ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 15th July 2016 - "The Kew Gardens Children's Cookbook" by Caroline Craig and Joe Archer (Wayland)

Our Second Book of the Week is quite literally a tasty treat. Grow, pick and cook ingredients for some amazing dishes in "The Kew Gardens Children's Cookbook"
If there's one thing we really do believe is of vital importance, it's that children know what goes into their food and where those ingredients come from.

If you share a house with two picky eaters (as I do), you probably already know that most meals turn into an autopsy, as every single ingredient is picked over, mulled over and either accepted or rejected.

Though I think even the fussiest eaters will find something gorgeous to eat in "The Kew Gardens Children's Cookbook", produced in association with the Royal Botanical Society and Kew Gardens themselves, it's a celebration of the plethora of glorious fruit and vegetables you can easily source at this time of year, and how to make the best of stock cupboard ingredients to make kid-friendly dishes that pop, pop, POP!

Nom!

Most dishes are purposely kept simple but are tasty and colourful (and we were delighted to find that most of the recipes are either veggie or can easily be adapted to veggie or gluten-free diets with a bit of ingredient substitution here and there).

The book celebrates the actual process of growing your own goodies as much as cooking and eating them, so budding gardeners are also well served in this beautifully produced and presented book.

A great way to use food scraps - start your own compost heap (no you don't have to eat it, honestly!)

We couldn't wait to try out the chocolate and beetroot cake ourselves (sadly it disappeared so quickly that we didn't even get a chance to photograph it. If you aren't sure beetroot and chocolate go together, take the plunge, you really will be pleasantly rewarded with one of the most moist and delicious cakes you've ever eaten!)

Beetroot? In a cake? Are you crazy! Why yes, yes we are (and it was ACE!)

 A brilliant, brilliant cookbook full of imagination and packed with delicious info on both the growing and the cooking side of things. What better way to stimulate an interest in food than to really follow the whole process from start to finish. Utterly rewarding, and completely engaging!

Charlotte's best bit: Baking that glorious Beetroot and Chocolate cake (though we're not sure about the purple fingers we ended up with!)

Daddy's favourite bit: This is the sort of cookbook we love - one that both informs, stimulates and gives us brilliant new ideas to try. A thoroughly brilliant book I can see us dipping into a lot over the coming months while we can make the best of the summer produce on offer. Get in!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Wayland Publishing)

"The Kew Gardens Children's Cookbook"

Written and Illustrated by Caroline Craig and Joe Archer

Published by Wayland

Publication Date (Hardback): 9th June 2016