’ classics like mini pizzas, pita pockets, marinated chicken drumsticks, fruit cobbler and muffins.

Easy Cooking Ideas. If you’re looking for simple and quick ideas for healthy food, you’ll love the mini sections at the beginning of each chapter. Each has several short lessons for how to make homemade versions of processed foods or tips for making store-bought foods healthier. You’ll learn how to make your own veggie burgers, hummus, fruit puree, and nut butter as well as tips for adding healthy ingredients to favorites like toast and soup.

Healthy Food Information. The book focuses on healthy food groups - fruits, vegetables and whole grains are recommended. The food groups have a British origin - fruits and vegetables, starchy foods, protein, and fat and sugars. These are a little different than food groups in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, but in many ways make good sense. For instance, instead of focusing on ‘meat’ as a food group, protein is used and helps one to think of all the foods we can eat to provide protein, such as nuts, beans, and dairy.

Fun Food Facts. Lots of fun food facts are scattered throughout the book and give insight into the latest information about phytonutrients, whole grains, the importance of omega-fatty acids and more. Plus, recipes and food facts discuss the country or region where foods were first served. Talking about the origins of food with your preschooler is one way to spark an interest in new foods.

More About the Cookbook

The recipes are grouped into meal occasions – breakfast, light meals, main meals, desserts and baking.

Vegetarian recipes abound in this book. Many recipes have ideas for using either meat or meat substitutes.

The graphics, as we’ve come to expect with the DK line of books, are vivid and inviting. You can use the pictures of finished recipes to let your preschooler choose foods to make. And each step of recipes is pictured to help preschoolers ‘read’ and follow the recipe.

Because of the British origins of the book, some information may seem unfamiliar. For instance, in the fruit and vegetable section, the book instructs kids to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables, but to not count potatoes, yams and sweet potatoes – even though these foods are high in many important nutrients and fiber. These foods are included, instead, in the starchy food group. The important point, as always, is to eat a wide variety of foods from all food groups for a well-balanced diet.

Product Details from Amazon.com

Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 128 pages
Publisher: DK CHILDREN (June 4, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0756629160
ISBN-13: 978-0756629168
Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches

More Cookbook Tips

For more great cookbooks for preschoolers and tips on buying a cookbook, read Cookbook for Preschoolers - A Buying Guide

by Kati Chevaux

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