Member Reviews
This was a helpful book when my son was younger, it came with great ideas for introducing new foods to my son.
Other than the lack of photos, this book is a great beginners pressure cooker recipe book for quick and easy baby and toddler meals
The Instant Pot Toddler Cookbook is for folks wanting to make food for their infants and toddlers using a pressure cooker (aka instant pot in the USA). It's not just a recipe book, it also contains quite a lot of comprehensive information on how and when to feed, with lots of tips and information about equipment as well. It uses the American Pediatric guidelines, but they seem to line up pretty well with my experience of the NHS guidelines, although of course if you're in the UK you should have access to a health visitor who can help if you're not sure about anything from a safety point of view.
These recipes aren't what I would call super super simple, but they are doable even if you have no experience cooking. They are unique, interesting, safe for kids and a great way of getting young children to eat a wide variety of foods, which comes with the bonus of a wide variety of vitamins and nutrition. Not only do you get to know exactly what goes into the food, you can cook multiple batches at once and it actually should work out cheaper than buying processed. And the best part is they're absolutely delicious for adults too - I had many lunches and snacks from this book with my son.
I really felt that the author had put a lot of thought and effort into these recipes, and you know that Barbara Schieving is experienced with pressure cookers since she already has a best selling recipe book along with a popular blog. The fact that she's both a mother and a grandmother suggests she definitely has a good amount of experience with family cooking, so I felt pretty confident that these recipes were tried and tested.
The only downside is that there don't seem to be any photographs (I am reviewing a digital edition). I often pick what looks good in a recipe book based on photos. It could easily have been five stars if it had them.
These recipes sound great, and I can't wait to try some with my two year old. However, I was bummed there weren't any photos! Photos are so important for a recipe book!
I did not get a chance to try out any of these recipes, but I will in the future. Some great ideas in this book! I love using an instant pot anyway, and to fix stuff for toddlers is a great idea!
We don't have kids ourselves, though we do have nieces and nephews of baby and toddler age that we sometimes get to cook for. While most of the recipes in this looked awesome and like things I would cook not just when they are around, but also when we want to eat, I was super bummed that this book has no photos (if I, at 37, can't always eat foods that look a certain way, I'm not exactly shocked when I can't convince my three-year-old nephew to eat it either.). Also, no calorie breakdown, so no real guides on how much sodium, etc., is in any of the meals.
The reason I am giving this 3 stars is because of the lack of photographs. Because of that it, it didn't draw me in.
The recipes are good to try though!
I recommend if you don't mind not having a aesthetically pleasing cookbook and more just nitty grittu recipes.
I received this via Netgally in an exchange for an honest opinion.
I really liked the intro on this cookbook, with all the tips/ tricks. We tried a few recipes that went over well, and have a few more as marked to definitely try. The layout/ directions all worked well. We tried the “banana bread bites” and “blueberry muffin bites” so far, and I am looking forward to attempting the rainbow fruit yogurt parfaits!
(Posted review to Amazon and Goodreads too!0
Instant pots are all the rage! We have one and have had two for a while before I realized I was a bit overboard. I used it today to make Mac and cheese and put riced cauliflower in there with it ;).
I really enjoy the recipes in this book. They are easy and the instructions are good. However, I am a very visual person and photos help me a lot! That would be the biggest issue with this book for me. I found the recipes to be good, though. I am skeptical of risotto for breakfast but am willing to try. The rest of the recipes look great! The few I have tried have been good. I also did notice there was a lot of sautéing and then using the pressure cooker as a pressure cooker. In my head I was seeing meals I could put in the pot and walk away from, but I haven’t found many IP recipes that are like that anyway.
I received an eARC copy of this book via Netgalley but my opinions are entirely my own.
This book is amazing for easy baby and toddler meals. I love using my instant pot as it’s so quick and easy and this book has multiple recipes for lunch and dinners. Some of the recipes have good amount of ingredients, but they’re unique recipes. Most of the recipes make a few servings so you can even have leftovers.
This books contains recipes that are quick and easy and are definitely going to be huge hits with our 5 year old and 2 year old. The lasagna, the mac and cheese with veggies and the pesto pasta will all be winners. The instructions are simple to follow. We have been making heavy use of our instant pot because it makes dinner prep and clean up simple when we are on the go and busy.
I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review. My personal belief is that the book would benefit from use of photographs (none are included), but the recipes alone are gems and should not be missed. With images, this would be a must have instant pot book for a household with young children. 4.5 stars, but I'm rounding up because the recipes are worth it...
In this day and age when everyone is trying to eat less processed foods, parents want to invest in organic, and want to know everything going into their children's food, this book helps accomplish that feat. This is a great recipe book, that can be used in any pressure cooker not just the brand Instant Pot, that allows parents to make their children meals that are healthy, fresh, and easy. The use of the pressure cooker helps cut down on time drastically for those interested in making their own toddler-friendly or baby food. The recipes are not difficult, so they are parent-friendly as well. Another great part of this book is the fact most of this food is a cheaper alternative to buying the same thing already processed in the store. This will make a great addition to any parent's, grandparent's, or people who work with children's kitchen.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
As a parent to a toddler and owner and user of my Instant Pot, I was really excited to read this book! I did Baby Led Weaning with my son and we've never cooked a separate meal for him and I also like to add variety to our meal plan and this book helped do both. The recipes are all creative yet simple and the directions are very clear (which is SUPER helpful for a new instant pot user!) I will definitely be purchasing the physical copy! Loved this book!!