It might sound trivial, but for anyone who fumbles with a recipe book, staining pages with lemon juice and garlic, it is definitely not. The new all-Canadian Feed Me, I’m Hungry cookbook is coil-bound. It’s simply not possible to lose your spot while attending to the frying pan. It’s a half-foot long, rectangular, and can even stand up on its own like a desk calendar. No need for paperweights.

This initial, obvious observation is the first clue to how the book was put together. Its three authors, all nutrition experts, have created a recipe book for families that is easy to use and follow. It is, as one of its authors puts it, a tool for cooking more easily and nutritiously.

“Being defined as a tool means it needs to provide more than ingredients and directions; it needs to be useful,” said co-creator Christine Sachse, noting its coil-bound structure. “What we really did was divide the labour out… deciding what is healthy or not. The parent just needs to have the ingredients and the time.”

She mentioned “parent” because the contents of the book are aimed school-aged children and teens (hence its title). But looking at the 81 recipes, split into breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner, dessert and beverage sections, it’s clear that this can be used by anybody. The recipes are good for people of any age.

It’s for people who want to get creative with their meals. There are some inventive recipes in this book – not wild and unrealistic for the average person, but simply inventive. We’ve got fruit-stuffed pitas dipped in egg and cooked French toast-style. Pancakes made with chickpea flour. Timbit-looking things made of dates, flax and almonds. Vegetable Biryani. Rajma Stew. “Salmon Balls.” For dessert, Pears with Cashew Cream Sauce.

Sachse says some of their favourites are the Sweet Potato Pancake with stewed apricots (breakfast), freezable granola bars made of multiple seeds and nuts, and Tropic Mango Salsa – the authors’ preferred party snack. All the recipes have been “critically tested” by their respective families, and are based on old family concoctions that have been “tweaked” to up the nutritional ante.

On each page is a nutritional analysis for anyone counting calories or interested in getting the healthy kinds of fat. Handily included is not just the cooking time, but also the prep time. And though vegetarian meals are the focus (94%), the authors aren’t trying to push meatless meals down their readers’ throats. On the back of each page are suggestions for alternative ingredients that can be added or substituted. Above all it’s about healthful eating, as would be expected from a team of holistic nutritionists trained in health sciences and homeopathy.

More to the point, they are all busy mothers. The book is made in such a way that it’s easy to flip to a page or section and figure out what to do for dinner or tomorrow’s lunch. Sachse said they know the challenge of cooking when life is already so busy, but that “where there is a will there is a way. We strongly believe ‘the way’ is to have the right foods in your cupboards and to plan your meals ahead of time. If you are in a pinch, with the right foods in your cupboards there will always be something you can throw together.”

And the recipes in “Feed Me…I’m Hungry” are a lot better than anything you’d think is just thrown together. See the website for information on how to purchase it.