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

[moondog]

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!

I used her books and still do mine are now 4.9 and 2.8. I just cook it for the whole family. Once they get older its all pretty normal stuff anyway. I found it gave me ideas and focused my mind a bit on the food thing.

Shameless link here - but this might make you laugh - scroll down to see my thoughts about the delightful Annabel... and there's stuff about mumsnet on it too

I love AK's book. Love looking at the pictures and find the recipes easy. The best thing about it was the variety. The DTs eat far more exotically than the rest of us. Now they are 10months their meals are more adaptable for the rest of the family (the lentils make a lovely soup). We love cooking in our house and so everyone eats well. The joy of AK is that I don't have to sit and think about what to cook, I just open the book, treble the quantities, cook and freeze.

I have been known to, yes.

I do, the paprika chicken is a family staple now
DD also has adapted currie recipes now, nat yog and sour cream to mild the spice down
I like Annable K I know its not rocket science but when you're dumbed down by not seeing other adults for days on end who can get inspiration for trying new foods?
Also dd hated any savoury jars... she still does

I'm still at the veg puree stage - all of which seems to boil down (heh!) to 'choose your veggies, bung in a pan & cook till squidgey, then liquidise to mulch'. Could probably, y'know, have worked that out all by myself without a book full of near as damnit identical recipes for veggie sludge.

As for the more fiddley 6 months & up recipes - rats to that. When he gets old enough to manage non-sludge he can have whatever we're having & like it!

My kids run a mile if they see the Annabel Karmel books out . They think I am going to trick them into eating mushrooms, or something.

I did follow AK with DS1 - did the purée thing with him. The other 4, I skipped the purée stage and just went onto giving them finger foods from our plates.

I don't do the smiley faces and stuff. Sometimes, she asks you for a sliver of a red pepper to make a mouth - how impractical is that?

LOL Buffettheturkeylayer, describes my attempts at AK cooking

haven't read all the thread, but I Annable Karmeled both my ds, neither had a single jar. One is turned into a picky eater at 18mths, butnow at 4.5 eats everything, the other 21 months still eats it all. I would so it all again if I had to.

You don't need to follow AK (or any baby recipe book) to produce good eaters. Family food is fine, and if you wait till after 6 months before introducing solids, you don't have a lot of prohibited foods.

piffle - chicken paprika is a staple in our house too

I too must confess to loving Annabel Carmels recipes. Ive never ever given DS a jar of any thing. I have followed her book for several reasons,
A)variety, i lack in imagination and B)lack in culinary skills C)wanted tips on nutritional value of foods D)im a first time mum with NOT a single idea as to what to feed weening babies and toddlers.
Invaluable to me.
Disagree with the "pissing about" statement as well because i cook two batches of something different and freeze vast amounts individually. Probably takes 1 hour a week to do and provides me with a hot meal for him twice a day.
He is 17 months now and i still dip in and out of it im not ashamed to say.

I'm really interested to know who the AK dislikers don't like her? I understand people who don't want to use books if that's their preference but can't fathom why she 'gets on people's nerves' or they actively dislike her. I don't find her at all patronising, she's just a woman who makes recipe books. What's to hate/dislike/annoy? I'm not trying to be confontational, just am genuinely interested in what gets your goat about her. Also, a few people have said why do we need books, isn't it sad we just don't all know what to cook. Well of course we can all peel a peach, steam it, and puree it. No brain work there, but AK suggests variations on things I never would have tried or 'just known' instinctively. I never would have thought of some of the combinations she suggests and that's what I have found most useful. We don't say the same thing to people who dash out and buy a nigella lawson cook book do we? its taken as read that if you like cooking you might get a bit of inspiration from reading a cook book from someone you like. I don't think people buy AK because they don't know what a strawberry is more because they want a bit of variation and are lacking in inspiration. Oh, and incidentally I know how to cook, I even did a course at Leiths school of food and wine in London, but I still enjoy the book, so its nothing to do with not knowing about food.

For me it's not a cooking thing that makes me dislike the books - it's a guilt thing. There I am furtively rooting in the freezer for chicken nuggets and Annabel is on the shelf above looking down on me with immense disapproval. I know I should be whipping up beautiful, colourful, nuitritious meals but I honestly haven't got the energy. It's nothing against Annabel personally - the books just make me feel like a crappy Mum

Another big vote for AK here - I know a lot of it is bleeding obvious, but some of us need that!

My ds1 (3) and ds2 (1.5) have eaten AK about 70% of the time and I found it entirely worth the effort. To be honest, I was always keener to encourage them to eat my own food, knowing it was vaguely edible, than to eat something from a jar when I couldn't bring myself to do more than taste if for temperature.

PS - for sandwiches cut out with biscuit cutters - present them with both the cut out sandwich and the 'cast offs' and ime they eat both with enthusiasm (so no waste)

PPS - no one else mentioned Nicola Graimes. No sleeve photo so you can't tell by looking if she is an infuriating super mum (which AK looks like, hence much of the vitriol I assume) and meals are even nicer.

I used her book as well as a couple of others as a guide through weaning (what went well together and when to give.) Also some of her recipes, and the other books we used, made good soup by adding water to the puree recipe so in a way we still use them.

It also encouraged me to start cooking stuff from scratch, which is one of the reasons I became a SAHM (but in no way the major reason) to cook proper food rather than always relying on processed stuff. Still have ready meals in the freezer for emergencies when I just can't be a*sed!

I still use it and have done since I started weaning DD. Of course I never manage to make them look like in the picture but then again I'm not bothered about DD's food looking like a teddy bear etc. it's more as a source of inspiration and some of the recipes I use for us adults too.
I don't know about other countries, but where I come from there is a specialised publications market for infant and children's foods and there are a (small) number of books dealing specifficaly with child nutrition. I bought one book last time I went home and find it invaluable. apart from a rather scientific first chapter written about nutrition and containing lots of parctical advice, the rest of the book presents hundreds of recipes devided into breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinners where they give the calloriffic content of each meal. To be fair, all the recipes in there are 100% suitable for adults too but the way it is presented makes it useful for mums. So it's not restricted to Britain only.

I don't really cook for DH and me but for the children I do. I started using the Anabel Karmel books for weaning and continued from there. I highly recommend them, the recipes are tried and tested and alot freezes so you could make a larger batch, say of shepherd's pie, and freeze the portions. So convenient and reassuring that children are eating good nutritious food.

im not a huge fan of baby books (didnt even know who gf was until i posted on mn) but a friend lent me ak's book and i do cook from it. dd loves the foods i make her but then i admit to feeding her certain other (probably junk) foods in an attempt to bump up her weight. im happy now with what she eats. she has very healthy food but with perhaps sometimes not so healthy snacks and sometimes average "this is what we're eating so you will too" foods. (i do love cooking the ak meals but i imagine if i still worked then there would be no chance of this whatsoever!).