Wow I’ve done it – I have my first book in the iTunes Apple iBookstore!

I’ve spent much of my university holidays working on a series of new publications for you – this first one is now available.

You are going to love this – for any of you are iPad fans this is so so cool! This first book is summer stuff – light summery food, barbecues, salads and in of course there are some sweet treats too!

I have five review copies to give away – if you would like a free copy to review please email  glenda@foodsavvykids.com and she will send you a code.

Click here to see the blurb etc in iTunes…

Teenager Claire Gourley shares her food discovery journey with easy, quick recipes and tips to get kids food savvy. For kids aged 9 – 16, this book reflects Claire’s food motto – “I don’t do complicated” and is all about making cooking fun and achievable.
Claire recipes work, taste great and are really really easy. If she didn’t find them reliable, tasty and easy, she ditched them! She has added lots of photos, tips and things kids will probably want answered as they are cooking… for anything a bit tricky she links to her YouTubes.

Claire wants to know enough about food to take good care of herself. She figures lots of kids are the same as her – they love eating food but they’re always busy with friends, school and sport, so they can’t really be bothered spending too much time cooking – but that doesn’t mean want to settle for average food!

It’s My Turn To Cook takes kids on Claire’s food journey as she has worked out what she needs to know to get food savvy! She has gathered quick, easy recipes made a lot of YouTubes, and asked a lot of questions. She intertwines food and nutrition tips so that while kids are cooking they also get skills to make good food choices.

Many cookbooks are written by adults for adults and while they may look beautiful they are often boring… Claire doesn’t do boring!! This informal chatty approach has much appeal with kids of all ages.

The other two titles are now finishing off are

• It’s My Turn to Cook Quick Food and
• It’s My Turn to Cook Bread

Hey I have just finished the holiday program… it was heaps of fun and I am really pleased how much everyone liked my new eBook – the Christmas edition – you can download a copy here if you want one – it will give you lots of great of recipes to make over summer.

But kick back and what this little snippet of what kids got up to! hope you can join me next holidays!

I have just watched the movie Julie and Julia and I loved it – has fired me up and I have cooked each night this week – has been fun – my favorites have been  a potato tortilla ( so easy and really tasty) and an apple tarte tartin – a sort of upside down apple pie…  I think I need to blog more and I have just found the inspiration… although I have to say that was a LOT of recipes no wonder Julie nearly went crazy…

I think you should start the year off the way you mean to finish  learn to be more independent this year… these are my 5 reasons you need to ‘ get some cooking skills’…

Saturday night and I had 10 girls over for dinner so I decided a roast of beef is the way to go because once I worked out how long to cook it for all I have to do is shove it in the oven and let it go.

No effort by me so I could relax with my friends… We  watched the All Blacks beat France in the Rugby World Cup – I was so impressed with  my cooking buddy Richard Kahui  - a star of the game!!! (he’s the All Black I did a series of cooking programs with on the Small Blacks)

Timing was the key for my meal  - and the only bit I had to pay attention was is weighing the meat (or reading the label to see what it weighs) and doing a quick bit of maths. My roast was a topside cut, it weighed 1.2kg and I like it rare, but I think some of my friends will prefer it medium so I  cooked it at 160^oC  for  1 hour and 15 minutes then rested it for 10 minutes before I cut it.  Here’s the link to get detailed roasting info . There is a chart which shows you  how long and how hot  - but relax – this was a doddle!!

I knew my vegetables (a mix of potatoes, gold kumara (sweet potato), yams, onions and peppers)  were going to take around 45 minutes to cook so I added them 45 minutes before the end of cooking. I didn’t muck around with  hot green vegetables or gravy (which is seriously easy but I wanted something a little different) so I just served the meat on a bed of leafy greens and drizzled it with some quince dressing which was totally yummy!

For starters I offered a choice of stuffed mushrooms (with pesto, a slice of tomato and  camembert cheese) or crustini topped with avocado and smoked salmon.

I wanted to honor the French  so I made  some creme brulee - but they knocked us out of the Rugby World Cup last time so I didn’t want to honor them too much!!! The creme brulees tasted stunning, I served them with fresh strawberries and they were perfect.

So all in all – a dinner for 10 was easy – I got into the kitchen at about 4.30 and had the food totally sorted, the table set and all under control before any of my friends arrived. My advice if you are cooking for a crowd – pick simple and easy food (like roast beef)  that you can prepare in advance and take attention to your timing.

PS:  I really want to help my Canadian friends because the All Blacks verse Canada  this coming  Saturday night – and you might be in trouble on the Rugby field – so this is my way of keeping you out of trouble in the kitchen!!! So for special Beef Canada help follow this… there is a short  little video that gives you a few valuable tips…

I had a really good chat with the breakfast team when I was interviewed this week on Breakfast TV. I took in some of my bacon and egg pie and some berry cupcakes (both recipes in the book) which were pretty popular with the crew! My book has been named as a finalist in the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards and the fact that I am so young and that is the first time a cookbook has got this far was what they focussed on.  Please remember to vote for the book because I am really keen to get votes in the readers choice award – at the moment I am battling it out with a book on sheep and another on dogs!! Can’t have a that – Please vote!!  Click on image and you will see me grovel to get votes and explain to Coran what the book is about!!

Girlfriend magazine has named the young NZ list  - Young, Awesome and Kiwi As!!! – and guess what …  I am on it! Along with cool names like Shannon Ryan, Gin Wigmore, Brooke Fraser and Maria Tutaia – they say we are successful, inspiring young Kiwis who are remarkable and doing this country proud in their unique way!!!  How cool is that!???

I am just back from Wellington where I did some filming for the Small Blacks TV Show for next year…

We did 25  easy recipes for kids for 25 weeks of shows… a bit of a marathon but it was lots of fun and it will show you how easy it is to cook! I worked with the amazing  rugby player and All Black Richard Kahui (Kaks) – he can cook too! Like me, he likes food which is really easy to make. I  look  forward to telling you more about the show when we get screening details…

The recipe in this picture is a quick and easy dessert based on custard – just make it a bit more fun by adding stuff to make a face…

Custard is made from milk so has lots of calcium in it – great for bones and teeth – but you don’t need to worry too much about that – all you need to know is that  it tastes good and is easy to make!!

Hope this makes you laugh!! ( and then buy my book…hahaha)  The goat is called Jessie.

If you want to see what some of the pages look like go here…

I’ve been asked a bit lately how I got involved in this cooking stuff…

Halfway through 2009 I decided I wanted all my favorite recipes together in one place before I left home. As I was doing that I decided it would be fun to write a book – at that stage I didn’t know that writing a book is a LOT of work!??

My mother has always worked  in food, nutrition, education and cooking areas and I love eating so it seemed a good idea to me. We’ve come to a cool understanding – she knows more about food than me and I know more about what teenagers think and I love speaking and motivating kids my age. So I picked my mothers brain for food ideas and I had ideas of how to present it.  So it has worked out to be a pretty good combination.

I think if you can cook you have a huge advantage. I know there are hundreds of  other food sites and recipe books that are beautiful, but from my perspective, boring. I wanted something with personality  that will make you laugh and make you want to try to cook.

Heaps of fantastic opportunities have happened in the last year – its  hard to believe it is only just over a year since we thought we would do this. Our  first hard copy book Who’s Cooking Tonight? will be available at the end of this month – we are really excited about what the next year will bring!

THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAVE  BEEN SO SUPPORTIVE!

This week on Studio 2 I shared my favorite bacon and egg pie recipe – you’ll also be able to get the recipe in my new book which is out very soon!!!  But I give it to you on the video clip anyway.

With Fathers Day this Sunday – how about you make this for his lunch… speaking from experience I know your Dad will love it and he will be very impressed that you made it for him.  With a smile on your face and a plate full of pie it will the best present he will get?!!