Customer Reviews

The Cleaner Plate Club: Raising Healthy Eaters One Meal at a Time

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I have not written a review before but I just cleaned the dishes and I wanted to brag, because my kids ate my cooking. I am not a confident cook. I get overwhelmed by dinner time, I have such guilt that I am just scared to cook, even for my children. The Cleaner Plate Club is probably my 6th kid-oriented cook book. Anyway, I was drawn to it by the title, the colors, the easy to follow sections. Even so, I can let a book sit on my shelf for months before I try anything, but this time, I just hunkered down and made a meatloaf! I was surprised by what a difference their attitude made. I found it less scary to try the meatloaf because they have a way of letting you screw up and still feel like you are doing it right(?) seriously. I feel very grateful for this book. It is really disarming and fun. I think these women speak to me, not down to me, and my very chaotic life. The food is interesting, simple, so far very tasty and dare I say forgiving? I recommend this to anyone who is a working mom, like me, and looking for a more contemporary and real approach to cooking.

In the short time we've had this book (about 1 week), we've already used 4 or 5 recipes and they were all a delicious way to eat some healthy food. The information contained in the well-written (and quite funny) prose in the first few chapters is extremely useful. While designed for moms and dads trying to raise healthy eaters, it is also a great cookbook and information source for couples without children - really for anyone concerned about the state of American food production "machine" and nutrition in general. The section about "meeting your veggies" is great for anyone using a CSA and finding him- or herself occasionally dumbfounded by a particular weekly vegetable selection. If you are trying to cook delicious and kid-friendly meals for your family, you need to buy this book. But even if you are single or a childless couple, there is a great deal of excellent information in this book, and it also happens to be an extremely engaging and worthwhile read.

I stumbled upon this book while my daughter was eating her typical not-so-healthy snack at the local health food store (white-flour bagel and a giant serving of cream cheese). We read the list of breakfast ideas together and discovered all sorts of things that she gave the thumbs up to trying, despite her notoriously picky tendencies. I'm a pretty healthy eater myself, but not much of a cook -- trying to teach my kid healthy habits and find the imagination and time to offer her good food has been a struggle. This book has given us so many new ideas that are appealing and reasonable to make; many are quick and simple, many introduce super foods that otherwise kids turn up their noses at (kale! aka Power Fairy Food!). I'm thrilled to have found a book that offers so much pragmatic info, delicious recipes, and sound parenting advice combined with great writing and really fun authorial voice. Also must mention the design, photos, and illustrations are gorgeous! Great presentation of wonderful material. Thanks!

I have never written a cookbook review. I'm not a cooking "snob" but I am always looking for different recipes and I like to experiment with cooking because I get bored with cooking and eating the same things. I came across this cookbook at my local library and after spending 20 minutes with it at home... I was so frustrated that I couldn't do what I typically do with cookbooks that I own... go through and dog ear all the pages with recipes that I want to try first... because there were SO MANY recipes that I wanted to try from this book! I am a relatively healthy eater and cook, however, my very picky 7-year old daughter seems to only be interested in food items that are covered in chocolate sauce! I don't prepare much of that at home, however, that doesn't prevent her from passing up the food I make and just waiting for the next sugary snack to show up from somewhere else... as is pointed out in the book... these days, kids have a seemingly never-ending stream of small sugary things coming at them from all directions... friends' birthday parties, holiday and birthday celebrations at school, soccer practice snacks, in the bank drive-thru, as a reward for good work or good behavior at the sitter's, etc.... add it all up and I swear, my daughter could still survive without hardly eating a meal that I prepare! I could SOOOOO relate to the section of the book that talks about this. But viola!... enter the most effective solution... healthy, easy-to-prepare, foods my daughter ACTUALLY likes!! I've prepared 3 recipes so far... She's gobbled them up and asked me to make them again! I'm really shocked at how well these recipes have been tailored to appeal to kids' taste buds, yet are foods that adults will enjoy. I mean seriously... I've made "honey-lemon spring vegetable saute" "summer squash fritters" and "greens gratin". These are foods that are PACKED with veggies and don't sound or look a bit like "kid food" but they were easy to cook and required basic ingredients and she LOVED them...asked for MORE! If it was nothing but a book of recipes, it would be an incredible stand out on most people's cookbook shelf, whether you have kids or not. However, it's much more than that as I very much agree with other reviewers about what a great companion this book is if you are participating in a CSA or shopping at your local farmer's market. The reference capability in their "meet your veggies" section for how to use a huge variety of (sometimes unfamiliar) produce items is just extremely convenient. And then to even take it a step further... throughout the book are so many interesting research tid-bits and facts... I really enjoyed how the authors interwove these pieces in a way that gave more perspective about why I would choose this or that ingredient and yet, this wasn't distracting. I LOVE this book and will recommend it to every person who: wants to find ways to incorporate more nutrition into their eating or cooking, has kids, has kids who are picky eaters, is a vegetarian...especially if they are just starting a vegetarian diet, shops at the local farmer's market, participates in a CSA, is interested in learning more about our foods, or is looking for a book that is filled with new and simple recipes. I "shop" cookbooks at my library all the time because I don't want to waste the money on a book that doesn't offer enough recipes that I will use. I then only buy a cookbook after I've tested it out and find that it really works for me. I also subscribe to one of the major internet recipe sites and find many recipes that I like, but I often feel a book is still what I prefer, (I don't know if it's the pictures or the fact that I don't care if something splashes on the pages of my book...but with a laptop, that's a little bit of a problem!) But in all the cook books and cooking resources I've ever come across, I have to say, this is a one-of-a-kind type of cookbook, one that everyone should have in their home... it really is that good.

In my quest for help with my picky eating daughter, I began a search for helpful advice. One of the books I discovered is this book.

When you open up this book, you'll find a large section with all the nutrition information you've been looking up on the internet and haven't been able to easily find--at least I haven't. I love books because they save me so much time! They have all the information I want in one place. And that is definitely the case with this book. I can't count how many times I've looked up the ratios for sugar substitutes and definitions of kind of fats--and how many times I've looked up the different types of cooking oils. Among the chapters in this book, you'll find a list of all the types of oils and fats, a list (with descriptions) of the sugar substitutes... But, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Beth Bader and Ali Benjamin wrote The Cleaner Plate Club out of a desire to share what they've learned as they've sought to feed their own families healthy meals and raise healthy children. The first part of the book is about nutrition. Included in this section is a discussion of how to cope when they don't eat and how to feel about it. The authors are not psychologists and wisely don't try to deal with the nonfood aspects of this--they don't deal with the aspects of obedience and discipline. Instead, they focus these two pages on the nutritional aspects and how to view it. The next chapter is about shopping for food. I thought their list of ingredients for a well-stocked pantry was really pretty good. There's a few that I might substitute or say are optional, but for the most part, I think it's a very affordable, well rounded list. The next section explains CSAs and farmer's markets. If you've wondered how a CSA works or what the benefits are, the authors do a good job of explaining them. The remainder (and bulk) of the cookbook is about vegetables with recipes for your family. The recipes I've made have all come out except for one. My husband (and two of my children) loved the chicken chili, the fig balsamic salad dressing (which is about as simple as you can get), and the kale salt and vinegar chips. The kale chips were truly one of the most surprising recipes in the book. I made them on a whim not thinking anyone in my family but my husband would eat them--and all but one of my family loved them! I did also make the tomato and bread soup, which did not turn out to be a hit with my children because they love their Trader Joe's tomato soup and couldn't quite get used to the new texture of this soup.

So, here's my very honest opinion, I do love this cookbook. But, though these recipes are family friendly, they may not be eaten by your picky eaters. I think children who normally eat vegetables will love the recipes in this cookbook. I was pretty shocked when my oldest daughter, a non picky eater, gobbled up the kale chips. I hadn't even tried to get her to eat kale. And some picky eaters may grow to love these recipes. At the very least, the recipes in this cookbook are a great place to start. They aren't too spicy, but they are flavorful dishes (just go light on the salt the first time you make the kale chips). I don't have especially high hopes for my middle daughter, but I hope that she will eventually grow to love other foods. She has been more willing of late at least to take a few bites and has been able to swallow them--I know that sounds extreme, but I am sincere when I say that I really do have a picky eater. I think it's a trap that we as parents can begin to fall into when we cater to our picky children and stop cooking dishes that we enjoy. I've heard from several moms that they just can't do it anymore so they just start feeding their kids nuggets and mac and cheese every night. I don't want to go down that road. I love food. I especially love good food! If 2 of my 3 children will eat a dish, then I consider it a successful meal. So, if majority rules, this cookbook is a winner in our house. It doesn't have all the answers for your picky eaters, nor does it pretend to. But, it will be a good guide to help you know what to feed your children, how to shop, and give you some yummy recipes to cook for your family.

As I was reading this book, I kept thinking of Simply in SeasonSimply in Season Expanded Edition (World Community Cookbook) and I was so pleased to find that it is listed as one of the authors' favorite cookbooks at the back of the book. Simply in Season is probably one of my most favorite cookbooks and I've written about it several times on this blog. Many of the recipes in Simply in Season are simpler than in this cookbook, but I think the two would compliment each other well if you are looking for cookbooks that will help you bring more vegetables and healthy dishes into your family's diet.

As I've reread this review, I've realized that I've really put this book in a box. I have made it sound as if this is a cookbook that is best suited only to families. I didn't mean to box it in that way. So, who would I recommend this cookbook to?
1. Anyone who wants a cookbook with good, solid information about nutrition (but isn't ready to wade through a thick book devoted solely to nutrition).
2. Anyone who wants to cook more vegetables and eat healthier dishes at home, but isn't sure where to start and doesn't want to make any more casseroles.
3. And finally-- Anyone who loves yummy, healthy, food that doesn't include canned soup, ranch dressing, or another prepared food item as an ingredient!

Please note that I did receive a complimentary copy of The Cleaner Plate Club for review from Storey Publishing.

I have an 11-month-old who is becoming less interested in food from a jar by the day and wants to eat whatever Mom and Dad are eating. That's great, but often Mom and Dad are eating things like frozen pizza, which we don't really feel great about feeding our kid. We had made forays into making our own baby food, but most of the time that resulted in us cooking a too-large quantity of something the baby didn't like. So we were relying heavily on store-bought baby food because hey, a lot of research has gone into creating food babies actually want to eat. Plus, who has the time?

So I bought this book, which is a very entertaining read, and it made me resolve to feed my kid slightly better food. Not to be perfect - the book is definitely not about being perfect - but even if I made one thing a week, that would be better than not cooking at all. So far I've made 4 recipes from the book and they've all been a hit - not only with my 11-month-old, but they've also been things my husband and I want to eat. My husband even declared the meatloaf florentine "dinner-party-worthy."

This book isn't aimed specifically at cooking for a baby, and in fact, some of the recipes would need to be modified slightly to be appropriate for my baby, but it's a book about making healthy food that people of all ages can enjoy. I've never liked cooking, but it's so gratifying to make food my whole family likes that it makes me just want to keep cooking.

Oh, and apparently when my husband went to pick my son up at daycare yesterday, all the daycare teachers wanted to know what his lunch was (kale potato soup) because he loved it and it smelled so good.

I am a long-time fan of Ali Benjamin's blog ([...]) - so I was excited to hear she was writing a book. Her blog has always had interesting posts, great writing and plenty of good recipe suggestions - she also doesn't preach about food - she educates. This book is no different. There's tons of information presented in a friendly, not-at-all-pedantic, and really creative way. I have three boys under the age of 8 - all with different taste buds/moods/attitudes toward eating. They all devour the kale chips, the meatloaf is another favorite and we all love the chicken fingers. We've got plenty of great options to choose from here.
On another note - I'm a total localvore and simply enjoy learning about food. I was expecting this to be a "recipe book" - but it's much more than that. Even if you never make a single recipe - it's still totally worth the price because you will learn A LOT!
Thumbs up ladies - this is one that I'll be using for a long time (and buying to send to a bunch of my mom friends!)

I have NEVER written a review of anything here before, but after making the Golden Crisp Chicken Nuggets tonight I had to let others know to BUY THIS BOOK. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT IF YOU HAVE PICKY EATERS AND WANT TO TRY COOKING HEALTHIER MEALS. I used turkey breast in place of the chicken & my entire family LOVED them, including my one daughter who will not eat anything! My other daughter asked to go through the book and actually picked out lots of recipes to try. Both of my daughters are 8. I have been searching for a book like this. It is well-written, funny & informative. As some of the others have mentioned, you will definately want to read this book & not just use the recipes. I belong to a CSA and my whole family hated every recipe I made from another cookbook. I think this one will actually help us all eat the veggies this year! I got this from the library, but I am ordering two copies right now~ one for me and another for a friend. It is that good!

This is a great read AND a great cookbook. It's the kind of book you sit down and ENJOY. At first you might think you'll just flip through, and it's completely approachable in this way... but you'll end up going to the beginning and reading it cover to cover. It's fun, it's practical and most of all it's REAL. You can relate to the authors and their lives, and you know they "get it". "It" is the difficulty we all face approaching food - staying within our budgets, getting our families to eat what we deem affordable and healthy, fighting the barrage of prepared food advertising and fast food chains. This is one book you will be glad you purchased as opposed to borrowing from the library, as you'll go back to it again and again... your kids probably will too!

The Cleaner Plate Club had just arrived in the mail, and it was sitting on my desk. When my five-year-old son picked it up and began paging through it with interest, I knew it was a winner! The fun, eye-catching design had caught my son's eye, and it caught my eye too.

But more important, the philosophy and promise of this book caught my attention. As a work-at-home, uberbusy, mom of two, careening through my days at 85 mph, I long to cook real food--food that isn't handed to me out of a drive-thru window, food that doesn't come out of a bright red box in the grocery store freezer, food that isn't day-glo orange in color. I want to cook better; I want to do better.

This book is teaching me how. It's well-written, interesting, and smart. It talks about how we got to where we are (with a cabinet full of mac 'n cheese), and how to get to where we want to be (enjoying healthy food that nourishes our bodies and souls). The recipes are uncomplicated and presented in an easy-to-follow format. And they're meals that picky kids--even picky moms--are likely to enjoy. I highly recommend Beth Bader and Ali Benjamin's book! It's earned a place on my counter.

Jennifer Bright Reich, coauthor of The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth: More than 900 tips that 60 doctors who are also mothers use during their own pregnancies and births (The Mommy MD Guides)