NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF 2012 BY LEITE’S CULINARIA
“Even if you never make a single recipe from her bookâa mistake, thank youâitâs certain to become a dog-eared bible. Reread that title. The book savvily and sassily helps you extend the efficiency of any time spent in the kitchen. Itâs sorta the What to Expect After Youâre Expecting for those whoâve, for the moment, forsaken duck fat to finance a college fund.”
âLeite’s Culinaria
“If only this book came with every box of newborn diapers or baby blanket! New and seasoned parents alike will find delicious and simple recipes. Debbie Koenig’s food feeds not only sleepy parents with little time to spare in the kitchen, but families, tooâfrom first nibbles to toddler tastes and fullgrown meals enjoyed together.”
âEmily Franklin, author of Too Many Cooks: Kitchen Adventures with 1 Mom, 4 Kids, and 102 New Recipes and founder of Wellcookedlife.com
The question is as old as parenting itself: How can new moms and dads eat well when all their time and energy is spent on baby? Finally, we have the answer!
Specifically designed for frazzled, sleep-deprived parents, every recipe in Parents Need to Eat Too: Nap-Friendly Recipes, One-Handed Meals & Time-Saving Kitchen Tricks for New Parents is nutritious, delicious, satisfying, and easy. As a bonus each recipe includes instructions for preparing baby food from the same ingredients. Plus every recipe has the added advantage of being tested by a group of more than 100 new parents.
Inside youâll find:
- Meals you can eat with one hand
- Recipes for the new parentâs best friend: the slow cooker
- More ambitious recipes, broken down into simple stages to perform while baby naps
- Big batch recipes, to cook once and enjoy several times (watch me make Baked Macaroni with Ricotta, Spinach & Mint on ABC News)
- âUn-Recipesâ for parents who canât cook at all
- Recipes that support breastfeeding
- Advice from experts, including a pediatric dietitian and a lactation consultant
Here are real solutions for the real problems new parents face in the kitchen. Through comforting, honest, and essential help for stressed out, undernourished moms and pops, Parents Need To Eat Too ensures that, even when babyâs in the house, nobody’s going to go hungry.
Want to see Parents Need to Eat Too in action? Watch me make super-delicious, super-easy, and super-healthy chocolate dipped frozen bananas on NY1, and Baked Macaroni with Ricotta, Spinach & Mint on ABC News!
Choose your bookseller:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
REVIEWS:
“Reassuring is the first word that comes to mind when reading food writer Koenigâs first cookbook, in which she provides doable, affordable meal solutions for new parents…. Practical and original.”
âLibrary JournalÂ
“The 150 recipes represent merely a start; the true bonus in this book is her wealth of tips and pragmatic suggestions, including shopping with a baby, best foods for a pantry, cooking in stages, basic safety items, and nutritional needs while nursing. To round out her array of good foods and even better recommendations, each recipe features at least one kudo from a reader/mom/dad as well as how well the particular dish would translate into the makings of baby food. Itâs smart eating, no matter what your child status.”
âBooklist
“Parents Need to Eat Too compiles more than 150 recipes designed to meet the challenges moms and dads face in feeding their babies â and themselves. Thoughtful sections include recipes that can be completed piecemeal during naps, dishes made in big batches and frozen, foods to support breastfeeding, and quickie dinners to satisfy the whole family.”
âDaily Candy Kids
âAn excellent baby shower gift (sneak a meal or two from the cookbook into the new parentsâ freezer, too) and donât forget to get one for yourself, too! In addition to providing an arsenal of time-saving recipes, Debbie Koenig writes the playbook for busy new (and not-so-new) parents to prep, cook, and serve healthy meals.â
âKiwi magazineÂ
“More than 150 recipes, all easily converted into baby food, are offered up for ‘frazzled, sleep-deprived’ parents looking for easy, nutritious and delicious foods to feed their families.”
âChicago Tribune
âKoenig used her experience to write a new cookbook aimed at parents with young kids. Parents Need to Eat Too demystifies how parents can eat well without using challenging or time-consuming techniques. Itâs a real-food approach that focuses on making nutrition accessible and easy for new parents.â
âParent Society
“Drop that chicken nugget! Children will gobble up these 150-plus simple, nutritious, parent-friendly recipes.”
âScholastic Parent & ChildÂ
“I love this book…Debbie has long written one of my favorite food blogs, Words to Eat By. Sheâs smart and funny, and a terrific writer. Her first book is all about this challenge of feeding yourself and your family in the middle of new parenthood. She offers a fresh, lucid writing style, and smart solutions to things like meals you can eat with one hand, meals for the slow cooker, and meals to make while the baby naps. She looks at good things to eat while breastfeeding, and she offers tips for stocking your pantry.”
âThe Kitchn
“Terrific…The book is a surprisingly honest reflection from a mom who has a career and a kid and really takes you through the cooking process with a sure hand. I loved her writing and her recipes and I think this is not only a good book to have in your kitchen but if you know any new parents, a great gift. Better yet, make a few of the recipes for them too.”
âThe Strong Buzz
“This is a winner and I highly recommend as a great gift for the new parent or short-on-time cook in your life.”
âMy Jewish Learning
âI laughed, I learned, I dreamed up a hundred fantastic meals while reading Parents Need to Eat Too. Whether youâre looking for advice on feeding your family healthy food in a flash, making sure your own needs donât fall by the wayside when you have a new baby in the house, or just how to make an incredible batch of chocolate chip cookies, this is the book for you. As the mother of two young children, I only wish Iâd had it sooner. As a person who loves to eat, I suspect Iâll be cooking from it long after my sons have grown up, as much for Debbie Koenigâs intelligent, entertaining company as for her delicious recipes.â
âMelanie Rehak, author of Eating for Beginners
âPut your kidsâ leftover chicken nuggets down and pick up Debbie Koenigâs cookbook. Itâs filled with simple, yet tasty recipesâeven ones you can make with one hand while singing âItsy Bitsy Spider.â Parents Need to Eat Too should be on every baby shower registry.â
âJen Singer, author, the Stop Second-Guessing Yourself guides to parenting
âFinally, a book that reminds new moms: yes, your life may be totally wrapped up in feeding your baby right now, but you needâand deserve!âto eat well, too. And with wit, wisdom and empathy, author Debbie Koenig shows us how it can be done. Packed with crucial information like which foods belong in a new mom’s pantry, meal-saving tips like how to prep dinner during nap timeâplus delicious recipes for everyone from ânon-cooksâ to nursing moms who are eating with one handâParents Need To Eat Too will help new moms and dads get the nutrition and nourishment they need as they adjust to parenthood. Iâm recommending it to every expecting mom I know!â
âMeagan Francis, author of The Happiest Mom: 10 Secrets to Enjoying Motherhood
âDebbie Koenigâs new book promises and delivers the plan you need for the whole family to eat well. In a clear, comforting tone Debbie explains how to create the New Momâs Pantry, stocked with all the basic ingredients you will need to make her delicious recipes. She even tells you how to turn grown-up food into baby food, which is both good for baby and efficient for the cook. With more than 150 recipes, intelligent health tips, and comments from real moms just like you, Parents Need to Eat Too will be your go-to resource and make you the confident parent you want to be.”
âEileen Behan, RD, family nutritionist and author of The Baby Food Bible and Eat Well, Lose Weight While Breastfeeding
“Though my daughters are now teenagers, it feels like just yesterday when I was one of those parents attempting to take care of baby and feed my family. If only Debbie Koenig’s Parents Need to Eat Too had existed back then. I love her notion of meals that you can eat with one handâhow many times did I balance a baby on my hip while trying to shovel food into my face?âthat are not only convenient but nutritious. I’m especially fond of the chapter “Mom’s New Best Friend: The Slow Cooker.” When I launched my Suddenly Frugal blog in 2007, I quickly learned that a slow cooker was an easy appliance to use to prepare meals when your time and money are tight. It makes perfect sense that it should be a go-to cooking tool when you have a new little bundle of joy. Every new parent should ask for Debbie’s book and a slow cooker as a baby shower gift!”
âLeah Ingram, author Suddenly Frugal: How to Live Happier and Healthier for Less and founder of the Suddenly Frugal blog
“You don’t have to be a parent to learn from Debbie Koenig’s eminently sensible book. Long work hours often leave me and my husband with little energy for making tasty, wholesome mealsâand we don’t even have a newborn around! Parents Need to Eat Too is full of smart tips and tools for reclaiming our time in the kitchen. And I have no doubt that, as our family grows, we’ll be returning to it again and again for recipes and reassurance.”
âMolly Wizenberg, blogger, Orangette, and author, A Homemade Life
âThis book is a must-have for new parents who enjoy eating good food with real flavor. Itâs loaded with helpful tips for fitting cooking into a busy new-mom schedule (yes, it can be done!) and sneaking in needed nutrients, and Debbie is a great writer, including lots of hilarious anecdotes from her own life. Plus, the recipes are all tested by real moms so you know you can trust them!â
âLeah McLaughlin, Editor in Chief, Edible Communities/Edible Queens
Looking for even more info on the book? Join me on my Virtual Book Tour.
Ordered this today,thanks to the link from Crappy Mommy Amber đ
Great, Shannon, thanks! Don’t forget to email me the receipt & I’ll mail you a signed bookplate & card.
I just “pinned” this on Pinterest! I found you on rookiemoms.com and thought this had to be shared with all my followers đ I’m a new, first-time mom and I used to cook all the time for my husband. Now he’s lucky if he gets a hot meal once a week! I am going to try some of your recipes and will buy the book once it comes out đ
Hi Lena, thanks for stopping by!
yah! i just won your book on a giveaway at GROW FAMILY GROW ! i cant wait to get it…. i’ll be sure and do a review, :)thank you!
love love
angela
Congratulations, Angelina! Hope you enjoy it.
sounds like a great idea for a shower gift for new moms.
ur cookies are amazing I love the recipe!!!
Thanks, April!
My copy arrived on Friday, and we’ve been blitzing through the recipes and so far they are all winners. Not only are they quick and easy to make, but also delicious! I’ll be giving this to friends. Thank you for putting this together.
That’s great, Claire–THANKS!
Debbie,
I’ve used your OMG recipe for shortribs a dozen times and it is better and better each time! (How does THAT work?)Today,I am treating myself by ordering your book “Parents Need to Eat, Too”. I am not a new parent, nor am I even a new grandparent. I am retired and try to put on a good meal for my best beloved of 42 years who is still teaching. I think your book is key! Thank you!
Wow, thanks, Chuck! You just made my day. And I love that you try to put on a good meal for your best beloved. I hope mine does the same too someday.
Every new parent should request Debbieâs book together with a slow cooker just like a baby shower celebration celebration gift!
My friend gave me a copy of your book that she had bought when she had her kids. So far it’s been a life saver!
Thank you.
X
I’m so glad to hear it, Daisy! Thanks!