Customer Reviews

Salad People and More Real Recipes: A New Cookbook for Preschoolers and Up

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This cookbook is a real gem in the world of children's cookbooks. All of the kids' cookbooks I have seen in the past are heavily laden with sugar, chocolate, and more sugar. This one focuses on simple, healthy recipes such as "Cool Cucumber Soup" with cucumber, mint, honey, and yogurt; or "Foccacia" made with storebought pizza crust, olive oil, and rosemary.

The format is wonderful, with 2 pages for the adult to preread, followed by 2 pages of picture directions, simple enough for a 3 yr. old to "read."

I feel good about sharing these recipes with my kids (ages 5 and 3) and I don't have to worry about inducing a euphoric sugar high! My only complaint is that the kids aren't thrilled with most of the recipes... they took one sip of the cucumber soup and said, "Yuck!" They liked the foccacia but picked off the rosemary. But I will keep trying!

This is the best cookbook I know for pre-K kids. The recipes are simple and clearly illustrated, but they're real food - lots of the dishes here would be welcome at any dinner table. If you want to build your child's self esteem, respect and genuine achievement are the best way to do it. This book respects the child's intelligence, and offers the achievement of making a real contribution to the family's meal. Your child will need some help with this book, but you may be surprised at just how little.

When I bought this book at a brick'n'mortar store, the clerk took one look and said "Oh. Vegetarian," as if that were all she needed to know. Yes, it is a vegetarian book, but that's the least important thing about it. It's the best cookbook I know for the age group: real food, not just peanut butter on celery, with skills transferrable to any kind of cooking. As an extra benefit, I've found that kids who cook seem a bit less fussy at the dinner table - if that's a battle you have to fight, you have nothing to lose by taking a chance on this book.

//wiredweird

My kids got this book for Christmas, along with Pretend Soup And Other Real Recipes by the same author. We love it. The picture recipes are fun for even young kids to follow, and each recipe is preceded by cute reviews by children. There are some really fun recipes, some very quick ones if you're in a hurry, and some that are not messy at all if you don't feel like cleaning up when you're finished. I definately recommend it, it's a lot of fun!

I love all of Mollie Katzen's books so I was not suprised that Salad People was wonderful as well.

The format is excellent for young children. First, the recipes are explained in text for the adult and then in easy to follow numbered steps with pictures and few words for the children. The dishes are appealing to kids while using healthy and nutritious ingredients. This book is great for parents, preschool teachers, etc.

I recently taught a cooking class for young children and used several recipes from this book. The kids had so much fun making egg salad - Katzen's method of using an egg slicer to chop the eggs is such a fun and safe idea for preschoolers. We also made the Cream of Tomato Soup and they Tiny Tacos. All were hits.

I also highly recommend Honest Pretzels which I have used for teaching cooking to school-age children.

All the recipes in this unique, kid friendly cookbook are done two times, once in words for adult helpers and once in fun pictures for kids, so they can "read" the recipes themselves.

I gave this to Adam, 4 years old, and he loves the recipes! He also loves just sitting down and "reading" the recipes which he can do since they are all in pictures. And the illustrations are great.

The receipes are healthy and kid approved. They were developled by Molly Katzen and a pre-school teacher who cooks with her class alot. So recipes can be done at home or in school. It also teaches kids about healthy eating, whole foods and making eating and cooking fun.

This cookbook is not only fun for preschoolers, but it really encourages them to try new foods. My 3 year old son loves to pick out recipes, shop for the ingredients, and make the food. He would never had tried foods like this (i.e. healthy foods and vegetables!) if I had made them and said "here, try this". Because he made it "all by himself" he is excited to eat them. I highly recommend this cookbook!!!!

I bought this book for my almost 5 year-old son. He loves it! He frequently looks through it to find new recipes to try. He likes that he can follow the pictures and figure out what to do without me telling him what to do.

The things I like... There are unique recipes that I wouldn't think of like almond-miso dipping sauce and the honey-mango lassi, which is a favorite. Also, the book is very easy to adapt for children of all ages. For a younger child you can do the measuring and just have them pour and press buttons on blenders, etc. I have found that my son can do a lot more than I've allowed him to do. I've always micro-managed him in the past, but now I let him do the measuring and figuring out the next step. Using this cookbook with him has been really fun for me. I tend to not be very patient and kind of controlling in the kitchen, but I've really tried to just have fun when we cook together now. I've learned a lot of tips from this book that has helped me with that.

I've been telling all my friends with kids about this book. I think it's really great, and I'm excited about trying Mollie's other cookbooks!

My kids have asked if they can always be the ones to make meals. They have marked which recipes in here they want to make--most of them. Tonight my son made some amazing pink lemonade using a recipe in this book.

Each recipe has a two-page spread and a drawing to illustrate each step.

No offense to men on my title there--my husband does fine in the kitchen, but he refuses to use cookbooks. He himself declared that this is the sort of cookbook he needs, with the pictures and all. So it's a cookbook for kids and husbands.

My 3.5 year old loves to eat and loves to cook. She had another small cookbook with mostly desserts, so I wanted to get her one with healthy meals. Also, our home is vegetarian. I was a little skeptical when I first looked at this book, thinking the food didn't seem too exciting. But for a small child, it seems perfect--they are simple recipes, and the results are simple, but they are things she can really understand and do a lot of herself. The step by step pictures are perfect, and she takes this book out almost every day. I'm planning to get her the other book by Katzen.

I got Salad People and Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes: A Cookbook for Preschoolers and Up for my four-year-old niece for Christmas, along with a child's pink apron and chef's hat. They were a hit! She really likes to help in the kitchen and I looked at a lot of childrens' cooking books before deciding on these. Other books required the child to be a reader already or had lots of recipes for desserts and sweets and such. These books seemed to have healthier recipes in them than some of the others on the market.

The layout for these books is this: each recipe is four pages long. The first two pages are for the adult involved to read. The second two pages are simply drawn step-by-step visual instructions for the child to follow. Mollie Katzen does the artwork in these books and it's very charming.

M. Katzen has another book for children, Honest Pretzels: And 64 Other Amazing Recipes for Cooks Ages 8 & Up, which I think is for a little older crowd...I look forward to getting that one for my niece when she's ready for it.