Category Archives: Food

Cooking With Kids

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The Challenge:

Create a special-interest holiday publication for Nick Jr. Family Magazine readers, but give it a life that would make it last long after Santa’s come and gone.

The Solution:

Since cooking and holidays so often go hand-in-hand, a holiday cookbook for parents and kids made sense. To give it longevity, we created a year-long holiday guide with kid-friendly recipes for Valentine’s Day through Christmas. To insure continued use, it included a year’s worth of original birthday cakes themed to each month. As an added value for parents and kids, there were simple games and activities to amuse kids while the food was cooking.

The Makeover Moms

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The Challenge:

Nick Jr. Family Magazine readers wanted to give their kids healthy foods, but didn’t want to spend a lot of time (or money) fussing.

The Solution:

Janice Bissex and Liz Weiss, The Meal Makeover Moms, offered ten realistic ways to up the nutrition of basic dishes, without upping the bother. Presenting it in an easy-to-see format emphasized how simple it would be to make these small changes.

Mark Bittman

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The Challenge:

Busy, Gen-X parents may watch cooking shows, but when it comes to cooking for their families, they don’t know very much about basic cooking techniques.

The Solution:

We went to Mark Bittman, author of How To Cook Everything, and The Minimalist in The New York Times for short but sage tips on how to cook the most basic dishes. (Who knew you shouldn’t pierce your potatoes before baking?) The novice cooks who knew Bittman’s reputation from his books, TV show and columns ate up this feature.

Jamie Oliver

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The Challenge:

To prove to concerned parents and Nick Jr. Family Magazine readers that kids really will eat healthy food. A good attitude is as important as good recipes.

The Solution:

The national craze for healthy food is possibly surpassed only by the craze for celebrity chefs. Naked Chef Jamie Oliver and his kids made perfect, albeit messy, cover subjects. At the shoot, Jamie cooked, re-styled our styling, and talked for an hour while daughters Poppy and Daisy waited for lunch. No surprise, they ate everything he made. (We did too!)

Emeril

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The Challenge:

Create a trendy, timely, and useful theme to kick off the holiday issues of Nick Jr. Family Magazine.

The Solution:

Nothing says holidays quite as well as “Family Traditions,” and cooking is one of the most traditional activities parents and kids do together. By showcasing ever-popular chef Emeril Lagasse and his family in New Orleans, we were able to capture the spirit of the season, and tempt readers with Emeril’s favorite recipes. Emeril’s upbeat attitude (and fabulous linguine!) kicked everything up a notch, making for a fun shoot that’s reflected throughout the entire feature.