As someone who spends a lot
of time cooking for my family I will always be an advocate of
ensuring that everyone has the ability of being able to make a good,
nutritious meal. I started off as a teenager making omelettes and
pasta dishes and haven't stopped cooking since. It meant I went off
to university being able to cook for myself but I found I was one of
the few. One company looking to encourage primary school children to
cook is Oober Kids Republic. They provide online resources for parents and children
for English, Maths and Science plus also a selection of books. I got
sent a copy of Pocket Money Cookery to try out with my daughter.
Obviously being a recipe
developer and food writer myself a book that teaches children to cook
may have seemed a little basic to me. However it goes through all the
starting essentials such as good hygiene and kitchen safety. The book
has ten recipes in it ranging from breakfasts to main meals plus
desserts. What makes it different from other children's cookery books
is that each recipe has a number of interesting or historical facts
about it plus tips and nutritional information.
Each recipe has an estimated
cost to it I guess to reflect the title of 'Pocket Money Cookery'. I
have to say I was a little startled by some of the prices stated. The
first recipe is for Pizza Beef and has a cost of £10 to £15
for four people attached to it. This is not surprising as it does
require four beef steaks. However for some of the other recipes I did
some costings and found my prices came in a lot lower than the
figures stated.
We gave the Dawn
Scrambled Eggs a try. Many a time I have made a meal of eggs but
never had them coloured pink! In this version there is no milk but
instead tomato purée or paste which gives it its pink colour. In
the ingredients list it does state 'one or two tea spoons of
vegetable oil' but nowhere in the method does it mention it. I
usually melt butter in a pan before adding the eggs so I guess it was
meant to be used then. I think you can see it came out looking very
similar to the photograph in the book.
In all the recipes are
definitely suited for the 7-11 age group. The addition of the extra
information and little stories give it added interest for children. I
would recommend this if you wanted to start cooking with your
children but you are not that confident yourself. It would also be
great if you ran a children's cookery group or class as it has all
the information you need to complete a full lesson.
I was sent a copy of
'Pocket Money Cookery' for review purposes. All thoughts, words and
photographs are my own.
sounds interesting! My eldest loves cooking, I think it's great if it encourages kids to learn
ReplyDeleteIt's just such an essential for life and it's good to start as fun rather than a chore.
DeleteLooks like a lovely book, we're always cooking together here but it looks like a great way to encourage those who don't already. My OH is nearly 30 and doesn't know how of the skills you need to prepare something simple!
ReplyDeleteMake him fend for himself for a few days!
Deletelooks a great way to get children into cooking x
ReplyDeleteThere are some really good recipes in there to get children interested.
DeleteWow, £10-£15 isn't pocket money! But any book that helps to get children cooking is a good thing!
ReplyDeleteI was surpised that was the first recipe in the book and steak is a tricky thing to cook correctly but the recipes do get more affordable as the book goes on.
DeleteI love cook books for kids. I must admit we very often use them for our everyday cooking.
ReplyDeleteDespite the vast amount of cooks that I have I usually make up recipes and just use them for inspiration. I haven't got any just aimed at children.
DeleteNot sure I would like pink scrambled eggs x
ReplyDeleteThey do like a bit strange but of course it's the combination of eggs and tomato!
DeleteSeems like an odd recipe to start with. Good idea to encourage kids to cook though x
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an interesting way to combine food and learning about money and portions. My son is a bit too young for this at the moment though. x
ReplyDeleteAnything that encourages kids to cook has to be cook and I am super glad that Home Ec is back in schools
ReplyDeleteMy son has been asking for a cooking book and to be taught to cook. This might be what we need, thank you!
ReplyDeleteA good way to introduce cooking to children rather than just baking
ReplyDeleteLooks like a good book to start teaching the basics - definitely skills for life!
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting book for when they are a bit older.
ReplyDeleteKian loves cooking but my recipe books always seem too complicated, so this is a fab idea
ReplyDeleteI reviewed this too I didn't mention the money aspect because I thought of go on forever then just settled on the feeling they were simply estimating, everyone's idea of pocket money is of course different my meals would be a lot lower than the books!
ReplyDeleteI also hated the photography of most of the finished recipes but that's just me! I liked his easy it was to follow and all the extras were great, the names are fab too!
This book sounds superb and also much needed. x
ReplyDelete