Cooking Rocks!: Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals for Kids

I bought this for my Grandaughter's 5th birthday. I just had to look through it before I gave it to her and I loved it. She called me so excited when she received it and told me all the things she was planning to cook with her Mom. She has since called me back to tell me how everything turned out...what a hit with us all! Her mother is thrilled since she is taking an interest in helping with dinner..even the clean up! So far they have loved everything they tried and they have made a list of things they want to try. My nephew has requested a copy of his own for his birthday and I think I'll have to order a copy for myself. What a great cookbook for kids and their families! Spend some time together and learn some new skills..even practice some reading and math..but don't tell them about that part!

I bought this for my family and the kids seem to really enjoy it. The spiral binding makes it easy to lay flat on the counter top and on turning pages. It's great for me because it's divided by ages so it's a guide for each one of the kids. It actually prevents arguments, kind of, as I tell them that we have to follow the age recommendations for the best results and it works each time. It's easy to read and the younger kids are just beginning to learn how to read which makes it a great hit at our house. We got this as a gift from the grandparents and my sister took our copy home so I ended up buying another one. It's just that good. A great supplement for the book is a self help book that helps us in general family life with sibling fights and all of the other stuff that can apprehend other activities like cooking, drawing, playing, watching TV, and...Mommy CEO is also a treat to have in the house as a parent can turn to the index and find a solution to most daily problems. It's pretty funny, we cook, read and learn with both books as one teaches us how to cook, and the other one is not too far away to grab in case a situation comes up that I need to handle quickly. We love Rachel and we love Jodie and have seen both on TV. Together these two books are a constant mainstay of our family and help us to teach responsibility and life lessons when we are too pooped to think but we still want to get in that special family time.

Kids love to cook. It's a natural. They always want to do things that adults do and combine that with food and it's one thing my kids always want to help with. Rachael Ray is the perfect person to write a book on cooking for kids. She has such a child-like enthusiasm for cooking, she seems like a big kid at heart. This book is sectioned by age giving tips and recipes for each developing age group. And the tips are for parents as well as the kids. Of course, first and foremost these receipes are simple AND fun to prepare. They are things that all kids can do to help. The section for the very young present very simple ideas with an emphasis on safety and fun, while the chapters for older kids get progressively more detailed and complex. Hey if you can get them to help prepare dinner, why not? They sure aren't volunteering to clean their rooms. Fun and well-written!

I love this book! My kids love this book, and my husband loves the results. I have four little boys, 10, 8, 5 and seven months. Obviously the baby is too young to help out just yet, but the older three couldn't wait to get home and pick out a recipe from the respective chapters in the book. ( 4-6, 7-11 and 12 and up) They have each made a meal from the book and we not only had a healthy and tasty meal to eat, but we had a blast making it. We also have Emeril's books and a few Cooking with Mickey books. In Emeril's books the one thing I have noticed is the amount of time it can take to make some of the recipes. On a Saturday, I would think nothing of preparing a four course meal that takes three or four hours, but my kids don't have the patience for that yet. The Mickey books, although they are some of my favorites, are rather complex. Rachel Ray's book is simple and yet fun for the beginning cook. The results while not immediate, are tasty and don't require a lot of patience to reproduce. If you have kids and they show ANY interest at all in cooking or just helping you out...I highly recommend this book.

Makes cooking with kids really enjoyable!!! I bought this cookbook for my six year old daughter as soon as it came out. We both love it!!! Mostly, we have been making the recipes in the 7-12 section, but all sections contain recipes that will appeal to everyone's palate. I have been planning one Cooking Rocks dinner into my weekly menu, and that is my daughter's night to cook (with my help, of course). Last night she and her 7 year old friend made the Mexican Rice bowl dinner- they had alot of fun and ate a HUGE amount- probably because THEY made it, or as Rachael says, they had a sense of ownership of it. (One tip though- as with any cookbook, you may want to cut back on some of the butter, oil and salt used in some of the recipes. A few of them are a little salty or oily for my taste) This book provides a good foundation in cooking and healthy eating in the future. It teaches the basic methods in cooking, and introduces your child to different fresh herbs and healthy veggies, such as cilantro and arugula. In a world where many young adults don't know how to cook, Rachael does our kids a big service by teaching them how to cook restaurant-quality meals at home. The spiral-bound format makes it easy to use, and you can't beat the price!