Can anyone recommend a children's cookbook please

[thinkfast]

I need some help to get out of a cycle of:

Fish fingers
Spaghetti bolognese
baked salmon

For DS 7 and DD 3. They are rather reluctant to try new things and I thought getting them involved in choosing and cooking recipes might help.

I've just dug out my old River Cottage baby and toddler cookbook (which doesn't have a picture for each recipe ) of which the only thing they would like to try is a mango smoothie!

Can anyone suggest a good cookbook for simple recipes that might inspire them or some simple recipes for me to try at home?

Yotam Ottolenghi has a new book out called 'simple'. Lots of really easy, interesting recipes on there and every recipe has a picture. There's a fish Pattie recipe in there that has rapidly achieved favourite status in our household.

Ooh thanks. I might get that for myself but not sure the kids would feel inspired by Ottolenghi

The Isborne First Cookbook is good for getting kids involved and has some nice recipes.

I’ve just bought the Harry Potter wizards cookbook for DS, I’ve not collected the book yet so not sure how good it is. DS loves Harry Potter though so I’m hoping he’s going to be excited to try some of the recipes out

We have the river cottage family cookbook which I like.

www.amazon.co.uk/River-Cottage-Family-Cookbook/dp/0340826363/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ref=plSrch&keywords=river+cottage+family+cookbook&dpPl=1&dpID=613PvFxRczL&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1540842229&sr=8-1

We have a Paddington cook book, which has little comments from Paddington in, so they might like the book as well as the recipes

The Tilly Ramsay is actually really good. Basically dumbed down Gordon Ramsay recipes. My dd aged 9 is really enthused by it. The enchilada recipe is now one of my weekday staples . The brownies are failsafe excellent.

Ella's Kitchen have a series of lovely books. We have a cook book and a baking book. Proper recipes (not baby food/purees) and lots of them have tips for how to get kids joining in with the cooking

Nadiya Hussain bake me a story is wonderful, it’s recipes (savoury and sweet) with an accompanying story to encourage them to eat it

Not heard of Tilly Ramsey. Just ordered it. Looks great. Fingers crossed we find some good recipes that work for all of us

Easy least by Mary contini is great, from the family who run valvonna and Crolla, best Italian deli in Edinburgh, can't recommend it enough!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Easy-Peasy-Real-Cooking-Kids/dp/0091868408/ref=mpssa113?ie=UTF8&qid=1540863371&sr=8-3&pi=ACSX2366SY340QL65&keywords=easy+peasy+mary+contini&dpPl=1&dpID=51M1W-iOsIL&ref=plSrch

Dds friends all have the Tilly Ramsay one and they discuss who has done which recipe. We found gimmicky ones like Harry Potter never worked as the recipes were weirdly difficult. Loathe to praise GR but he is a fantastic cook and this book is the best kids cook book we’ve found anyway.

We have quite a few  but my favourites are:

Annabelle Karmel - it was great when the kids were tiny but now they are 4 and 6 they still like most of the recipes. Lots of one pot meals with all the veg in as well so you don't have to cook separate veg.

Little Dish cookbook - good traditional meals, often with the veg hidden. nice suggestions down the side of what kids can do to help make the recipe. The recipes always work.

And saving the best for last, Let's Bake by the lady who was on bake off a few years ago, Cathryn Dresser (wasn't she a MNer as well? Or I might be misremembering.) I love this book so much, everything is pitched just right for kids and half the recipes are savoury. There are photos of each step. My sons beg to bake from this book on the weekend and their go-to Saturday lunch is homemade ham and cheese croissants from the book served with veg sticks and cherry tomatoes.

Right. The Tilly Ramsey book arrived on Friday and we have made loads of her recipes this weekend:-

1 Saturday night - salmon parcels with corn on the cob with bacon. Followed by magic ice cream (ie frozen smoothie). A hit meal although lots of the veg was left and dd insisted I scrape the herbs off her salmon.

1. Baked chicken with crunchy coleslaw. They liked the chicken and hated the coleslaw. Followed by Bananas in pyjamas (baked bananas with peanut butter, chocolate chips and marshmallows). Also a hit.

Tbh I'm not blown away by the book but will try out a few more recipes. The salmon was excellent though.

www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/the-children-s-step-by-step-cook-book/GOR001593699?keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjwsfreBRB9EiwAikSUHSXnuuguN1h1gzGaGJL95N5oDqrvSxgmSmTQL2Dse-mCif34dHgENxoC6mUQAvD_BwE

I learnt to cook with this book as s child and still use it now with my own (in my 30s) also the DK website have newer books which also look just as good

Thank you

Your local library will probably have loads you can reserve, in our library it’s free for children to reserve, we recently did this and bought none of them after having them at home for 28 days. It’s worth getting them a Library card, we can also reserve via an app and specify which library to Coll from.

Library suggestion is a great idea. Weirdly I've not used a library for non fiction for about 15 years. Time that changed

I have DSD 7 and DSS 3 who, like yours, are reluctant to try new things. I bought Gruffalo Crumble and they love it!

This book looks like jolly good fun, and full of scrumptious recipes!

Five Go Feasting.
Inspired by the food in Enid Blyton's books, and only £3:99 at The Book People.