My children are picky eaters and although I can honestly say they don’t eat a lot of junk food, the variety of foods they eat is limited and my (growing) frustrations in regards to the amount of protein they put into their bodies makes meal planning a nightmare.

After consulting friends and several books on the subject I decided to try something new; actually including them in the meal planning and cooking. That is when I discovered Ready, Steady, Spaghetti: cooking for kids and with kids by Lucy Broadhurst (Andrews McMeel Publishers;2009). What attracted me first (besides the title) was the stunning photographs and easy to read layout. The majority of the recipes seemed easy to produce with little hands helping me and most importantly, my kids found many recipes they wanted to try.

The cookbook is divided into 6 sections:
Little Food
Dinnertime
Eat your greens
Sticky treats
Cookies, Cakes, and sweets,
Let’s Party

Although the french toast recipe (page 11) seemed a bit been-there-done-that, the ham and corn muffins and berry muffins (page 12) were tasty and quick. After a successful test drive in the Little Food section we decided to try something in Dinnertime, since that is where I have the most trouble with my picky little eaters. Again, there was a recipe I felt we could have done without—-pizza, particularly since you make it with a pre baked pizza shell. But thankfully the chapter had more to offer in the way of: spaghetti with chicken meatballs (page 48), pea and ham risotto (page 58), pork and chive dumplings (61), and our favorite potato gnocchi with tomato sauce (page 69).

Yes, almost half the book is desserts or sweet treats, but that is to be expected since it is a cookbook geared towards enticing young chefs into the kitchen. There are enough kid-friendly recipes within this cookbook to keep most families interested and cooking together. It certainly helped me change a stressful situation into a fun family activity, and to me that is more than worth the cost of the cookbook.