Kid Chef: The Foodie Kids Cookbook: Healthy Recipes and Culinary Skills for the New Cook in the Kitchen

First the positive. For critique, see pulled pork and coconut-lime popsicles, below.This book is what I hoped it would be; for special cooking. I gave it to my son for his 9th birthday. He is very independent in the kitchen for someone his age. However, many of the recipes still involve a lot of adult guidance. My son spent the first couple days just reading through the recipes, bookmarking the ones he wanted to try first. We planned a grocery trip and bought the ingredients. Many ingredients are not on-hand in your pantry. (I'm fairly adventurous, but we still live on a budget). So, for example, I have cumin and coriander, but not in seed form. I don't have a mortar and pestle, though I'd like to get one now. I don't know what Maldon flake salt is, so we used table salt instead. I love the use of fresh ingredients throughout.Recipes we've made:Salsa - delicious! Tomatoes, cilantro, lime, jalapeno, red onion, cumin, pepper. Alot of chopping, so this is mostly an adult-recipe.**I wish the reason to wear gloves was given. We found out the hard way when my son rubbed his eyes while handling jalapeno. It sounds obvious now, but I had no experience with hot peppers. and this is a child's book.Fruit smoothiesPulled Pork - Here's my negative critique. Recipe calls for cooking it at 325 degrees, uncovered, no liquid. I would think to cook much lower, with liquid and covered. but maybe dry-roasting is good, I don't know, so the only change I made was to cook it at 300, but otherwise, I followed the recipe. It was okay, but it could be better. Next time, I'm going to cook at 225, cover, and add liquid. The dry rub was good. We toasted and ground cumin seed and coriander seed. The aroma of toasted coriander is amazing! My son kept saying it smelled like tea. My 6 yo rubbed it onto the raw pork shoulder.Ricotta cheese & jam toast - The magic ingredient was lemon zest. My son made this recipe by himself right away. He was very proud.Roasted rosemary carrotsCoconut-lime popsicles - An inedible, curdled disaster. I have no idea how to avoid the curdling.Banana 'Ice Cream' - This is why I love this book. My kids were excited about frozen, mushed up bananas.

Kid Chef is not your ordinary kids cookbook! We were looking for a cookbook to give our daughter on her 10th birthday when we discovered “Kid Chef.” She already has the William Sonoma “Fun Food” kids cookbook and has enjoyed making recipes from it, but many are typical “kids” food type recipes and sometimes take shortcuts like using ketchup or buying packaged products. We were looking for something that had more interesting recipes and would teach her good cooking techniques. Kid Chef is just perfect!The first day she got the book she brought it to her room and read it cover to cover. In the last 3 weeks since getting the cookbook, she has made for us the Cheesy Egg Sandwich, Simple Scrambled Eggs, Easy Tzatziki, Minty Lamb Burgers, Coconut Ice Pops, and Chocolate-Pomegranate Brownies. I’d say she did 80-90% of the work on the recipes herself, needing a little help from us from us to do things like frying the eggs or doing some chopping when time was tight. The recipes were all, every single one, fantastic! We love that they don’t cut corners - real ingredients and sophisticated cooking techniques. As some examples, for the Easy Tzatziki sauce you dice the cucumbers then sprinkle with salt and let the water drain and the Coconut Ice Pops include lime zest. Small things that easily could have been left out to make the recipes simpler, but help a lot to make them delicious.The book emphasizes recipes that are healthful, doable, and palatable for kids but not at the expense of taste and quality. I’ve already recommended it to several friends with kids and will likely give it as presents for my daughter’s friends in the future. I can’t wait to see what my daughter cooks for us next - she has her eye on the Creamy Blueberry Bliss smoothies, the Dutch Baby, Moroccan Pickled Carrots, and the Pulled Pork Sliders. Yum!

I'm a nanny and I'm always looking for new things to excite the children I take care of. And this was perfect! The oldest already loves cooking and the younger sister was excited about trying something new. We sat down together and read the first couple of sections together. Pretty awesome to include important information such as cleanliness, food safety, oven safety, how to use a knife, etc. Once we finished with these I left the book overnight and told the girls to pick one entree and dessert recipe they wanted to try together the next time I came over. They were so excited that the older one had already written the grocery list before I arrived :) (I consider this a win). I was excited that the recipes they picked included new and healthy food options (and I'm sure their parents did as well). We completed both recipes, following them word for word, and I have to say not only was it fun working in the kitchen with two excited girls but the food was actually tasty! Can't wait to try another recipe.*I received a sample of this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*

The recipes are fun and easy enough for my 12 year old to take on cooking. Great ease into cooking.

So informative! I’m learning new things alongside my child. If you can only get one cookbook, get this one!

A los niños les encanta y aprenden habilidades básicas

Such a handy cook book for kids. The only thing I'd change is having some more everyday recipes and pictures for all the recipes since kids like to see what they are making. But it's not enough of an issue to take away a star.

I love it! Fantastic recipes that make it fun to cook with my children. And the recipes are not only delicious but healthy :)A great way to spend quality time with my kids.

Great for kids, I bought it for a friend's daughter and she loves it!