Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in Washington, DC

Simple tasty food with fresh ingredients is the mantra in our house so I’m always on the lookout for wonderful new cookbooks that will meet my criteria.  One new cookbook I adore is Taste This!  Author Gina Von Esmarch’s new book is filled with delicious easy to follow recipes whose everyday ingredients are probably pantry staples.

I love that none of the ingredient lists for Gina’s 65 recipes are long.  Being able to assemble my ingredients quickly makes it easy for the kids and me to cook up something delectable and fresh even when we are short on time. 

We love popping the Parmesan Crisps in the oven to accompany a pot of soup like the Hearty Black Bean Soup made the day before.  We keep frozen raw shrimp on hand so we can put together Gina’s Shrimp Scampi as an emergency dinner.  Next on our list to try is the Italian Picnic Chicken which comes highly recommended by Being Savvy Newark City Editor, Vanessa.  

I enjoy thumbing through Taste This!  The layout is very friendly with the recipes on the right side and a gorgeous picture of the dish on the left.  The pictures certainly are fun for my children to see and serve as great visuals for the finished product. 

Other great features of Taste This! include:

• guide to bring good flavors back to the table
• short ingredient lists using every day ingredients
• simple and easy to follow cooking techniques
• ideal for those who don’t have a lot of time to spend preparing but want to make something nice for their guests/family
• many make ahead recipes and pantry dishes
• inspiration for working individuals and parents who don’t know much about cooking but want to try to expand their cooking knowledge

So if you are looking for a wonderful cookbook full of family friendly meals that you can make quickly even with help from your little ones, I highly recommend Taste This! 

Win your own copy of Taste This!  Click on over to Jersey Bites to enter to win one of two copies being given away!