Free E-Cookbook Brings Kid-Friendly Recipes

The Kids Cook Monday, a national nonprofit campaign, aims to help parents incorporate family meals at least once a week by offering a variety of free online resources.

The latest is The Family Dinner Date, an easy-to-navigate e-cookbook featuring recipes that parents and kids can easily prepare together.

Each recipe in The Kids Cook Monday Family Dinner Date E-Cookbook features the campaign’s signature kid / adult / together instruction format to help parents determine which steps in the cooking process are safe for children to complete.

Diana Rice, The Kids Cook Monday’s registered dietitian and recipe editor, has made these determinations using her experience as a children’s culinary educator.

“Providing parents with simple, healthy recipes is an essential part of encouraging home cooking.” Rice said. “I also love how each of these recipes requires only about 30 minutes of active cooking time and calls for a short list of readily available ingredients.”

To promote conversation around the family dinner table, each recipe is paired with a fun fact, called “Food for Thought.” The book also contains detailed information for parents on how family dinners and involving children in the cooking process are associated with good health.

The recipe offerings include 30 Minute Veggie Tortellini Soup, Cheesy Zucchini Black Bean Skillet and Veggie Quiche Patties.

Each recipe has been contributed by The Kids Cook Monday’s dedicated partners, including Produce for Kids, Tomato Wellness, The Meal Makeover Moms, Birds Eye Vegetables, The United States Potato Board and a group of food bloggers.

The e-cookbook is now available as a free download on The Kids Cook Monday’s website.

The Kids Cook Monday is an initiative of The Monday Campaigns, a nonprofit public health organization in association with Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.