Customer Reviews

Paula Deen's Cookbook for the Lunch-Box Set

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

From the eye-popping end papers of this lay-flat (internal coil bindings are pretty spiffy if you ask me) cookbook, kids will savor each page right up to the index at the end. Every double page spread has a graphic border that will entice young cooks to sample the recipes with their eyes while cooking up delicious treats. From the same team that produced Paula Deen's My First Cookbook, this handsome hardcover volume is sure to get lots of use. Starting with Cooking Tips, and a Glossary (how sensible to put it at the front of the book!) and a nifty section on how to measure different kinds of ingredients (sounds trivial but the little pictures are really great instructional tools to show kids how to deal with liquids, spices, flour, brown sugar and butter) the chapters each include seven or eight recipes. Chapter One: Morning Muffins encourages kids to make different kinds of breakfast muffins to swap and enjoy. Chapter Two: The Bake Sale has best-selling goodies most kids will be able to manage. Chapter Three: Pool Party is a Mexican fiesta with salsa, enchiladas, chili, even sopapillas. Chapter Four: What's New for Lunch features salad, pasta primavera, wraps, quiche and sandwiches. Chapter Five: A Sleepover offers fondues, smoothies, and breakfast cheesecake. Chapter Six: The Family Cooking Night introduces a new tradition that Deen feels very passionate about. Chapter Seven: Christmas Cooking Party includes cookies, truffles, breads. Chapter Eight: The Family Picnic Menu features deviled eggs, potato salad, sandwiches, brownies and cookies. Chapter Nine: Mother's Day and Father's Day offers popovers, meatloaf, biscuits, frittata and more. Every chapter starts with a section on Manners because Deen feels that kids want to know how to be the best they can be. Each chapter also includes a cooking lesson of some kind. Best of all in this terrific cookbook, the ingredients list on the left hand page of each two-page recipe has little pictures of the ingredient as well as the measure needed. Never again will kids confuse baking soda for baking powder! Deen also uses brand names in the ingredients list when it seems sensible, which I find refreshingly forthright. The index concludes this highly recommended cookbook that not only would be a great classroom activity guide for teachers brave enough to cook with kids, but a treasured gift for kids of all ages. It never speaks down to them or attempts to be cute and chummy (like the Sandra Lee cookbook for kids) but offers youngsters the honest opportunity to enjoy cooking and try new recipes. Readers can Meet the Author and illustrator and get activities at [...]

After getting her other cookbook, "Paula Deen's My First Cookbook" and finding it rather ho-hum and blah, I really expected very little from this cookbook. However, many of the problems with the first cookbook have been fixed making a far better and more clearly defined cookbook. While there are still flaws and frustrations, this cookbook is far more enjoyable.

The first cookbook had recipes that varied from overly basic to fairly complex (Ants on a Log followed by a bread recipe requiring yeast... Stone Soup and then a few pages away a recipe for sirloin beef kabobs and grilled pineapple) making it hard to figure out what the age range was the book was trying to appeal to, and while a few of the recipes were pretty creative, most were homestyle standards that don't really require recipes to complete and can become boring. This cookbook, however, the complexity of the recipes are all about the same so the book appeals to a standard skill set, which is really nice. It makes the book less choppy, easier to use, and frankly more appealing to read. And by shortening the recipe instructions which, in the first book were overly detailed to the point of being too complicated, it's just a far easier read. The overall creativity of the recipes is far better than in the first book, reflecting more the style of Paula Deen and giving the book a personality that the first one just didn't have, making this a cookbook you're actually likely to refer to far more often because the recipes are something to get excited about. It also is a great way to get kids who are eager to cook to think "outside of the box," putting together flavors and meals that are more interesting to make and eat than Sloppy Joe's and Vegetables with Magic Cheese Sauce. Like the first book, the recipes included aren't "throw away," or busy recipes to keep kids out of the way... The foods are all mostly things that you can serve at any dinner and have it be an actual part of the meal, just like a "grown up" recipe, and like the first book there is a good range of cooking techniques and styles for each recipe. Basically, all of the good things about the first cookbook are still there, though by clearly defining the age group the book is for, making the recipes more unique, and making the descriptions for how to make the recipe far less wordy, the book is just far more practical and fun.

The only problem I have with this cookbook is that they still rely on the hand-drawn pictographs for the ingredients used in the recipe, along with every last little tool and gizmo needed to do the recipe, with no illustrations or pictures on the techniques used to make the recipe. Since this cookbook is clearly aimed towards grade school and school aged kids, I think it'd be far more useful to include pictures on what chicken that's fully cooked looks like, or what a properly cooked popover should look like, or now to fold a wrap, or even a picture of the final product of each recipe, as opposed to drawings of bags of sugar, butter knives, pot holders and spoons. The kids who use this book are going to know what a potholder looks like, or that you'll need a bowl to mix dough in... They really aren't going to know though how a well formed frittata looks or a properly filled muffin cup should look. To make the book more age appropriate, I wish the recipe format was more the cookbook standard, the illustrations were reduced or taken out and replaced with photos of the recipes and cooking techniques. And I really wish they'd stop including every tool and item needed for the recipe, from pot holders to butter knives and paper plates... While that's great for the younger kids, for this age group you don't really need it at all. School age kids don't need special "you will need" instructions for using a spoon to scoop dough or a pot to boil water in. It's just a little babyish and modeling the book after a simplified adult cookbook would make it far more practical and useful, not to mention something a child is less likely to grow out of. This book would easily appeal to the preteen and young teen set (especially with the variety of recipes and creativity and theme of the cookbook) if it was just a little more adult, but as written I have a hard time seeing a young teen pulling out a cookbook that reminds them they need a knife to cut, a paper plate to put cookies on, and watercolor drawings of a family playing in a field at a picnic.

But that said, i like this book much more than her first and I would certainly say if you were to pick one over the other, this is the one you should choose. It feels more like Paula and it's just more fun to use. The less wordy instructions along with the creativity of the recipes included and the clearly defined age range and skill set the book is appealing to makes it far easier and enjoyable to use and it makes it a far more useful cookbook for far longer than the other one. It may not be the best out there for the younger kids, but this book is almost a must-have for parents of school age kids who have an interest in cooking.

This is a delightful book that will help make cooking fun for kids. It is beautiful, easy to follow, full of fun recipes that children will like. Another gift you can buy for any holiday that will be enjoyed by kids and parents alike. It definitely won't just sit on the shelf.

Ok. We love Paula. We love her Gooey cakes. We love every dish (other than the recipe for prime rib that ruined a holiday) - butter all the way - calories, yes... but taste is over the top. NOT HERE! I knew it was not a healthy cookbook. I have those, too. I was just looking for some fun recipes for my kids to make with gift / food ideas they could share at the holidays to make them understand giving from the heart (of the house ;) ) . We made the meatloaf - more like a big hamburger patty - tasty but as my friend said, "What with bacon in it isn't." I just thought good way to use leftover bacon. Everything else was a disaster! And the topper was - my kids picked the stained glass cookies to give as xmas presents to loved ones. They copied it by hand, measured, shopped for the ingredients, did everything. The dough was a sticky ucky mess. It stuck to everything regardless of additional flour. It makes one 1/2 of her yield quote given with a depends on - mostly because the dough "melts" within five minutes of being outside the fridge. I broke it into three parts for my kids to take turns. Didn't have time to use the cutters before the SHORTENING and TWO STICKS OF BUTTER made it a pool of sticky goop unable to be cut TWICE for the window shapes inside... Many far better recipes for sugar cookies out there - heck - go for the tubes in the store - they are even better and you add some lemon extract - no one can tell and you get raves. Really with the pimento loaf? Who do you give that to? And what kid eats that? Does her grandson? I doubt it - or that his mom would feed him this on a regular basis. Lastly - nada to go into a lunchbox! Just saying.

We picked this up at the schoolfair. What a wonderful book! We've bought other kid cookbooks but they were way too easy. They had recipes to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This book is perfect for the kid that really wants to cook but its not overly complicated. The directions are very clear including the ingredients list. My daughter's favorites are the green beans, the chocolate chip cake, and the oreo truffles. She likes to make the desserts for holidays and they are always a hit.

This book includes yummy recipes that are easy to use with kids. We loved the chocolate chip cake and the fruit salad salsa! Even grownups were digging in!

The best cookbook for kids hands down. We have owned it for a year and a half. I gave this to my 8 year old for Christmas thinking it would be fun for her to cook from, and it is...except I borrow it all the time to use too! The food in this is easy and Paula deen delicious! Finally a kids cookbook that we look forward to eating what my daughter makes! Not only that, it includes manners and storage for each recipes so you can make them ahead. A special section for Mothers and Fathers day-the recipe is so good we look forward to it! Every single recipe has turned out perfectly and so good we could serve it to company. Including the stained glass cookies-everyone raved about them. I am not sure what that other reviewer was doing when hers did not turn out,the 2 year old little brother even helped and they were still perfect. If there was more than 5 stars this would get it!

My 5 year old granddaughter and her mom choose recipes to make from this cookbook. They are easy. You can adapt some of them very easily. They made the chocolate covered pretzles and gave them out to the neighborhood kids. She loves to pretend like she is on a cooking show and making these recipes! Commercials and all. if they cannot cook together I bought her the Melissa and Doug foods, I highly recommend them! Wooden food that is put together with velco then the kids "cut" them apart.

My granddaughter truly enjoyed this book as a Christmas gift. She loves Paula Deen anyway and also loves to cook. She helps her Dad cook often.

I got this for my 7 year old daughter who loves to cook "by herself". There are some great recipes for her to do mostly independently but my only complaint is that there are only "cartoon" pictures of the completed dishes. I think seeing an actual photo of the dish is better. Although I do like the "cartoon" like drawings of the materials needed.