Annabel Karmel's Baby-Led Weaning Recipe Book: 120 recipes to let your baby take the lead Hardcover – 25 May 2017

I am a big fan of Annabel’s books as a busy grandma with 4 fussy grand children, only her recipes ensure them enjoying eating and so do I! The youngest is 10 months and I bought the book as soon as it came out to freshen my collection, literally, the Annabel’s Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner are covered with food stains. I find it quite difficult to come up with ideas for finger foods, the youngest only wants to feed herself. So far I have tried three finger food recipes Broccoli Chicken and Potato Bites, Salmon Quinoa and Spinach Balls and Roasted Sweet Potato with Parmesan. All are great, because apart from the fact they are delicious, they don’t fall to pieces and are the perfect size and texture for little ones. Also most of the recipes can be frozen, so I make up a batch of these finger foods when I am cooking and keep them in the freezer for when I have the grand children over to stay, often at the last minute. I would thoroughly recommend this book .

Annabel makes baby food so appealing that you want to eat it yourself and the beauty of this book is that you can ! The idea behind her new book is to allow the baby to take the lead and feed herself . The recipes are creative but easy to prepare . As a Grandmother I have bought two copies one as a gift as I found Annabel's books to be a Godsend when I had my daughter and now my daughters generation are able to have the benefit of Annabel's delightful books for their children. Well done Annabel, another fabulous book.

Some great recipes in here that my daughter still enjoys two years later, especially the burgers and chicken balls. The fritters are great, and the best thing about this book is that it inspires you to make your own creations with whatever is lying around. Recommended.

Love This Book !This book has been my ‘Bible’. Annabel clearly explains which are the best foods for Baby Led Weaning and how to prepare them and gave me the confidence to try baby led weaning . I bought other books on BLW but the recipes were very bland and my baby just wouldn’t eat them. Annabel finds ways to make baby food delicious so much that we want to eat the recipes ourselves . I am baffled by some of the reviews that say she adds salt to her recipes as she has quite clearly marked on all the recipes not to add salt before one year and instead uses herbs and clever combinations to bring out the flavour . Am not a great cook but everything I have tried so far has been so easy to make . I love the recipes where everything gets blitzed in a food processor and then the mixture is made into little balls the perfect size for small hands ., My son couldn’t get enough of the the Mini Burgers with grated apple and thyme and we are all addicted to the no sugar Mini Energy Balls which need no baking and are the perfect snack for all ages . It’s amazing value and a book we will use for many years to come ….

This book is a bit of a weird one, AK doesn’t actually advocate BLW and says you should use it in conjunction with purées - I can’t help thinking she’s worried the popularity of BLW will damage her other book and product sales! If you want a guide on how to start BLW this is not it as she doesn’t cover the basics of that approach but it may help with food ideas once your baby has got the hang of feeding themselves. AK seems to have missed the point of BLW making babies less fussy as she includes recipes like Hidden Vegetable Tomato Sauce which goes against the concept of getting babies to enjoy veg at an early age.I’ve made a number of the recipes in the book which my baby has enjoyed (hence the 3 stars). However, every recipe has a lot of ingredients in (do you want to buy fresh thyme only to use a teaspoon of it??) which can make them a bit time consuming to make especially if you are trying to get them done during nap time.I also agree with some of the other reviewers that she seems to add salty and sugary ingredients to almost every dish, the chicken curry has mango chutney in which made it incredibly sweet (probably why my son liked it!) but if your trying to keep sugar and salt to a minimum it’s worth leaving out some of the ingredients. She never mentions anywhere that it’s best to use reduced salt soy sauce for babies under 1 which seems quite a big oversight!All in all it’s got some recipes I’ll use more than once but approach with a bit of caution.

Definitely the best weaning book!! So easy if you don't have time to sit and read, you just open the book and it has pictures of the foods you can give from 6 months on - really useful, easy and non time consuming recipes to follow.. I even bought an extra one to give as a present to a friends who is about to start weaning! Really recommend. In fact my husband wants me to start cooking these meals for him - so great for all the family!! Thank you Annabel Karmel