We Can Cook: Introduce Your Child to the Joy of Cooking with 75 Simple Recipes and Activities [Spiral-bound]

Jessica Fishman Levinson (Author), Maja Pitamic (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 1, 2011

There are few better places where parents and kids can spend quality time together than in the kitchen. This book celebrates those happy hours, as it brings alive a typical family kitchen's wonderful cooking aromas and medley of tastes. It presents dozens of easy recipes for wholesome foods that even very young children can prepare when guided by parents' supervision. Starting with healthful, nutritious ingredients, the authors show how to prepare foods that kids find irresistible--and that includes boys and girls who are fussy eaters. Six separate chapters focus on specific food groups:

Fruit * Vegetables * Dairy and Eggs * Bread, Pasta, and Grains * Meat, Chicken, and Fish * Healthy Treats

As children and parents prepare good things to eat, the kids also discover how to test fruits for ripeness, test eggs for freshness, create a grocery list, measure liquid and dry ingredients, learn what makes cakes rise, and much more. Meanwhile, they'll be making and enjoying healthy and wholesome baked blueberry French toast, veggie fried rice, pizza, mango lassi ice pops, edamame salad, tofu stir-fry, turkey and cheese roll-ups, cheesy egg muffins, peanut butter blondies, and many more appealing foods. This book's cooking activities are recommended for parents whose kids range from ages 3 to 6. Color photos and illustrations on most pages.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Cooking is fun, and Jessica Levinson, a New York City registered dietitian, is a great teacher. . . What we liked best: The fun color pages and the great recipes."
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

From the Inside Flap

(back cover)
we can cook is jam-packed with recipes for scrumptious foods that children, ages three and older, can prepare with help from their parents. This imaginative book will encourage children to take their first steps in the kitchen, developing basic skills such as mixing and measuring, discovering new foods and tastes, and above all, having fun. Accompanying the recipes are engaging activities that will add to kids' understanding of the food we eat and where it comes from.

GREAT RECIPES

Grilled plums with yogurt dip

Egg-in-a-hole

Oatmeal cranberry raisin cookies

Veggie fried brown rice . . . and many more

PLUS FUN ACTIVITIES

Make your own cookbook

When is a fruit ripe to eat?

Learning to pour and measure

Using your nose: exploring tastes and smell! . . . and many more

Maja Pitamic has many years experience teaching younger children and holds degrees in Art History and Montessori Teacher Training. She is the author of several activity books for preschoolers, including Art in Action 1, Art in Action 2, I Can Do It, and Child's Play, all available from Barron's.

Jessica Levinson, M.S., R.D., C.D.N., is a Registered Dietitian who practices in New York City. She is an experienced writer, editor, and speaker on nutrition topics, and has written on the subject for major national magazines.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 128 pages
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series; Spi edition (August 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764164341
• ISBN-13: 978-0764164347
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #257,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Activity Book for Preschoolers February 10, 2012

By George Erdosh

Format:Spiral-bound

We Can Cook is a confusing book; it is more an activity book for children than a cookbook. The book is spiral-bound, medium format. The recipes range from simple like smoothies to rather elaborate ones (Stuffed Butternut Squash; Pizza). Nowhere the authors indicate for what age group this book was written. Pictures show children from age four to six but instructions given suggest a much younger age. ("Show her how to peel banana," or "halve the tomatoes and let you child add them to the bowl.") It seems children are only allowed to do very simple tasks. There are many pages of activities that are good and instructive for young preschoolers using Pitamic's training and experience. (Grow Your Own Sandwich Filling; Using Your Nose.) Many recipes have useful sidebars in Helpful Hints. The recipes are good and nutritious (Levinson is a dietitian), perhaps excessively so to the detriment of flavor. Brief head notes explain the recipe, ingredients and nutrients. Serving sizes vary from one to eight. Full-page photo illustrations show either a child with a parent in the kitchen or a recipe's final product. Unfortunately, the index is poor. You will have problem finding a previously used recipe. (As appears in The Portland Book Review.)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun & Well-Done August 25, 2011

By seattlechele

Format:Spiral-bound|Amazon Verified Purchase

We've enjoyed this nicely illustrated cookbook. It's spiral bound, so that it can lay flat, and it's easy to reference while you're helping little ones with measuring spoons. The cookbook has really healthy recipes and is broken up into food groups, which helps kids learn what's vegetable, what's dairy and so on. Some of the foods are different- like edamame (soybean) salad, salmon and vegetable kabobs and carrot muffins, but they are easy, tasty and there are plenty of familiar stand-by's, too, like homemade applesauce, mac & cheese, and chocolate pudding cups. It has some great suggestions for teaching kids (like explaining to them how fruit ripens, using bananas, which we all know but it's sometimes easy to overlook educational opportunities in the kitchen) and the authors have activities throughout the book (in example, how to help kids explore flavor). I am the kind of person to read the credits/small print, and was pleased to notice that one of the delicious recipes (fish sticks) was furnished by The Six O'clock Scramble, which is one of my favorite food blogs,
(they have family meals plans that come with a handy grocery list and suggest ways to eat healthy). I am looking forward to giving this book as gifts to both parents and kids.

5.0 out of 5 stars good eats for kids September 19, 2011

By Linda

Format:Spiral-bound|Amazon Verified Purchase

The recipes are clear and easy to do. The illustrations are lovely. Jessica, the author, did an amazing job collating it all.