cookbooks for children?

[meemee]

my dd wants to learn how to cook. she is almost 7 and can use a knife and cook on the stove with myself right there.

she now makes herself and me breakfast - usually some form of scrambled eggs and toast.

she REALLY wants a cookbook that she can follow (she can read pretty well, its more about the child friendly instructions, breaking it down to everything that needs to be done) without asking me for help. she wants to do it on her own.

any ideas?

and she wants to cook - on the stove top. not throw things together like the kind of children's cookbooks we already find or even bake.

[Thalia the Muse]

I asked the same question a few months ago! I ended up buying the Around-the-World cookbook for my daughter, but I can't recommend it wholeheartedly. The food was too adult for my kid (and she's not terribly picky) there are a lot of spicy or onion-y things, and it's probably better for a 12-year-old or so.

Honest Pretzels, by Mollie Katzen, is pretty good -- very easy to use. There are baking and salad recipes, but also things like scrambled eggs and pasta. It's vegetarian.

The Williams-Sonoma kids' cookbook looks promising, but I haven't tried it so I can't recommend. The Better Homes and Gardens book is AWFUL, full of convenience foods and the book design is incredibly loud and hyperactive.

I'm still looking for the one perfect cookbook for elementary kids, so I hope someone else has some good suggestions in this thread!

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by meemee

my dd wants to learn how to cook. she is almost 7 and can use a knife and cook on the stove with myself right there.

she now makes herself and me breakfast - usually some form of scrambled eggs and toast.

she REALLY wants a cookbook that she can follow (she can read pretty well, its more about the child friendly instructions, breaking it down to everything that needs to be done) without asking me for help. she wants to do it on her own.

any ideas?

and she wants to cook - on the stove top. not throw things together like the kind of children's cookbooks we already find or even bake.

Kitchen For Kids by Jennifer Low may help. The recipes were designed for fairly young children to work safely in the kitchen with minimal adult supervision - they are fairly simple, and there is minimal use of stove top burners, knives, electrical appliances etc. There is a good range of recipes - baked pasta, wonton soup, shepherd's pie, pizza as well as cookies and cakes.

[lorijds]

Why not hit the library? I'll bet they have several kids' cookbooks.

My kid enjoyed the college cookbook, "Where's Mom Now That I Need Her?" It is an unfortunate title, but it actually is a great beginner book. It talks about household management in general, and is geared toward frugality.

It discusses how to buy ingredients, how to prepare them, and how to store and use leftovers.

There are plenty of simple recipes in it that I'm sure your daughter would be able to make.

[DaughterOfKali]

Kids' Kitchen (yes, from my website) is a great vegetarian recipe set for kids. The recipes are fun and yummy!