Editors of Kiwi Magazine

This is a great book for families who have recently had a child diagnosed with a gluten, dairy, nut, soy or egg allergy or are learning to juggle multiple food allergies. The book starts off with tips for food safety and reducing cross contamination. It goes on to an FAQ section with experts before moving onto the recipes. The recipe section is coded with the 5 allergens – gluten, dairy, nut, soy, egg. Each has its own color square on the edge of each page so that locating recipes with that particular allergen gone is easy to do. The recipes are broken into meals – breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts, snacks, and parties. There are some rather neat features with this book. The first thing I noticed is that most of the recipes omit the allergen instead of trying to come up with a substitute. There are substitutions in this cookbook but not as many as other cookbooks have offered. I know that when we were gluten free it was far easier to come up with recipes that didn’t use gluten foods than it was to replace the gluten foods. The next thing I noticed was these cool sections on cooking with your kids. So many forget to teach their children how to cook and when it comes to food allergies, learning early is best. I loved the party section because there are always parties from birthdays to class parties and it’s nice to have beautiful ideas that taste good. The book wraps up with Building an Allergy-free Pantry. This is a great tool. It helps the user create a list of staples and explains the reasons why these ingredients are so important (including tips for using the item). I would gladly recommend this book. My only complaint is that it didn’t come out when we needed it.… (altro)

The recipes in this book are simple and wonderfully presented. Time, nutrition, and serving information are immediately presented, a relief for health- and time-conscious cooks. Recipes have colored labels on the side so those with allergies can see at a glance whether this recipe is safe or not, though most of the recipes are actually completely allergen-free. Even better, few recipes have foreign ingredients--most are easily found in any grocery store. Pages are laminated so accidental spillage is less of a worry. There could be more pictures of recipes, but the presentation is so colorful and kid-friendly they're hardly missed. In addition, tips on teaching children or presenting healthy snacks encourage plenty of interaction among families. This is a fantastic cookbook for anyone!… (altro)