NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF 2012 BY LEITE’S CULINARIA

“Even if you never make a single recipe from her book—a mistake, thank you—it’s 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. It’s sorta the What to Expect After You’re Expecting for those who’ve, for the moment, forsaken duck fat to finance a college fund.”
—Leite’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, too—from first nibbles to toddler tastes and fullgrown meals enjoyed together.”
—Emily 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 you’ll find:

  • Meals you can eat with one hand
  • Recipes for the new parent’s 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)
  • “Un-Recipes” for parents who can’t 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 baby’s 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 Koenig’s first cookbook, in which she provides doable, affordable meal solutions for new parents…. Practical and original.”
–Library Journal 

“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. It’s smart eating, no matter what your child status.”
—Booklist

Parents Need to Eat Too compiles more than 150 recipes designed to meet the challenges moms and dads face in feeding their babies — 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.”
—Daily Candy Kids

“An excellent baby shower gift (sneak a meal or two from the cookbook into the new parents’ freezer, too) and don’t 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.”
–Kiwi magazine 

“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.”
—Chicago Tribune

“Koenig 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. It’s a real-food approach that focuses on making nutrition accessible and easy for new parents.”
–Parent Society

Drop that chicken nugget! Children will gobble up these 150-plus simple, nutritious, parent-friendly recipes.”
–
Scholastic Parent & Child 

“I love this book…Debbie has long written one of my favorite food blogs, Words to Eat By. She’s 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.”
–The 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.”
–The 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.”
–My Jewish Learning

“I laughed, I learned, I dreamed up a hundred fantastic meals while reading Parents Need to Eat Too. Whether you’re looking for advice on feeding your family healthy food in a flash, making sure your own needs don’t 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 I’d had it sooner. As a person who loves to eat, I suspect I’ll be cooking from it long after my sons have grown up, as much for Debbie Koenig’s intelligent, entertaining company as for her delicious recipes.”
–Melanie Rehak, author of Eating for Beginners

“Put your kids’ leftover chicken nuggets down and pick up Debbie Koenig’s cookbook. It’s filled with simple, yet tasty recipes—even ones you can make with one hand while singing ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider.’ Parents Need to Eat Too should be on every baby shower registry.”
–Jen Singer, author, the Stop Second-Guessing Yourself guides to parenting

“Finally, a book that reminds new moms: yes, your life may be totally wrapped up in feeding your baby right now, but you need—and deserve!—to 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 time—plus delicious recipes for everyone from “non-cooks” to nursing moms who are eating with one hand—Parents Need To Eat Too will help new moms and dads get the nutrition and nourishment they need as they adjust to parenthood. I’m recommending it to every expecting mom I know!”
–Meagan Francis, author of The Happiest Mom: 10 Secrets to Enjoying Motherhood

“Debbie Koenig’s 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 Mom’s 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.”
–Eileen 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 hand—how many times did I balance a baby on my hip while trying to shovel food into my face?—that 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!”
–Leah 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 meals—and 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.”
–Molly Wizenberg, blogger, Orangette, and author, A Homemade Life

“This book is a must-have for new parents who enjoy eating good food with real flavor. It’s 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!”
–Leah McLaughlin, Editor in Chief, Edible Communities/Edible Queens

Looking for even more info on the book? Join me on my Virtual Book Tour.

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This Post Has 16 Comments

  1. Shannon Lynch

    Ordered this today,thanks to the link from Crappy Mommy Amber 🙂

    1. Debbie Koenig

      Great, Shannon, thanks! Don’t forget to email me the receipt & I’ll mail you a signed bookplate & card.

  2. Lena Emborsky

    I just “pinned” this on Pinterest! I found you on rookiemoms.com and thought this had to be shared with all my followers 🙂 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 🙂

  3. angelina

    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

  4. Linda

    sounds like a great idea for a shower gift for new moms.

  5. April

    ur cookies are amazing I love the recipe!!!

  6. Claire

    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.

  7. Chuck Berkman

    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!

    1. Debbie Koenig

      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.

  8. Lene Squa

    Every new parent should request Debbie’s book together with a slow cooker just like a baby shower celebration celebration gift!

  9. Daisy

    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

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