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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To de really p'd off with Annabel karmels latest cookbook?

51 replies

Mummy2Bookie · 08/01/2011 09:47

I recently bought her new top 100 finger foods as i was looking for ideas on feeding dd at tea rime. There's a lovely picture on the front of a toddler eating veg and pitta bread but inside it's a different story.
Its packed with fried recipes, Lots of added sugar recipes and is a " burger and chips " style cookbook. Maybe thats a bit more acceptable for older children and certainly for parties, but not for babies and toddlers whom you're trying to get used to healthy food.
I'm just really annoyed that she is suppost to be such a leading authority on young children's nutrition and she pubiIshed this rubbish. She doesn't deserve her MBE to do with child nutrition. More fool me for butting this book, I don't normally buy her books.

OP posts:

Original poster

Mummy2Bookie · 08/01/2011 11:32

No I didn't read that. Does she say it on her website?

OP posts:

SkyBluePearl · 08/01/2011 11:37

I'm too lazy to follow her books - the idea of making seperate foods for kids fills me with dread. We did finger foods/baby led weaning with ours and just gave our kids bits of our own homemade food - as a result they eat lots of grown up foods these days and don't fuss.

chaya5738 · 08/01/2011 13:54

Glad someone else (laquitar) hates the photos too. I got one of her books out of the library (I was going to use the toddler recipes for BLW) and was appalled by the photos. Glamourous mother sitting there immaculately dressed with clean baby next to her. I hate those idealised photos. Bleeeeech.

DilysPrice · 08/01/2011 14:01

I went right off her when she revealed in the guardian that her 18 year old son was sent off to university completely unable to cook - so much for all the folksy "my toddlers love to cook this" stuff in the early books.

kitty4paws · 08/01/2011 14:09

I have in on good authority ( a nanny friend of Annables nanny many years ago) that Her kids ate the same crap normal diet that most kids have.

GwendolineMaryLacey · 08/01/2011 14:13

I was bought a couple of her books but never used them. I don't understand why you need a separate book for toddlers. Cook the same thing for all the family and use your common sense re salt etc. If I as a truly crap cook can manage that, then more capable people should be laughing.

bran · 08/01/2011 14:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DilysPrice · 08/01/2011 14:23

It's not always possible to cook for the whole family though. DH gets home in time for bedtime stories, but not for DC's tea. If we have a casserole or something else suitable then the DCs will have it for supper the next evening, but if we have steak or curry (DD will not eat curry however hard I try) then I have to cook a separate meal for DCs the next day in a reasonably limited timeframe and AK's cornflake chicken or salmon rissoles fit the bill nicely. She's not brilliant on sugar and salt though.

IAmReallyFabNow · 08/01/2011 14:28

I can vouch for kittypaws that she is telling the truth. Her kids were terrible eaters .

imkeepingmum · 08/01/2011 14:28

Another hater of the photos in the book! Reality = baby half clothed so that they don't get all their clothes covered in mashed banana, mum in scruffy clothes so she doesn't get covered in mashed banana, baby has mashed banana covered hands, hair, ears, nose, eyes, chin and any other availble uncovered body parts within approximately 0.001 seconds...get the picture... :o

Bogeyface · 08/01/2011 14:42

Anything that takes longer to prepare than it does to eat is out of the window for me as far as baby/toddler food goes!

I have a life, I dont have the time or inclination to be frigging about with jacket potato boats with cheese square sails (do they still make those?! :o) when I have 7 hungry people waiting for their meal!

We all get the same meal cooked for all of us, with the odd portion frozen for when we have a chippy dinner. AK and her ilk take life and make it just that little bit more complicated!

ReindeerBollocks · 08/01/2011 14:51

Oh dear dc1 was given one of her books for christmas, and I've used it several times. Admittedly it's to enable children to cook full meals so it's only got real recipes in it (the lamb tagine recipe was gorgeous).

I have never bought a baby related cook book though, as I've never seen the point -for the same reasons as expat.

Oh and I also agree with the poster who thought here photos were/are awful. I did let DC2 loose with her crayons on the double spread pictures .

maighdlin · 08/01/2011 15:21

bit disturbed that some people need a recipe for eggy bread

IAmReallyFabNow · 08/01/2011 15:24

Why maighdlin? No one has ever shown me how to make eggy bread so I would need a recipe.

Newgolddream · 08/01/2011 15:32

CaptainNancy - why thank you!!
Still a big fan to.....they are still on the go to.

Re the cooking separate meals I had to do this as my DH cant cook and when I returned to work full time he watches the kids - so it was easier to have small portions of proper food frozen than rely on ANYTHING he would prepare for our toddler lol.

DilysPrice · 08/01/2011 15:46

I also have to admit to using AK's "recipe" for eggy bread - I never are it myself as a child, and otherwise it might not have occurred to me that you need to mix the egg with the milk for the dip and then melt the butter with some oil in the pan. It's simple, but not completely intuitive.

Bizarrely I also learnt to cook beef stews from AK - they're not the sort of thing I ever wanted to cook as a twenty-something, so I never did them until I tried AK's very simple version, while weaning DD, and once I discovered how foolproof it was I improvised from there.

ApocalypseCheeseToastie · 08/01/2011 15:49

Can people please stop chuntering on about eggy bread ?? I bloody love eggy bread with cracked black pepper and sea salt

Original poster

Mummy2Bookie · 08/01/2011 16:43

I love eggy bread, but not with caramelised bananas, and definitely no caramelised bananas for dd.

OP posts:

flyingvisit · 08/01/2011 16:44

Is "eggy bread" french toast?

Original poster

Mummy2Bookie · 08/01/2011 16:45

I don't like the photographs in the finger food book. Such as a toddler reaching out for fish and chips, and rissoles frying in a pan

OP posts:

Original poster

Mummy2Bookie · 08/01/2011 16:49

Yes similar to French toast.

OP posts:

tabulahrasa · 08/01/2011 17:25

but would you need a recipe for veg and pitta bread? surely a finger food recipe book is for more interesting stuff that you wouldn't think of yourself?

Original poster

Mummy2Bookie · 08/01/2011 17:30

Yes but it's full of junk food recipes. Packed with fat, fried food, sugar, salt etc

OP posts:

expatinscotland · 08/01/2011 17:33

'I'm too lazy to follow her books - the idea of making seperate foods for kids fills me with dread. We did finger foods/baby led weaning with ours and just gave our kids bits of our own homemade food - as a result they eat lots of grown up foods these days and don't fuss.'

Exactly. I'm just too lazy, I guess. So we did 'babyled' weaning, too. Just get one of those mats to go under the high chair for the mess and dish out what you're having.

flyingvisit · 08/01/2011 17:44

Years ago I did buy one of her books and tried a shepherd's pie recipe. Half way through I gave up and used my own as she has such a limited umebr of vegetables in it.

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