Book Review & Recipe: Get Your Kids to Eat Anything by Emily Leary

Book Review & Recipe: Get Your Kids to Eat Anything by Emily Leary

If you have a fussy eater, you know how hard it can be to get your child to eat a variety of foods. This new book by Emily Leary from the blog A Mummy Too might be just what you need.

Get Your Kids to Eat Anything: The 5-phase programme to change the way your family thinks about food is a great guide for parents to use to battle picky eating and get the whole family to enjoy eating a wide variety of food and making trying new food the new normal.

Emily has developed a unique 5-phase programme to do this and this lets the whole family embark on a food discovery journey and change the way both kids and parents think about food.

Forget those meals you keep cooking over and over (we all do this!) and welcome a truly varied diet full of healthy ingredients, new flavours, colours and textures.

Each of the five phases include a clear explanation of what you will learn and achieve, with clear advice and two weeks of delicious tried-and-tested recipes, and hands-on activities to try out with your family to progress forwards.

Below you can find a summary of the 5-phase approach:

• PHASE 1: PUT THE UNFAMILIAR INTO THE FAMILIAR

Introduce elements of unfamiliar colour, flavour or texture into family favourites. Think spinach “meatballs” or lentil bolognese.

• PHASE 2: EDUCATE

Experiment with texture, taste and smell. Look into the science of taste, understand where food comes from and grow your own.

• PHASE 3: DISCOVER THE FUN IN FOOD

Build a new level of enthusiasm for variety with creative, exciting dishes such as pancake plate art and bright red risotto.

• PHASE 4: STEP INTO THE UNKNOWN

Push food boundaries with surprising flavour combinations, such as strawberries and cream pasta!

• PHASE 5: CEMENT VARIETY

Now it’s time to make sure the habit sticks. Learn techniques to keep your family mealtimes varied long-term.

It’s a great approach that I’m sure will help loads of families. Get Your Kids to Eat Anything is a beautiful and brilliant book and it’s inspired me so much. My eldest is my fussiest child and though she’s much better these days, we still struggle a bit to get her to try and enjoy new foods and textures. My middle child is a good eater but thanks to toddlerhood, she is sometimes refusing food to test limits.

This book has inspired me to be more varied with our menus and to try to do things differently as much as possible to make new textures, styles, colours and ingredients the new normal and not just do things the way I always to them.

I love that the book focuses on the family as a whole and not just on the fussy child as developing good eating habits is something that really should be a family project.

We’re enjoying trying new recipes from the book — there are loads of great ideas for fussy eaters and the recipes are all easy to follow and have beautiful photos too.

Below, you can find one of my favourite recipes from the book to try out.

Get Your Kids to Eat Anything is available in good book stores now — here’s the Amazon.co.uk link.

Recipe from the book: Healthier “Fondue” with Vegetables

This isn’t as high in fat as classic fondue, but it’s just as delectable and offers the perfect way to taste and explore some of the different vegetable flavours and textures gathered during your Phase 2 activities.

For the cheese sauce

• 500ml (18fl oz) whole milk
• 30g (1oz) slightly salted butter
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• ¼ teaspoon English mustard powder
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg (ideally freshly grated)
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 100g (3½oz) mild Cheddar cheese, grated

For dipping

• ½ loaf of sourdough bread, cubed
• small head of broccoli, cut into small florets
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 8 asparagus spears, trimmed
• 1 small courgette, cubed
• handful of radishes, halved
• 2 boiled beetroot, peeled and cubed
• 4 gherkins, whole or sliced

Put the milk, butter, garlic, mustard, pepper, nutmeg and flour into a nonstick pan over a medium heat and whisk gently for about 5 minutes until it thickens. Add the cheese and whisk gently for 1 minute until melted and smooth. Allow to cool so that it is safe for children to touch, then pour into a bowl.

Serve with the bread, vegetables and tongs or forks to help with dipping.

If your children are reluctant to try some of the dipping items, how about making it into a sort of game? Everyone tries each item at the same time: 3…2…1…taste!

TIP

• Take your fondue up a notch by introducing more savoury dipping treats such as cooked meats, marinated tofu or kimchi.

Book Credit: Get Your Kids to Eat Anything: The 5-phase programme to change the way your family thinks about food by Emily Leary, was published by Mitchell Beazley in March 2019, RRP £16.99

Link to buy: Amazon.co.uk  | Image Credit: Tom Regester

This book was gifted to me for this review. As always, all my reviews are 100% honest and all thoughts and opinions are my own.