Review: Fix It and Forget It Kids Cookbook by Phyllis Pellman Good
Check back for our reviews of the new Fix-it and Forget-it Christmas Cookbook and an opportunity to win both titles!
Reviewed by Jen K.
An experienced cook like Phyllis Pellman Good seems to be the perfect person to write a cookbook for kids. Author to eight very successful cookbooks in the Fix-It and Forget-It series, she knows what does and doesn’t work in the kitchen. Obviously, she believes kids should work in the kitchen and the slow cooker is a great tool to help them.
The simple truth is that while I think it’s terrific to have kids helping out in the kitchen, that assistance comes saddled with some safety concerns. lt’s easy to line up prep jobs for younger folks that don’t require sharp knives. The biggest roadblock we run into is at actual cooking time, as the oven and burners are pretty much off limits. Do you see the true genius of the slow cooker in this application? No open flame, just a pot that uses the same amount of energy as a 60 watt light bulb. Phyllis refers to the slow cooker as “the easy-to-get-along with appliance.”
Fix-It and Forget-It Kids’ Cookbook construction and overall setup are very kid friendly. A spiral binding encourages little hands to leaf through the pages, while the instructions and preparation methods are clearly aimed at a child’s level. The ham in Ham and Potato Chowder is cut into strips using kitchen shears and the microwave is used for some advance cooking steps in several recipes. Directives like “Use potholders to remove the bowl from the microwave” and “Cover your slow cooker” may seem obvious to an adult, but not so for a child learning to cook. I love that each recipe is nicely spaced out on a full page, for easy consultation, with a large full-color photo of the dish on the opposing page.
We already know how great it is to get home for the day and find a crock pot piping away on the counter. Consider how much better than scenario would be if it wasn’t your hands doing all of the work the night before. Your kids can help get Tempting Tortilla Casserole or Creamy Lasagna on the table for dinner or prepare Crunchy Snack Mix or Pizza Dip for their own after school snacks. There are a host of breakfast dishes and desserts to choose from, including some amazing looking Chocolate Covered Pretzels that I am coveting. In all, there are fifty fabulous recipes that can help get your kids cooking and building some confidence in the kitchen.
Check out our interview with Phyllis Pellman Good here!
Jen lives in Michigan with her husband and six year old son. She writes reviews of children’s books on her blog, FIRR-Kids and loves filling her shelves with cookbooks.
This book was provided free of any obligation by Goodman Media International. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
Category: Cooking, Food, Wine, For Kids, For the Cook, Gift Ideas, Nonfiction
This is a great cookbook for kids. When I was growing up my mother bought us two cookbooks for kids. We loved them and tried out every single recipe in the books, in fact I still have the two with food stains on them.
Carol Wong
[...] out our review of Fix It and Forget It Kids [...]
I’ll have to look for this one. I love cookbooks and have a grandson who likes to cook with me. You can never start a child cooking too early. We had our son in a cooking class when he was in pre-school. He loved it and still enjoys cooking.
I need this for my son! He is already my best little helper when I use my slow cooker for soups every fall, so it would be fun to add a few more dishes to our arsenal. He just started kindergarten too, so this would be a great way to build on the skills he is learning in class and keep the brain waves flowing
. Thanks for the review, I will have to get this one!
Awesome! I love cookbooks (as I’ve probably said on here before, haha), and love looking at kiddie cookbooks too … but so often they’re either so simplified it’s insulting OR they’ve got fun pictures/colors/etc but are really too advanced for kids. This sounds like just the right blend … Gonna have to check it out
I need this cookbook for my family!
I currently have only one slow cooker recipe in my arsenal, and I love that my house smells yummy all day, and with the running around to soccer practice, library, and all the other activities having two boys brings, I love that whenever we’re ready to eat dinner, it’s hot and ready to go.
Aside from that, Cooking = fractions. My kids bake with me all the time. They already have a concrete concept of fractions, and I contribute that to having them active participants in the kitchen.
Not to mention – cooking with the kids is SO much fun. (Can you tell by my lengthy comment how strongly I feel about this topic??)
Thanks for the review, ordering it now!
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