Ella's Kitchen is the fastest growing brand in the UK baby food sector and this new title, Ella's Kitchen: The Cookbook: The Red One, is the first in a series of books aimed at creating nutritious, convenient food that kids (and their parents) will love. 100 yummy recipes to inspire big and little cooks, ranging from the easiest of snacks and light meals that can be rustled up in minutes to delicious and satisfying dinners. Interesting twists and clever shortcuts, such as salmon fillets baked in parcels and sweet and sour prawns, make life as easy as possible for busy parents. For weekends and holidays, when there is a bit more time available, there are leisurely breakfast recipes such as Blueberry Pancakes and more involved cooking projects such as a Pasta Weekend. With an emphasis on involving kids as much as possible, the book includes easy prep tasks throughout, as well as fun activities, from growing your own window-box plants to getting creative with vegetable prints. Colour-in pages and stickers also mean that kids will love it as much as their parents do.
Weaning and preparing food babies and young babies can be a minefield, one which first time mums can find a daunting and scary. There are so many different schools of thought - baby led weaning or the more traditional idea of introducing foods slowly, one at a time, with the consistency getting lumpier. However a parent decides to approach weaning, one thing is a necessity, a recipe book of inspiration - one which gives ideas of different tastes and textures to try, but that also offers inspiring presentation ideas; not endless bowls of mushed up food but also not one which makes shapes and pictures out of each meal.
The authors of the book, Alison and Paul Lindley, are the founders of Ella's Kitchen, who, over thirteen years ago, were parents to a baby, Ella, who, while watching their own child grow and become confident with food, left their jobs and created a range of foods for babies, toddlers and young children.
The book is well presented and layed out. It is brightly coloured and packed full of useful information and tasty recipes. As I have previously stated, there are differing thoughts to weaning and all parents should talk to their health visitors about current guidelines concerning weaning before deciding upon the road they will follow with their own child.
There is a great section on first foods for babies. It has lots of useful hints and tips - those tips that mothers find out by chance, written down ready for new mums, and lots of ideas for new tastes to try. There is a section on going from mush to mash and also going on to 'proper' food. There are also hints and tips about allowing your baby to explore food and how to encourage them to try new things - making it look nice, interacting with your child at meal times and using all senses at meal time.
The ingredients included in the recipes are all healthy and are easy to find in supermarkets and kitchen cupboards, something which is important when making up batches of food for the freezer.
The book includes recipes for meals, but also snacks, which is often where new mums struggle for ideas.
Recipes are split into useful chapters: yummy lunches and speedy snacks; dee-licious dinners; perfect puds; scrummy treats; and hooray for the weekend. Each recipe has a 'what you need' section and also has quick and easy guides for: number of servings; prep time; and cooking time. There is a brief introduction to most recipes which describes the dish, along with suggestions for variations and suggestions for fussy eaters. Some recipes have Ella's shortcuts, which mention Ella's Kitchen products which could be used to quicken prep time. There are also ideas in some recipes for steps which children could help with to encourage them to help prepare their own meals.
There is also a page at the back of the book of fantastic stickers for children. These are brightly coloured, as is the whole book. It is easy to follow and full of photographs of the food to help children choose what they would like to make.
I would definitely recommend this book as the perfect gift for new parents who are beginning to think about weaning. However, it is important to mention that parents should follow advice given by Health Professionals as recommendations can change (I know in the two years between my children weaning, recommendations did change). Although this book is by Ella's Kitchen it is not constantly pushing it's own products, only suggesting in some recipes, their own products for quickness, however instructions are always given for using fresh produce to make your own. It has lots of recipes and these will become firm favourites of children and can be used for years to come after weaning has been successful.
I received this book through the Amazon Vine Programme.
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