Grown-ups like variety and kids......well you know, kids won't eat what they don't like. Say hello to a great new family cookbook and say goodbye to making multiple meals or serving high-fat kid favorites. The Whole Family Cookbook:Two-Tiered Meals to Please Both Parents and Kids lets busy parents enjoy boldly seasoned low-fat adult fare while youngsters indulge in kid-friendly meals that even choosy children will crave. Kristene Fortier shows parents how easy it is to make one meal that everyone will eat. The secret is the minor modifications used to adapt one recipe to two dining styles, adult-gourmet and kid-classic. The creative serving suggestions entice even picky eaters to try something new. Busy parents can select from over 115 easy recipes that are ready in about 30 minutes! Children are delighted with the way their meals look and taste. It's easy to make the whole family happy with just one meal!
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Editorial Reviews
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Notes From a Well Seasoned Mom. Before my children were born, I always had a lovely fantasy about family dinners. We're all gathered around the dinner table; we're laughing and joking and having a wonderful time. Real life turned out to be quite different: Our dinner hours were often tense and frustrating as my husband and I tried to persuade our youngsters to eat what was on their plates.
While attending a parenting seminar, I compared notes with other parents on "getting kids to eat healthy." I was surprised and delighted by what I heard. One parent after another spoke of their frustrations trying to get their youngsters to eat. "Sally has to keep all the food separated on her plate." "David only eats foods that are brown." "Ryan is a vegetarian, although he won't eat vegetables." We all had a great laugh together and I went home with sense of relief that my children were not that different from other kids.
Like most parents, I want my children to eat healthy. But their food preferences change often and their appetites fluctuate. So when they refused to eat the meal that I prepared, I tried to find a substitute. One exhausted evening, after preparing three different meals, I realized that I had to develop a better way. I got out the family cookbooks and tried the recipes that were "guaranteed" to please everyone. My husband and I found the food to be lacking in any distinctive flavor, and the recipes didn't make a difference with our children. Frustrated, I changed tactics. I decided that as long as my children were going to be particular about what they ate, my husband and I could at least enjoy our meals. We love ethnic cuisine with spicy seasonings so I began to cook the foods that we enjoy. Our children would never eat this kind of food so I separated their portions before adding the bolder seasonings. I found that once I got started, it opened a whole new experience for our family. The Whole Family Cookbook is based on a philosophy that getting a healthy meal on the table that everyone enjoys is possible. Each recipe has been developed in stages and can be seasoned very simply for children or more sophisticated for adults.
I've taken into consideration the needs of busy parents who want to get dinner on the table in a hurry. The grown-up variations are generally more spicy or include ingredients that many children may not like. All of the recipes are structured in a similar manner. The common ingredients for each recipe are listed first, then unique ingredients for each variation are listed. Preparation begins with the basic ingredients, then the recipe is separated and seasoned differently. Fifteen families tested the recipes in The Whole Family Cookbook. Their experience preparing the recipes and subsequent feedback was incorporated. I found that many children liked the grown-ups' variation and many adults liked the children's variation. I was pleased to learn that once the testers finished testing, many incorporated the recipes into their regular menus.
Our family philosophy has always been to expose our children to everything on the table. When a new food is introduced, we ask our children to take a small serving which we call a "no thank you bite." Over time they have become more adventurous and they've developed a greater tolerance for different foods. This has been particular blessing when dinning out or visiting friends. Our children can ignore foods on their plates that they don't eat without making a big fuss. However, there is no one formula that fits all kids. Be creative and have fun in the kitchen.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Family dining goes to a whole new dimension with this book!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Whole Family Cookbook: Two-Tiered Meals to Please Both Parents and Kids (Hardcover)
I've really enjoyed the Whole Family Cookbook. While I have a few recipes where I use Kristene's technique of separating portions for the kids, this book takes family dining to a whole new dimension. There is such a wide array of interesting and healthy recipes to choose from, ranging from appetizers to desserts. Kristene has found a way to prepare a meal that appeals to adult tastes while satisfying children at the same time. Many of the recipes offer serving suggestions for the kids that make it fun for them to eat. We use the "No Thank you bite" that Kristene mentions to introduce new things. Finally, I can prepare a low-fat meal that I enjoy without having to make a separate meal for the children!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Creative solution for picky child/gourmand adult eating!,
By mmj@earthlink.net (California, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Whole Family Cookbook: Two-Tiered Meals to Please Both Parents and Kids (Hardcover)
How refreshing to find an easy way to create interesting adult dinners that kids will eat. The minor modifications to adapt one recipe to two styles (kid-plain and adult-gourmet) is great -- and so easily created with the way this book is written. Great idea, needed for a long time. And yummy recipes, too!
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Has some interesting ideas,
By Kimberley (Victoria, BC Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Whole Family Cookbook: Two-Tiered Meals to Please Both Parents and Kids (Hardcover)
There are some very interesting recipes for grown-ups in this book, but I was a little disspointed with it in tems of solving some of my meal-time problems. I had hoped that there would be some really different sorts of taste sensations to tempt my picky seven year old into eating different types of food. In reality, I guess I was already using the techniques Kristene is advocating, ie. cooking something that the parents will like, and keeping part of the meal separate for the children. In essence, in our household, that means keeping pasta , potatoes or rice separate and adding cheese to make them palatable to the taste buds of a little one. Perhaps I was unrealistic in my expecatations, but I had really hoped this book would solve some of our dinner-time difficulties, which it did not.
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