What exactly is a “gastrokid?” Well the authors of The Gastrokid Cookbook have developed a Gastrokid manifesto that states:
Gastrokid: noun. A combination of “gastronomy” (the study of food) and “kid.” Coined by, Hugh Garvey and Matthew Yeomans founders of Gastrokid.com, a Web site popular among parents dedicated to feeding their children the best food possible. A Gastrokid is a child of heightened gastronomic awareness, sometimes the progeny of parents who describe themselves as “foodies.”
The basic tenant of The Gastrokid Cookbook is essentially to provide you with a repertoire of sophisticated, nourishing and kid-friendly recipes that are substantial enough for adults while still being appealing to children. It’s certainly much less tantrum inducing if you whip up an alternate meal for your child at dinner time if you’ve decided to enjoy a nice Bolognese that evening, but Yeomans and Garvey are here to encourage you not to. Their delicious array of recipes from Citrus-Cured Chicken Breast to Mod Mediterranean Braised Beef Brisket are sure to please everyone who sits down at your dining room table whether they are three, thirty-three, or one-hundred and three.
While entrees like Orange and Ginger Soy Pork Ribs might sound impossibly time consuming and difficult you’ll be shocked to learn that the entire recipe consists of only nine ingredients and the instructions are presented in barely more than two succinct paragraphs. This is exactly how each recipe is laid out. Yeomans and Garvey know that you don’t have time to peruse a three-page cooking tome when you have a baby, a toddler, and a dog all swarming at your feet.
After looking through the cookbook I decided that I had to try their Roasted Chickpea Bruschetta. It was beyond simple and really only involved opening two cans of super healthy chickpeas, the pitting of a few olives, a quick chop, slice, and a drizzle of oil. I adore olives of all shapes, sizes, and colors so I feel that it’s essential to own a good olive pitter. This will also cut down on time significantly in the recipe below should you choose to include olives with pits. One evening I attempted to pit olives by hand and gave up after only twenty minutes of insanity. Then I promptly sent CK to Whole Foods to pick up this great OXO Olive Pitter (it’s also sometimes called a Cherry Pitter but it works perfectly for anything small with a stone in the center).
I’m just in love with this simple savory dish and I thoroughly enjoyed the salty combination of olives, tangy vinegar, and garlic. They all melded perfectly with the delicately roasted chickpeas and were an excellent topping for freshly toasted baguette slices. And as per the author’s observation in the text, kids will undoubtedly enjoy frolicking after the little round beans as they inevitably tumble from their bread slices. My cats had quite the field day with runaway chickpeas last night. In addition I fully intend to use the leftovers as a topping for salad tonight.
So are you ready to test your luck at potentially winning a copy of The Gastrokid Cookbook? If so, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post.
In addition, If you share the link to this contest on your own blog, Twitter, Facebook etc… you may have one additional entry for a total of two possible chances to win. If you choose this option please leave a link to your shout out as your second comment. A winner will be selected via the nifty random number generator next Wednesday, August 19th at 5:00 PM EST and then I’ll promptly arrange to have the cookbook shipped to your home. Best of luck!
Roasted Chickpea Bruschetta
Adapted from the recipe originally published in The Gastrokid Cookbook.
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
Olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
A handful or two of chopped parsley
1/2 cup finely chopped olives (recommended: a mix of some good green olives filled out with super cheap, jarred martini-style green olives and kalamatas)
Garlic
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 baguette loaf, sliced and toasted
Pre-heat the oven to 450ºF. On a cookie sheet or baking sheet, spread out the chickpeas and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and mix it all up. Roast for 20 minutes or so, until golden brown.
In a large bowl, mix the chickpeas with the chopped parsley, olives, garlic, and balsamic vinegar. Serve on toasted slices of baguette. The spherical little beans tend to roll off the bread if you’re eating too hastily, but chasing down stray chickpeas makes it all the more fun.
Purchase The Gastrokid Cookbook. You can also visit Gastrokid online or follow them on Twitter.
I’ve never found pitting olives to be that hard – I lay them on the cutting board, smush ’em with the side of my knife and the pit is just exposed, waiting to be plucked. Of course, my experience with this is limited to black olives, so maybe green olives are more stubborn? I’m jealous of your pitter, though, as I wish I had one for cherries, but my husband has banned more kitchen gadgets. 🙁
Hi Katelyn,
I just remembered why the olive pitting was so maddening. It was because I was trying to do it very neatly so I could then stuff them. Obviously if I was just eating them I would have happily smashed away but the olive pitter is truly fabulous for getting the pits out efficiently. So my advice is…What your husband doesn’t know won’t hurt him 😉
I’m always looking for quick, filling & healthy meals. This cookbook sounds great and the brushetta looks fantastic.
you know I don’t have any kids, but I do have a very fussy hubby and this cookbook just might help me out with that.
I can definitely use this! We have one on the way 🙂
I would love love love to win this cookbook!!
I’d love to feed my bub food from this cookbook… heck I’d love to get him to eat anything! It’s a wonder he’s stayed alive since he throws everything on the floor unless its from the grain family!
http://twitter.com/barbsquared
What a cute book! That bruschetta is definitely up my alley.
I love this! And to think – it would probably work with some finicky husbands as well. 🙂
K
Bruschetta is a good time, I never would have thought to do a chickpea one though. Looks great!
I would love to win this cookbook, and my kids would be pretty excited about it too. Great giveaway, and I love your blog!
what a cool idea for a cookbook! this recipe sounds delicious.
tweeted: http://twitter.com/ellen1214/status/3312763309
well, if i ever have to pit olives, i probably wouldn’t have thought of using my cherry pitter! and that roasted chickpea bruschetta is totally calling my name 🙂
Hey Erin! I live in Norway.. would I still qualify to enter?
This bruschetta really does look very good. I have never made the original before because my husband isn’t the biggest fan of tomatoes. So, this might even be a good version for him. 🙂
This cookbook sounds awesome. I hope I win!!! 🙂
I love my cherry pitter! It makes life so much easier 🙂
This dish looks really amazing. I bet it would be good all blended up in the food processor- hummus style!
Ooh… Looks are enough to make someone drool who loves chickpeas. And makes it worth having picky/strict diet nieces and nephews to try them out on when they come over.
This book looks fantastic!!! We would love it over here!
Wow, that cookbook looks like a great find!
I’m newly graduated from college – that’s kind of like being a little kid, right?
Ooooo I love this idea!! My friend and I have been talking a lot lately about cooking for kids (even though ours are 4 months and 13 months, respectively). I hope I win but think I’ll be buying this book if I don’t. Thank you so much for the alert!
http://theingiosifamily.blogspot.com/2009/08/erin-cooks-gastrokid.html
That book looks really cool! And the bruschetta sounds delicious. I’ll have to look up the book and learn a bit more about it 🙂
ooh, I am so intrigued with this book! I’d love to win it. Thanks for doing the giveaway!
What a great cookbook and too bad I didn’t get a hold of one like it years ago! But Mr. Persnickety is still, at 19, just as persnickety if not worse, so it could still come in handy! The chickpea bruschetta look so good!
This looks like the perfect book for my family – we’re semi-vegetarian, and our 3 year old won’t eat a SINGLE vegetable! What are the chances???
Leaving a comment 🙂
and posted it about it here:
http://toothsometreats.blogspot.com/
i never thought about chickpeas and bruschetta together but it looks great.
wish i had the ingredients on hand …..
never thought of chickpeas and bruschetta either but it looks great. wish i had the ingredients on hand ….
Ok, you are my new favorite blog! I love this cookbook and must purchase it if I don’t win (please may I win as I must pay for a new refrigerator tomorrow after ours met it’s sad demise). And those blondies from your last post are devine! I practically mainline them! 🙂 thanks for so many cool product/book reviews and wonderful recipes!
omg i so need this book! I have a 2 yr old… it’s not too late for us to get into good eatin’ 🙂
yummy! i’ve been eyeing a cherry pitter recently too!
Mmm, I like chick peas, and olives, may have to give this a go. That book sounds great!
oh my, that looks delicious! Köstlich in German 🙂
oh boy, should i be afraid of olive pitting?? i was thinking about pitting olives for a homemade pizza sometime soon. the fiance might be SOL. 🙂
thanks for the giveaway!
Leaving my comment … 🙂
I love their blog, so the cookbook sounds awesome. Plus cooking for kids seems like it might be similar to cooking for my boyfriend 🙂
this is the perfect cookbook and I don’t know why I haven’t heard of it before (I love to sit down and read cookbooks, is that strange?) anyways, I see all my friends cook two meals, one for the kids and one for them and that seems so ridiculous to me. My one and only child is 8 months old so he’s not quite old enough to eat with us, but I would like him to eat the same things we eat at the same times (if possible).
And I LOVE your blog (brown-nosing can’t hurt, right?)
I don’t have kids but it sounds like the meals are adult friendly too. Plus I guess it doesn’t hurt to practice a little before we finally have kids 🙂 I’d love to win this book! Thanks for this giveaway.
YUM! I know my (gastro)kid would love these recipes — both the cooking and the eating!
http://twitter.com/wendytodd47/status/3368880015
As you know from having dinner with us, I don’t feed the little ones anything different from what I feed the grownups. Mostly because I am too lazy to fix two different things. This book looks great!
Yep! Enter me to win! I’ll leave a link on my next comment, too.
Here’s the link on the message boards at DivaTribe:
http://www.divatribe.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,133/topic,4530.new#new
sounds yummy!
Adeline won’t be able to eat solids for a while, but this book looks worth it to buy now anyway. Maybe Amy will actually eat some of this stuff too… 😉
Ooh! I’d like to win! The book sounds fantastic. Never understood kids who would only eat mac’n’cheese and chicken nuggets, hopefully my kid won’t be one of them. She’s still on the inside so we still have some time to turn her into a foodie!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1394854139&ref=nf
Would love to try this w/my kids. They ate fruits/veg as toddlers, but now will not eat veggies.
The book sounds interesting and we’d all love it.
If I don’t win, I must add this book to my wish list. Fun!
this is exactly the kind of cookbook I need – instead of making two meals a day, we just end up eating what the kids eat: chicken nuggets, hamburgers, hotdogs, oh my! the only night when everyone is completely happy is taco night. It’s time to get inspired to expand our cooking horizons!
This sounds so good!
THIS BOOK SOUNDS GREAT!! I AM A NANNY AND THIS WOULD MAKE THINGS A LOT EASIER AND A LOT MORE FUN!! GOOD FIND!
My son loves to eat anything!! this would be a great addition to our collection
Yum! What a fun book – why didn’t I think of it?
I don’t have kids, but I do have a picky husband. This book might be good for cooking for him!
This cookbook sounds awesome–my 2 year old eats anything… so far!
Thanks for the great post!! – no kids yet, but given how much the hubby and I LOVE good eating, the idea of foodie kids is a tempting one 🙂
beautiful photos and great simple recipe. i’m a little shocked that the chickpeas stayed put – good for you!
That is one fine-looking bruschetta! I would love to make it with the addition of some cherry tomatoes from my garden. Mmm. Thanks for hosting the contest! Looks like a cute book.