Top Books for Budding Little Cooks!

 

If you have little people at home, there are some top tips for happy mealtimes over on my page called Little Appetites (see above).
 
Feeding a family can be stressful and for me, the trick is to stay calm and make the kitchen a fun place to be, rather than a battleground!
 
In the meantime, here are some of my favourite cookbooks for family mealtimes or ideas to get kids cooking –
 
For easy food you can make together I like The Silver Spoon for Children – Favourite Italian Recipes. I had a cook book just like this when I was little, with hand-drawn pictures for each stage and easy-to-make recipes. If children are going to have a go on their own (chopping, assembling etc) I would say it is suitable for kids ages 8+ but most of the recipes are simple and adaptable for kids of any age with help. It is a great book if you are not a confident cook yourself but want some tasty Italian recipes.  You can even have a go at making your own pizza dough (as we did this week, I’ll be posting about that separately!) foccacia bread and if you are very brave, pasta!  Aside from this, there are simple snacks that your kids can make, such as tomato and mozarella salad, sausage crostini and mini pizzaiolo toasts. Yum yum!
 
Our favourite cookbook for eating as a family is Fay’s Family Food.  Fay gives tips on how to adapt the same meal for everyone in the family, babies and weaning stages included.  See my review here – Ren’s Review  Lots of the recipes are ‘bung in the oven’ style.   We love her One Pot Chicken with Lemon and Thyme and Orange and Ginger Chicken Casserole.
 
I Can Cook is a great one for young kids.  If you go over to the CBeebies website you can download pictures for the children to colour as well as activities and recipes. The accompanying book, whilst a bit cheesy (excuse the pun) is great for simple recipes.
 
If you haven’t cooked with your children before and are a bit nervous, you could also try looking for a local child/parent cookery class, some Children’s Centres offer Healthy Eating short courses and there are classes/franchises where kids get to make something simple with your help.
 
Please let me know if you have any tops tips or books you love in the comment box below!!

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6 Comments

  1. Fabulicious Food says:

    >Hi Jacqueline, thanks for stopping by – I will keep looking for good books for kids. I love Fay's book, if I was ever to write one myself it would be just like hers! There are a couple more to mention so I will post again soon. After they turn one it gets even more interesting! It's so good that he enjoys joining in already! Ren

  2. Jacqueline says:

    >Hi, Just found you over on British Mummy Bloggers and thought I would come over and say hi.

    It is good to have book recommendations, I'll have a look for Fay's book to try.

    My little boy is only one, but I let him do a lot of stirring in the kitchen. He loves it 🙂

  3. Fabulicious Food says:

    >I that the fomage frais one?! Will avoid! My boy (4) can manage quite a few of the recipes on his own, if I grate the courgette he can make the courgette bake which is yummy and gets some veggies in! Thanks for the visit!

  4. Sarah, Maison Cupcake says:

    >Fay Ripley's book sounds good… I must pick up a copy in the shop to browse. I was given some I Can Cook peach cake last week and it wasn't great. No fat or sugar in it for goodness sake!

  5. Fabulicious Food says:

    >Thanks for the comment Lisa! So how did I miss that one? Definitely one for my next wish-list. This is a great review and I like the idea of lots of different types of foods and regions – The Silver Spoon is just Italian – which is good but if someone were wanting to extend thier repertoire yours sounds good!!

  6. www.TheBookMums.co.uk says:

    >I suppose you can guess that I would recommend an Usborne book? Although we do a lot of children's cooking titles, the one that stands out for me is "Children's World Cookbook" as it is as much about the different countries as it is about the native recipes.

    As it would be biased of me to recommend it, here is a review from The "5 Minutes' Peace" blog- http://5minutespeace.wordpress.com/
    "This book is quite simply, stunning. It has what a lot of adult cookbooks don’t and that’s format and coherence. The book is indexed through food type and food by region and the pictures are beautiful; colourful and diverse and really portray the traditions of each country. Kids will love getting their hands dirty and cooking recipes. There are some basics like the classic English scone… “scown” or “scon”? and pancakes and there are some more exotic recipes such as Hungarian goulash and Thai chicken in coconut sauce. The recipes are laid out in a step by step basis so that children can follow easily. There are real photographs of the the end result as well as the native people enjoying their food customs and ways of life. Children will learn as much about all the countries as they will about food. A fantastic book, I can’t recommend it highly enough." I agree 🙂

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