Meaty Main Dishes ~ Children's Cookbook Review ~

Title: Meaty Main Dishes

Author: Jennifer S. Larson

Photographer: Brie Cohen

Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

ISBN: 9780761366348

Publication Date: 1 April 2013

Genre: Cookbook, Children

My Rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

 

 

From the Author:

Want to treat your family to some meaty home-cooked meals? You can be the chef with these easy-to-follow recipes for Asian shrimp stir fry, juicy chicken drumsticks, taco meatballs, and other tasty dishes. You'll find simple drawings of important steps as well as photographs of the finished dishes. This book also provides key information, such as an equipment list, a technique list, safety tips, notes on special ingredients, and more. What are you waiting for? It's time to get cooking!

My view:

I love to cook.  Well actually I love to bake and I cook because it is necessary.  My dad taught me to cook, if that tells you anything at all about my style.  I literally went off to college knowing how to make Hamburgers, Scrambled Eggs (to this day it annoys my mom that I make scrambled eggs like my dad instead of her, but I digress) and Chili Mac (super easy comfort food, maybe I will make a post about it some time...)...  I taught myself to cook using a few good cookbooks and have even made my own recipes for some baked goods.  I still have never really gotten comfortable in the kitchen (unless flour and sugar are involved).  I tend to make the same 4 or 5 things over and over.

I am hoping to instill a little more comfort in the kitchen in my children (all 3 of them, yes my son as well... actually my husband is a better cook than I am, or at least more experimental in the kitchen).  I ran across a cookbook that I think will help in that regard.  Meaty Main Dishes is a cookbook geared for kids.  It contains REAL recipes, but in a format that kids will understand and be able to follow.  It starts with general kitchen safety information and cooking tips, explanations of the tools required (with illustrations),  and helpful cooking techniques.  Each eye-catching, brightly colored recipe contains a pictorial representation of the  tools required for the recipe, standard recipe information and instructions, illustrations of the ingredients and techniques, and most importantly a full color picture of the final product.  Finally, it has an explaination of some of the more interesting indregients, that might not be staples in every house.

The Recipes include:

• Terrific Turkey Burgers


• Juicy Chicken Drumsticks


• Flavorful Taco Meatballs


• Easy Baked Fish


• Asian Shrimp Stir Fry


• Hot Dog People


• Tangy Tuna on Toast


• Fancy Chicken Kabobs


• Deli Meat Rollups


• Let's Go Camping Stew

There are only 10 recipes in Meaty Main Dishes, but they are well thought out and well presented.  They are easy enough for your young chef to follow and look to be tasty enough.  I think I this book has given me a good blog project for the new year...

Buy it on Amazon

I would like to thank NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.