Wednesday 24 September 2014

Oober Kids Republic – Pocket Money Cookery

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.


22 comments:

  1. sounds interesting! My eldest loves cooking, I think it's great if it encourages kids to learn

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    1. It's just such an essential for life and it's good to start as fun rather than a chore.

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  2. Looks 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!

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  3. looks a great way to get children into cooking x

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    1. There are some really good recipes in there to get children interested.

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  4. Wow, £10-£15 isn't pocket money! But any book that helps to get children cooking is a good thing!

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    1. I 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.

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  5. I love cook books for kids. I must admit we very often use them for our everyday cooking.

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    1. Despite 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.

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  6. Not sure I would like pink scrambled eggs x

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    1. They do like a bit strange but of course it's the combination of eggs and tomato!

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  7. Seems like an odd recipe to start with. Good idea to encourage kids to cook though x

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  8. This 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

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  9. Anything that encourages kids to cook has to be cook and I am super glad that Home Ec is back in schools

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  10. My son has been asking for a cooking book and to be taught to cook. This might be what we need, thank you!

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  11. A good way to introduce cooking to children rather than just baking

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  12. Looks like a good book to start teaching the basics - definitely skills for life!

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  13. Sounds like an interesting book for when they are a bit older.

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  14. Kian loves cooking but my recipe books always seem too complicated, so this is a fab idea

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  15. I 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!
    I 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!

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  16. This book sounds superb and also much needed. x

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