l Bean Appétit, by Shannon Payette Seip and Kelly Parthe. Andrews McMeel Publishing, $14.99.
l What's New, Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.95.
Tired of books that tell you how to hide the broccoli in a pan of brownies? Need a fresh approach to making healthy food fun for the kids? Check out Bean Appétit.
The book, from the founders of Bean Sprouts cafe in Madison, Wis., offers goofy, eye-rolling chapter titles -- "Let it Bean" and "Peacasso"-- and kid-friendly recipes that the little ones can make for themselves.
Some of the recipes rely on gimmicks, such as tomato faces and spinach-and-chicken palm trees. But most recipes present a full-frontal view of fruit, vegetables and whole grains.
A spinach-and-cheese omelet becomes a finger-friendly "Ready to Roll-Up" and the apple and sweet potato "Snuggle-Up Soup" gets served in a hollowed-out apple. "Pinwheel Pot Stickers" flaunt carrots, edamame and avocado.
Part activity guide, part cookbook, Bean Appétit includes skill-building challenges, such as how to crack an egg and how to use chopsticks. Tips on table manners are supplemented with conversation-inspiring questions ("If your family were to form a band, what would you name it?") and fun food facts (a hard-boiled egg will spin longer than a raw one).
This is a wonderful little volume for creating fun at the table, as well as lifelong habits for healthy eating.
Once they have eaten all their veggies, you can treat the whole family to a work of art for dessert. What's New Cupcake?, a sequel to the best-selling Hello, Cupcake!, makes pastry artists out of even the most butterfingered parents.
Ordinary candies, such as malted balls, M&M's, candy corns and marshmallow peanuts, are used to transform ordinary cupcakes into fish, suns and lobsters. Jellybeans masquerade as flower petals and butterflies.
An entire meal of pork lo mein and Chinese fried rice -- take-out container and all -- emerges from a tumble of green Tootsie Rolls, puffed rice cereal and jellybeans.
The beautiful photos and easy-to-follow directions (with diagrams) help even the cake-mix-challenged create cupcakes that look like lattice pies and critters from ducks to moose to flamingos. It will make you want to stock the pantry with pink and blue sugars, mini-marshmallows, flaked coconut and tiny pretzel sticks that double as animal legs, trees or buttresses.
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