annieb123
Written on Jun 18, 2019
Little Helpers Toddler Cookbook is a tutorial how-to cookbook specifically aimed at getting kids from toddler age up to help prepare food and gain skills with cooking. Due out 25th June 2019 from Rockridge press, it's 156 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats (ebook available now).
When my own kids were small, I was often so busy and tired that they didn't get very many chances to help me cook. Though they're young adults now, happily one of them has discovered that she enjoys cooking, the other two definitely don't. I have lingering regrets over us not having much time together in the kitchen when they were small. It might not have made any difference to their enjoyment, but now that they're moving on to the adult phases of their lives, I wish we'd had more time together making memories and good food. That's what this book aims to facilitate.
It's arranged in chapters with a good solid introduction and discussions about kitchen safety and food prep techniques. The author has a lot of experience teaching kids to cook and it shows. I liked the helpful tips on knife safety and use, as well as the food safety tips (hygiene, egg safety, food storage, etc).
The following chapters are arranged around mealtimes with breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and desserts each getting their own chapter with recipes.
I really liked that all of the recipes have a space for making notes at the end. There's room for adding a date when the dish was made, what the readers enjoyed, a star rating, and personal notes about the recipe. I also love the author's encouraging and upbeat philosophy about messes. She provides good tips for minimizing safety risks, but has a very down-to-earth attitude about messes in the kitchen.
The electronic version of the book has a handy interactive table of contents including hyperlinks in the text.
Possibly worth noting for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. This title is available in the KU subscription to borrow and download for free.
There aren't a lot of books aimed at getting the youngest kids (2-4 years) actively involved in cooking, and this is a really good one.
Five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.