The Toddler Café: Fast, Recipes, and Fun Ways to Feed Even the Pickiest Eater

by Jennifer Carden, Matthew Carden (Photographer)

Every toddler goes through the stage where they want nothing but "O"-shaped cereal. The challenge for parents is getting kids to ask for fruit salad instead of cupcakes. Faced with this seemingly impossible task with her own child, Jennifer Carden has created The Toddler Café , a guide to making mealtime with children fun and interactive. It offers simple, creative ways for kids to identify with their food, like saying tuna salad is what mermaids eat, or making Minty Pea Pops in ice cube trays. Carden has created over 50 unique recipes that encourage families (including toddlers) to work together to prepare, eat, clean up, and best of all, look forward to a healthy, delicious meal.

Genres: Cooking, Parenting, Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Food, Childrens

132 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2008

Reviews

[Erin]

Another library checkout. Lots of really fun and creative recipes...minty pea pops, popcorn soup, and banana hot dogs, just to name a few! It is obvious that a lot was put into this cookbook, great tips, and really doable and fun recipes with kids in mind. Lots of nice pictures as well, of the food, kids enjoying it, and even making big messes too!

[Lauren Morgan]

As someone who is NOT an experimenter in the kitchen, this book gave me a sharing point and will lead to many fun kitchen and food adventures with my little one in the future, I hope!

[Rachel]

This is a really nice looking book. It is very aestheticly pleasing for a cookbook.

I have prepared many of the meals for my one year old and me to share. While I found the recipes to be very tasty, he won't even try them. The recipes seem to be more appropriate for an older toddler or a preschooler. I think, for him, there are too many things touching or "the wrong color". The meals all have gimmicky names to get your older child to try them. This doesn't work, yet, on my son. I hope he grows into these meals because I really enjoy them.

While the recipes in this book may be a little too old for my son, I did learn how easy it is to hide some healthy vegetables or proteins into the food that he will eat. After reading this book, I started hiding veggies in his quesadillas. He gobbles them up without a second thought about the subtle change. Most toddlers are very picky about what they will eat. I think this book gives creative methods on how to make what your child will eat a little healthier.

[J.j.]

This is a gorgeous book. I made the peanut butter globe globs, which Alla liked, not loved, but she ate so WOO HOO! We didn't get to make anything else before the book was due back at the library, so I may amend my rating after I make the three other recipes I photocopied, especially the Minty Pea Pops and the Toddler Truffles. Honestly a cookbook can have all the gorgeousness and yummy recipes in the world but if my own toddler won't eat them then it's useless to me!

[Aimee]

Saw this book at Ella's. I think it's what Jessica Seinfeld was trying to do, only better and healthier. Plus, in typical Chronicle fashion, it's a beautiful book to look at and hold. I will for sure be purchasing this book.

[Katie]

There are some good suggestions in this book and some yummy-looking recipes, although some seem a little far-fetched for my taste as well as time consuming. I'm willing to try new things, but Mint Pea Popsicles? No thank you.

[Keisha]

Will review it once I've tried some recipes. However, some of the recipes other reviewers dislike (minty green pea pops, chickpea cakes) actually seem appealing to me! I'll see once we've tasted them!

[Jenne]

I really skimmed through this book, looking for some recipe ideas for my daughter. She isn't really picky yet, but I wanted some toddler finger food ideas. There are some good things in here and I love the ideas for styling the food on the plate in shapes and colours. I will have to experiment!

[Melissa]

Sorry...this one had a lovely cover and appealing title...but even I don't want to eat mashed chickpea pancakes for dinner.

[Pangolin]

Don't worry if you see a bunch of kid centric cookbooks on my list! Just indicative of interest in cookbooks - nothing more.

[JoAnna]

This book is overly simplistic and doesn't contain any new ideas that most parents don't already know.

[Jennifer Choisser]

More sugary recipes listed than I was seeking but there are a few keepers.
Monster Mash pg 60=pasta with butter pea sauce
Pumpkin pockets pg 64= pumpkin ravioli

[Mary]

The recipes looked and sounded so unappealing that I didn't even bother trying anything. Seriously, mint pea pops? Yuck.

[Lisa]

Really neat book! Definitely going to try out some of these recipes with my daughter. I like that the recipe seem yummy enough for my husband and I to eat too!

[Trish]

This book was alright. I just wish there were more pictures.

[Julie]

some good ideas for older toddlers. lot of them seem really, really messy though! or look gross!

[Darcy]

This book is good for kids that are already adventurous. So it is not a good fit for us. But I did like the suggestion to use more puff pastry and the suggestion to marinate and then bake tofu.