Bean Appetit: Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food [Hardcover]

Shannon Payette Seip (Author), Kelly Parthen (Author)

Book Description

Introducing a fresh and fun cookbook that gets kids excited about eating spinach! Bean Appetit is a hands-on book designed for both kids and parents, presenting yummy, good-for-you recipes in a never-before-seen, playful way.This darling cookbook is packed with recipes, food-themed games, crafts, and activities that will inspire families to embrace healthy habits. Based on favorites from the authors' cafe, Bean Sprouts, the nation's leading hip and healthy kids' cafe, recipes include Dough-Re-Mi, Elefunky Monkey snack mix, Bug Bites, and more.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-5 Fifteen bean-themed chapters (for instance, Peanocchio: Book-Themed Food and Fun and Sweet Pea: Delicious Desserts) make up this playful mix of recipes, games, songs, and activities. Based on ideas used at Bean Sprouts, the authors' café and cooking school, the book has a commendable emphasis on healthy eating and using natural and organic ingredients. However, it suffers in other ways. Some of the directions are vague and require an experienced adult to fill in the details. A page listing ingredients for Sweet Sippers gives great ideas for making smoothies but doesn't suggest any specific (or even general) quantities. Elsewhere, readers are told they can grow herbs from seed by planting them in pots and simply tending them. The graphics, mostly cartoons in varying shades of green, set a whimsical tone but serve little other function. There are some color photos throughout but few show the finished dishes. Overall, this could be a useful resource for adults who, like the authors, work with groups of children. It also may be more suited to personal rather than library use, since there are places where readers are told to mark the book (play Bean-go by crossing off pictures of fruits and vegetables as you taste them). Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Inside Flap

Drumroll, peas!
Introducing inventive ideas to get kids excited about healthy eating!
   
In Bean Appetit, bitty bakers and their families will find oodles of yummy, good-for-you recipes, such as Dough-Re-Mi, Bug Bites, and Fla-Mango Soup.  Here, kids are encouraged to play with their food, as well as enjoy food-themed games and activities that inspire lifelong healthy habits.  
Based on favorites from Bean Sprouts - the authors' hip and healthy kids' cafe and cooking school - Bean Appetit encourages young chefs to explore new foods and flavors.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (February 23, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0740785176
• ISBN-13: 978-0740785177
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #897,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and healthy, March 20, 2010

By 

Cathe Fein Olson "Avid reader and writer" (curled up with a book) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bean Appetit: Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food (Hardcover)

Bean Appétit is packed with creative ways to make healthy foods not only delicious but fun. The dishes are so bright, colorful, and creative, they're more like art than meals. Like the "High Note Nibbles" sandwiches, for example, that look like a piano keyboard. Or the "Bug Bites"--dragonfly-shaped pitas sandwiches made with fruit, turkey, and a pickle. The almost florescent-purple "Starry Night Bites" are made from berries and sticky rice and adorned with cheese stars. But my favorite was "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" which looks like the character from the book by Eric Carle. Chicken-and-vegetable-stuffed spring rolls form the body with a big tomato as a head and pretzel sticks as legs. It's so cute and sounds really tasty. There are many more fun creations for parents and children to make together--with lots that don't even require any cooking.

The recipes and language in Bean Appétit are appropriate for the preschool crowd. Directions to "Shake your hips and get ready to mix:" or "Roll around on the floor while chanting `Go bananas' will be fun for young children, but may turn off older kids. Interspersed between the recipes are silly conversation starters, such as "Who do you know has the silliest singing voice?" or "Would you rather share your sleeping bag with a bat or a bear?" There are games like "Flash Dance" (a flashlight dancing game) and food related trivia like "Table Manners from Other Countries." The book is bright and appealing with whimsical illustrations and colorful photographs. This would be great for parents of preschoolers and preschool or kindergarten teachers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great way to stimulate creativity as well as promote nutritious foods, March 21, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bean Appetit: Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food (Hardcover)

Bean Appetit: Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food is more than just a bean and pea cookbook - it's packed cover to cover with whimsical, creative, and fun ways to style one's food, especially as a way to get children interested in the kitchen (or even entice a sick child to eat). Full-color photography illustrates fun projects ranging from a pear and chocolate treat designed to look like a penguin, to a tomato half with Parmesan cheese and spaghetti arranged to look like a face ("Mama Mato!"), to delicious domino cookies and much more. A great way to stimulate creativity as well as promote nutritious foods (virtually every dish is vegetarian, and many are vegan), Bean Appetit is highly recommended especially for parents and child-care providers interested in getting children involved in the preparation of a healthy diet.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars FUN AND HAPPY EATING FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY, March 4, 2010

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bean Appetit: Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food (Hardcover)

Basing their collection on favorites from Bean Sprouts, the acclaimed café and cooking school for kids, these authors have filled 192 pages with irresistible, healthy yet fun recipes plus food-themed games, crafts, and activities. So, Moms and Dads invite the small ones into the kitchen and have a ball!

Breakfast time is more than special with Stick Stacks - mini pancakes, strawberries, kiwis, and blueberries on a skewer then dipped in maple syrup. Along with this yummy way to start the day comes a suggestion to begin each morning by saying something positive to your family, such as "Today is going to be the best day ever!" And there's a "Pea Brain" hint: how do you tell a hard-boiled egg from a raw egg without cracking them open? "Just spin them. The one that spins longer is hard-boiled!"

That's just a sample of what's in store for your young ones in this inventive, merry encouragement to eat healthy and bring the family together to make mealtimes fun.

In addition, there's a different challenge in every chapter of BEAN APPETIT. For every challenge completed a youngster cuts out the square provided on page 193 and attaches it to his/her diploma. The diploma can be downloaded at www.beansproutscafe.com.

This is one cookbook that won't just sit on a shelf but be enjoyed over and over again by all. (A favorite of ours is Mama Mato with spaghetti hair!)

- Gail Cooke