Grooming Your Junior Gourmet

By Warren Rojas

“Petit Appetit: Eat, Drink and Be Merry.” Lisa Barnes. Perigree, 288 pgs., $17.95

Professional cook-turned-author Lisa Barnes admits to doubting her multitasking abilities whilst attempting to juggle her kid-centric cooking service, a budding family and the recipe testing for her latest “Petit Appetit” tome. But her exhaustion provided a moment of clarity.

“I realized that’s exactly who should write children’s food recipes: someone with real children and busy lives,” she argues.

That’s why Barnes deals in quick, easy dishes that are healthful (she provides allergen- and additive-free alternatives for nearly all the 150-plus recipes), portable (browse tips on storing/freezing/transporting her homemade creations) and proven crowd pleasers. She also decodes produce tracking numbers (four digits = conventionally grown; five digits = organic; five digits led by an eight = genetically modified), maps out grocery pitfalls (“Stick to the perimeter of the store … The inner aisles are where the majority of the processed foods are found.”) and plots out age-appropriate cooking duties for kids from 2 to 12.

Noteworthy recipes include: oat and wheat germ energy bark, toasted pear and brie slices, homemade sweet potato chips, papaya-apple juice slushies, yogurt-bound crab cakes and baked chicken-apple meatballs. Barnes also offers up specialty treats tied to traditional holidays (Father’s day, Hanukkah), special events (first lost tooth, family game night) and everyday living (sports team dinner, sleepovers).

(July 2009)

Tags: book, children's food recipes, recipes