Cookbook Review: Let’s Eat! Recipes For Kids Who Cook

As a mom, here’s what I know: Teaching children basic kitchen skills not only sets them up for success in their own kitchens when they’re grown, but it also gets them involved and engaged in the daily preparation of meals. Which hopefully can lead to an openness to try new things, experience different tastes, textures and appreciate the work parents put in to make meals (wishful thinking on that last one? Maybe.). That’s why I was so excited to have Let’s Eat! Recipes For Kids Who Cook by DL Acken & Aurelia Louvet come across my desk. While the recipes in this book are not the most inventive or exotic, what it lacks in excitement, it more than makes up with in its pragmatic approach to teaching and encouraging kids in the kitchen.

What I absolutely love is that this book introduces kids to the building blocks of basic meal prep and then teaches them how to build upon those foundations with delicious variations. The authors do not use patronizing language, in fact, this book is empowering and encouraging. Think of it as a foundational book with classic recipes for things like roast chicken, chicken pot pie, salad dressings, spaghetti bolognese, scones and brownies, among many more. Many of the recipes suggest ways to make the recipe into a vegetarian version, or stretch the basic recipe and make it into a second meal.

While the basics were great, the layout’s attempt to be creative left me a bit cold. A few of the pages are oriented in such a way that you have shift the book vertically, which feels awkward and unnecessary. But with your sous chef in tow, one can read the pages — whichever way they land — and one can get to work prepping, cooking and baking.

Here are the recipes I tested, some the publisher was gracious enough to share with us. Click any hyperlinks for the full recipes.

Scones, page 68

Offering up both Imperial and Metric measurements and weights make this recipe foolproof. I loved the tip of grating frozen butter into the mixture then letting the scones rest in the freezer before baking. This 100 percent improved my scone-baking game. Once you get the basic scone mixture down, there are all kinds of add-in options. I went off-script and added orange zest and dried cherries. It really is one of the tastiest scone recipes that I’ve ever made.

Sweet Potato Thai Curry, page 154

This is such a simple recipe that literally made my mouth water. All you have to do is add the finished curry to a bowl of steamed rice and you have a fabulous vegetarian meal on the table in no time at all. This is also a great way to introduce kids to Thai flavours. Get the recipe: Sweet Potato Thai Curry 

Spaghetti Bolognese, page 166

My very first meal as a newly minted family — my daughter is adopted — was spaghetti bolognese. It was the first meal that sprung to mind when I was trying to think of what would set the tone for our new lives together. That’s a lot of background but it helps establish how important this meal is to me and my family. This is a perfect, delicious and kid-friendly recipe with plant-based substitutions and a great suggestion to take the sauce and turn it into the basis for another meal of lasagna. It’s never too early to learn that one basic sauce can become two great meals.

Doughnuts, page 195

One of the more complicated recipes in the book, this is broken down into manageable steps with interesting variations. I found that refrigerating the formed doughnuts overnight developed the flavour nicely, although I can’t imagine that any kid who set out to make this recipe would welcome the idea of having to wait until the next day to bake and eat them! Perhaps we are also learning patience in addition to great baking skills with this one! Get the recipe: Doughnuts