Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Food/recipes

For related content, visit our food content hub.

Original poster

Please tell me-who cooks Annabel Karmel recipes for their kids??

45 replies

moondog · 17/12/2004 10:00

The reason I ask is that in my experince, most women have neither the time nor inclination to cook grown up food,let alone bugger about pureeing this and that and making pizza smiley faces or whatever.

Is it another case of gastroporn, in that by buying the book one feels that at least the thought was there, before stocking up on ready prepared stuff?!

Also, Britain is one of the few countries in the world where there is the perception that food for young children and adults has to be different.I don't think other countries have such a big market in baby cookery books.

BTW, I love cooking, but could count on one hand my friends and acquaintances who can and do!

OP posts:
popsycal · 17/12/2004 10:04

i did
never intended to but it sort of just happened even though i am a domestic lazy cow, i still did

serenequeen · 17/12/2004 10:06

see this old thread \linkwww.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=4&threadid=484\Annabel Karmel - helpful hints on one big guilt trip?}

serenequeen · 17/12/2004 10:07

and let's try that again....

see this old thread Annabel Karmel - helpful hints on one big guilt trip?

juniperdropofbrandy · 17/12/2004 10:09

Where do you live moondog? Am I right in thinking it isn't Britain? Just curious to know about the foods people cook for children in other countries.

I think we're fast catching up with the US with our eating habits, though programmes like You are what you eat have helped us a wee bit I think?

Oh and I bought one of AKs books and cooked a few things from it. They're simple recipes and I found the kids ate more if they helped make the food.

alilujahcatsg · 17/12/2004 10:10

I did when I started weaning ds but you know once you've read how to puree one vegetable you can pretty much do them all!

I do still make batches of stuff and freeze it but thats largely because I work and DH looks after the boy wonder and he has yet to crack the whole make pasta/add sauce/stop toddler crawling into dishwasher bit. Tends to be that I make a bigger shepherds pie/stew and freeze that tho rather than making something from the book.

DingWongMerrilyOnHigh · 17/12/2004 10:11

not me

Kristinia's Kroissants and all that malarkey, I think it is very very fanciful, tbh and if you read her transcripts on here, she only gives five or six recipes in answer to most questions - they are good basic common sense recipes so what I mean to say is I think she fills pages to please her publisher but underneath has some good clear ideas

popsycal · 17/12/2004 10:12

by the time ds was one he pretty much ate what we ate - was useful from weaning to that age though.

still use afew recipes from time to time (when i can be arsed to cook )

wickedwinterwitch · 17/12/2004 10:16

I haven't ever cooked Annabel Karmel but Willow2 (as was, she's buffettheturkeysomething now) was right about her and Jackie Collins, look at this

alexsmum · 17/12/2004 10:20

once when ds was being a bit off his food and not eating properly, I decided to do the ak thing.got him to help, made it into a smiley face in the plate etc.dslooked at it and said" thats very pretty mummy " so i said lets eat it all up then , and he just said " no!"
if my food is going to be rejected , i'd rather it was food that hadn't taken me so long to cook!!!

juniperdropofbrandy · 17/12/2004 10:27

that link from spring on AK was interesting serenequeen. I think I'll be getting joanna blythman's book. The other one she's brought out The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets,
sounds useful too,

muminlondon · 17/12/2004 10:38

I find her recipes very fussy but baby cookery is undoubtedly a clever and lucrative niche. It all clicked into place when I saw her nanny's name in the acknowledgements - I picture her locked away in her study writing and phoning her publisher while her nanny and cleaner struggle with the cooking, feeding the kids and cleaning up after they've smeared her gaily coloured food all over the walls.

ragtaggle · 17/12/2004 11:20

My nanny and only because I pay her. Must say, they look delicious. DH and I have been tempted to defrost extra for ourselves at the weekend...

LIZS · 17/12/2004 11:25

I did but far more so for ds than dd. Second time around I used it for reference rather than strictly following the recipes. Do still make the occasional thing from the Baby and Toddler Cookbook or Small Helpings. Her small cakes and cookies turn out well and the Sweet and Sour Chicken is a favourite. Didn't do her fussier aimed at kids stuff though.

The thing I found rather frustrating was that in Switzerland you get produce in season (tastes better for it) so the likes of squash weren't available when dd was ready for it anyway.

popsycal · 17/12/2004 11:30

will look a sweet and sour chicken
might tempt ds to actually eat something - he loves chicekmn

leglepartridge · 17/12/2004 11:58

i do. use her white book all the time. also make stuff from party book. also have days when ds1 has chips and nuggets and baby has bottled food. dont beat myself up either way just enjoy cooking.

zubb · 17/12/2004 12:07

me, and I use some of her recipes in the family cookbook. I like cooking and take things from all the cook books I've got.

FrostyTheSurfMum · 17/12/2004 12:08

Annabelle Karmel annoys me as much as St Delia. Sara Lewis's book was much better - just chop it all up, bung it in a saucepan, simmer and blend. I had to use a cookery book as our staple diet pre-dd was chicken kievs and potato waffles or take-away.

I do batch cooking and the ice cube tray thing and make sure there's something different for each day, so there's never a panic about what dd is going to eat, and we can eat whatever junk we like. Her diet is far better than ours, and I think we're going to start having what she's having, rather than the other way round.

expatkat · 17/12/2004 12:39

Yeah, actually my kids were weaned on Anabel Karmel recipes and nutrition tips. I needed some kind of guide of what they could eat, when, and she provided that for me. I give her book to my friends in the US, and they seem to like it and use it too.

Original poster
moondog · 17/12/2004 12:48

Thanks for the link Serena-v. intersting reading.
I am in Turkey Juniper, but have lived in many countries and UK and the States (poss?) seem to be the only ones who make a big deal out of kids' food.
I'm sure she is good but as many suggest it is sad that we have so little idea of how to buy and prepare food for our children.
Am one of the directors of our local Sure Start and the staff were telling me about a dad who thought strawberries were some sort of moulded sweet (!) and didn't realise that blackberries grown on bushes-had to be shown them (and this is a local area!)

I want that Joanna Blythman book.
Also worth getting are 'Fast Food Nation'(author?) which will blow you away and 'The Little Food Book.
Suppose it makes a different with your 2nd child (or 3rd/4th) I am a confident cook but was a bit nervous with dd.
Ds (nearly 6 months) has just started getting a bit of banana or some ccoked apple hastily mooshed with a fork!!

OP posts:
roisin · 17/12/2004 12:51

I did for my boys - used to do huge batches and freeze them. I found this easier than adapting our adult meals, trying to get things to the right temperature, etc. (Though some recipes - one with Watercress sticks in my memory - were a big faff, and I only made once!)

I found her books and recipes very helpful, esp for paranoid mum first time round.

DS2 was lactose intolerant for a period, so we continued to cook food separately for him for a prolonged period, and mainly used her recipes.

Through her recipes the boys had a very wide range of foods when still very young, and have turned into cosmopolitan non-fussy eaters - which is fab. Interestingly the few foods we introduced very late (because of family allergy history) are the few items that they consistently dislike: eggs and nuts. Has anyone else found this?

Original poster
moondog · 17/12/2004 12:52

Yes Roisin, read about your watercress nightmare on the old thread and laughed!!

OP posts:
mullgedwine · 17/12/2004 13:04

I used her book when my twins were being weaned as i had no clue when to give what foods. I love cooking and liked using new recipes. Still dip into it when i find myself cooking spag bol, shepherd pie, fish pie, again, week after week and want to try something different. Chicken with apricot jam and mangos is a regular meal for all the family now - must try the sweet and sour chicken. I love cooking, but not presentation, so i'm not one for the bunny faced muffins, etc. If kids are hungry they will eat, if not, they won't. i'd be less inclined to eat something that looked like it was alive - must be why my two won't eat gingerbread men!

GeorginaAdventCalendar · 17/12/2004 14:11

Do use Annabel for weaning - once ds2 is on the same stuff as us then I probably won't bother.

Made him plaice, tomato & potato for his lunch today, was convinced I'd gone to all that effort for nothing and the house REEKS of fish... but he absolutely adored it - couldn't get enough down! Was well chuffed!

I do confess also to using a cookie cutter for ds1's sandwiches on nursery day - it is rather nice for him to take a sandwich in the shape of a teddy or a person, takes seconds to do and really adds to his enjoyment of having lunch in his special lunchbox.

Maybe I'm just crazy...

Original poster
moondog · 17/12/2004 15:10

Georgina-love the cookie cutter thing.How sweet!
Did that once for dd's birthday. Crikey, about 60 % (ie offcuts went to waste!)

OP posts:
GeorginaAdventCalendar · 17/12/2004 15:27

Yeah, I know ... it's horribly wasteful . But they only get a short time to eat at nursery - plus I wasn't sure if they'd try to "make" him eat crusts, etc, and I didn't want him to start feeling negative about lunch away from home so have made an effort to make it fun.

As a result though, whereas at home he will ONLY eat a ham sandwich, he has had quite an exotic range of sandwich filling at nursery - amazing the effect an interesting shape and eating in different company makes!!!