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National Geographic Kids Cookbook by Barton Seaver

Concept: Kids healthy cookbook

Author:  Barten Seaver


Food type: Mostly dinners, but also healthy lunches and a few treats

Monologue score (1-10) (how entertaining, not the recipes): 8.5 - super bright colors, lots of pictures, interesting facts. My favorite part of the whole book was the family challenges in each chapter; There was a fruit salad challenge, a  left overs challenge, fun quizzes and challenges with seeing how many greens or proteins you can add into a meal with points for each category. Each section corresponded to a month of the year with recipes appropriate for that month. I loved that one section was a heritage section and talked about how family history and genealogy can be done through family recipes. 


Difficulty level: Easy to medium for kids (overall easy for adults). 

Approximate percentage of recipes I would be willing to try: Probably 30%. This cookbook didn't really hit it out of the park as far as actual recipes, but I got a lot of great ideas to adapt for my own recipes and ways to involve my kids in the kitchen (see monologue score above). 

Sample recipes I'm interested in trying:

  • Sparkling Cider
  • Milk Chocolate Panna cotta (like pudding but thicker and richer)
  • Marshmallow Snowman
  • Raspberry Yogurt Parfait 
  • Not-So-Sloppy Joes
  • Jack-o'-Lantern Personal Pizzas
  • Mashed Sweet Potatoes
  • Cranberry-Pear Sauce


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