Are you a new parent, or know someone who is about to be? With the arrival of a new baby, food and cooking become a rather different set of challenges — snatched in between sleepless nights and the blissful absorption into every aspect of this new being's life. But once the friendly meals and Taco Boxes stop coming, you do need to feed yourself in the middle of this new family landscape, and that's where Debbie Koenig's smart new book can help.
Debbie has long written one of my favorite food blogs, Words to Eat By. She's smart and funny, and a terrific writer. Her first book is all about this challenge of feeding yourself and your family in the middle of new parenthood. She offers a fresh, lucid writing style, and smart solutions to things like meals you can eat with one hand, meals for the slow cooker, and meals to make while the baby naps. She looks at good things to eat while breastfeeding, and she offers tips for stocking your pantry.
But it doesn't end there — she had all 150 of her recipes tested by real moms from across the country, and she inserts their comments and thoughts after each recipe.
The book itself is laid out well, with non-glossy pages, and its one drawback — no photos — is somewhat made up for by the fact that the recipes mostly stick to a one-page layout. She also has some really smart features, like an index to all her sidebars (indexing chunks of information like "Basic Tips for the Slow Cooker" and "Making a Nursing Snack Basket" and making them easier to find).
I really love this book so far — I've only given it a quick read, but I think its strength lies in its comprehensive approach to cooking in this new phase of life, and offering help at every step. It would make a great baby gift (with that Taco Box, of course).
Have you read this book yet? What did you think of it?
• Find the book: Parents Need to Eat Too: Nap-Friendly Recipes, One-Handed Meals, and Time-Saving Kitchen Tricks for New Parents by Debbie Koenig (William Morrow Paperbacks) at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon• Visit Debbie's Blog: Words To Eat By
Related: Too Many Cooks by Emily Franklin - Book Review 2009
(Images: Faith Durand)
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Hmm, I have a pregnant vegetarian friend--would you know if it contains enough veg recipes to be helpful to her? Sounds like a cool concept.
Yes - there are tons of vegetarian recipes! I would call this a very veg-friendly book.
I think this just made my day. As a mother of a two-month old, this cookbook sounds exactly what I need right now. I'm so excited!
Hi, I was actually one of the proud recipe testers for this book! I'm thrilled some of my comments and feedback made it into the book. I love that she divided up the book by how much time you have or want to spend cooking (for instance: one naptime, a few chunks of time throughout the day, use your slowcooker). So you can choose a recipe based on how your day looks. Overall I was really pleased with the recipes, there were a few I didn't love but I found enough keepers to be able to recommend the book. And Debbie also throws out tons of cooking tips that are useful if you're a mom or not, and lots of feedback and notes on what to serve with the meals, how to use leftovers, etc.
Perfect timing -- I just checked this book out from the library! I love it so far. Great organization, the recipes look easy but tasty, and use normal ingredients. My favorite is the nap-friendly chapter, where each recipe is broken up into 2 or 3 chunks, each of which can be done while baby naps. This is how I cook nowadays, so it's nice to have a series of recipes that specifically outline how to break up the steps for me. I've only made one recipe so far (tuna and white bean salad), but we all agreed that it was yummy, and it passed my "so easy I don't have to think about it" test. I'm actually tempted to buy the book, and I never buy cookbooks nowadays.