Having received this book on the day of publication, I have been using it for about a month. Never mind being real food kids will love, it’s real food that adults with love too.. We’ve made chicken fingers and sneaked in the quinoa without the kids knowing, there’s no chance they would have eaten it before. Son 1 is a very fussy eater and is query intolerant to maybe gluten or lactose or whatever, we managed to find foods that we could all enjoy at the same time without any drama. Hubby loves Carrot Cake at the best of times, but he adored the balls. He described them as mouthfuls of joy. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone,

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened this cookbook. The author covers a range of cuisines and explores strong flavours instead of playing it safe like some children’s cookbooks do. After looking through the book, I would also recommend this to novice chefs looking for recipes to try.

The recipes themselves are set out well and are easy to follow - I appreciated how the author included meals for special dietary requirements such as vegans.

Overall, this cookbook is definitely one that I would pick up if I saw it in a shop, and I am excited to try more recipes from it!

It is unbelievably difficult to cook for children nowadays - there has been so much news lately of obesity in kids and steps towards banning junk food advertisements during children's programmes on television. I feel that the best way for youngsters to get into the habit of eating both healthy and tasty food is to introduce it to them early on in life.

"Real Food Kids Will Love" is a book that, as the title suggests, focuses on shimmying kids towards food that is good for them. It is crucial that they understand from an early age that healthy food doesn't have to taste horrible or bland. This is an easily accessible and readable recipe book that has excellent pictures that show you what the finished article should look like and step-by-step instructions that can be followed by anyone, they are so simple!

Some of the recipes I am eager to try out -

* Chicken Bake With Sliced Roast Potato Topping
* Chicken Chow Mein
* Raspberry Ripple Mini Cheesecakes (yummy!)

I reckon there will be many recipes in this book that kids will love - I'm a fussy-eater and even I cannot wait to try these out! There is a variety of different ideas and something for everyone even those who are diabetic, lactose intolerant, vegan, or vegetarian.

What I particularly like is that I feel it would be easy to let kids help with these recipes as they are so easy to follow. Getting children involved in making their own food can only be a positive thing.

Many thanks to Bluebird for the invitation to read this book.

Oh, joy of joys I thought when I was selected to review Annabel Karmel's latest cookbook. I first purchased one of her books when my own, now fully grown children were babies. Both children were brought up on Annabel's recipes and one chicken with mango mayonnaise is still a family favourite 20 years later.
I quickly whizzed though this latest copy and as I had two seabass fillets decided to cook up a quick lunch. The simple sauce of cherry tomatoes flavoured with balsamic, basil and garlic. The recipe was easy to follow, healthy and extremely tasty.
I particularly enjoyed the section when time is short and thought this would be of great use to busy mum's. As a teacher I firmly believe in a sensible, healthy diet, with a little of everything in moderation. Annabel adopts this approach in her recipes, many of which I think will become family favourites. Other useful sections include lunchbox and playdate snacks and a yummy deserts and sweets section. I am going to try Amaretti and summer fruit gratin for desert tonight.
Many working mum's lack confidence in the kitchen but want the best for their children. Annabel writes with clear, concise instructions. Ingredients are readily available and easy to put together. There are many traditional takes on recipes plus some delicious sounding spicy dishes. I think this could become a very valuable addition to the family cookbook collection and would highly recommend giving it a try.
Thank you to Bluebird publishing for offering me a chance to give an honest review.

*4 Stars*

Cooking for the family and especially for children is HARD WORK. For me, this usually includes a struggle between quickness, convenience and finding the time to cook a meal, and cooking a healthy, but still a yummy meal, which is essential when dealing with fussier eaters.

I’ve tried lots of different parenting recipe books over the last few years, most of which were too complicated or where the food wasn’t interesting enough to keep the children happily eating. Having had a flick through ‘Real Food Kids Will Love’, I decided to give it a go, after all, it was worth a shot. However, once I started reading through and trying out tips and tricks from the book, I realised that this one, in particular, is more of what I’ve been looking for. One of the mid sections of the book discuss lunchbox snacks for children - something I found really interesting, as I hadn’t seen much on the topic in cookbooks in the past, yet lunch boxes are just as, if not more, time-consuming and important for children at school. I also loved the focus on vegan and meat-free alternative meals in the book, as having watched and read a lot about healthier ways of eating, I am trying to make as many meat-free dishes at home as possible and having access to vegan recipes which are catering for children is something I find is really lacking in the cookbook field currently.

I think that all parents should give this book a go, especially those with fussier eaters, or who are looking for more inspiration for cooking for little ones. The meals are healthy, simple and easy to make and most were gobbled up quickly.

Also, less importantly, the photography in the book was fantastic - being able to see what meals should look like when coming together, as well as wholesome family snaps.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experimentation with ‘Real Food Kids Will Love’ and will continue to try different recipes from the book in the future. I do hope that Annabel Karmel writes more, and would love to pick up her next recipe book.

I received this E-Arc in exchange for an honest review and would like to say thank-you to BlueBird publishers and Pan MacMillan for providing me with an advanced-readers-copy of this book.

I’ve just got a copy of this and there are so many recipes I’m going to try for my kids. I have 6 children and I’m always looking for healthy recipes to try! This book is colourful, and the food looks lovely. A must have for any family looking for new meals to make! We are having the paella for tea tonight!

5☆ A Scrumptious delightful wholesome cookbook.


I adore cookbooks and Real Food Kids Will Love is a delicious cookbook with easy ingredients, step by step methods, lovely illustrations and plenty of options and variations I'm really eager to try.

I am diabetic and always looking to cook wholesome, lower sugar healthy recipies and found some yummy ideas within this fab book.

Some of the recipe I'm eager to try are:
- SWEETCORN AND CHERRY TOMATO PANCAKES
-PENNE PASTA PRIMAVERA
-CHICKEN AND VEGETABLE CROQUETTES
-MINI TOAD IN THE HOLE - my favourite dinner
-MACARONI BOLOGNESE BAKE
-MEATLOAF WITH QUICK TOMATO SAUCE
-CHICKEN BAKE WITH SLICED ROASTED POTATO TOPPING
-BUTTER CHICKEN WITH YELLOW RICE
-QUESADILLA WITH TOMATO, BASIL AND MOZZARELLA
-MY FAVOURITE VEGAN BURGERS
-TORTILLA PIZZAS - I love tortilla pizza but this is recipe to make your own tortillas I buy shop ones.
-GRILLED CHICKEN BURGERS
-CHICKEN CHOW MEIN - my favourite take away
-CHICKEN WITH MOZZARELLA, CHERRY TOMATOES AND BASIL
-MINI CHICKEN BURGERS WITH APPLE AND SAGE
-RICE KRISPIE, OAT AND APRICOT BARS
-NO-SUGAR CHOCOLATE ORANGE ENERGY BALLS - excited to try these
-SPICED APPLE , SQUASH AND CARROT MUFFINS
-DAIRY-FREE BEETROOT AND CHOCOLATE CAKE
-RASPBERRY RIPPLE MINI CHEESECAKES

So as you can see such a delicious healthy mix. They also do meat free and vegetarian options and fish too. But I don't eat fish so haven't included these.

All ingredients are in grams and oz and tsp and tbsp, floz and ml which I really appreciate as conversions are a pain at times.

These are also great recipies you can make with the children. They are nice and easy.

Annabel has put alot of thought into her recipies and given some nice tips and information.

The only thing missing I feel is a introduction to equipment or store cupboard ingredients you find in the majority of cookbooks to help out novice cooks feel more at ease with the recipies.
I do like the photographs accompanied with the recipies so you can see what you are aiming to make at the end.

The kindle arc version is a little jumbled up but i think that is to do with formating but im sure the final copy will be much better.

Overall i highly recommend this scrumptious cookbook. I can't wait to get started. It had my tummy rumbling!

A big thank you to Bluebird at Pan Macmillan for inviting me to read and sample this delightful wholesome cookbook.

A few years ago both my daughters were expecting and I bought them both a copy of the Annabelle Karmel book of baby food ideas. They both loved it so I was delighted to get a copy of this new offering from her. I’ve already had a good look through & just know the packed lunch section will be a favourite and I even want to make the carrot balls for myself!!