Why we love 'The Kids Only Cookbook' by Sue Quinn

If you read my blog, you'll know that I'm passionate about teaching kids to cook from an early age at home. Anything that can help or encourage this is a winner and that's why I was very keen to check out 'The Kids Only Cookbook' by Sue Quinn.

First of all let me tell you a little bit about the author. Not only is she a published author, she's also a writer, journalist, and mum to Ruby (11) and Ben (8) whose lovely little faces feature in the book on almost every page. She also has a cracking food blog Pen and Spoon.

Now about the book. The Kids Only Cookbook is essentially a recipe book for kids (not a book for adults with kids recipes) and contains 50 recipes with clear step by step instructions, photos and quirky titles. It's fun, colourful and packed with useful hints and tips.

It's aimed at kids aged 7 and over but Joshua (who is 5 in a couple of months) took a keen interest in it straight away. I asked him to choose a recipe to cook for lunch. He immediately pointed to 'Awesome Chocolate Cake' but after some negotiation we settled for 'Easy Peasy Pizza'.

I love the recipe for 'Easy Peasy Pizza' as there's so many different skills involved, but it's still an easy and child-friendly recipe. The base is a yeast-free dough made with self-raising flour, so there's no waiting for it to prove. Kids can be impatient!

Once the dough is made it's simply cut into four, rolled out into (sort of) circles, smothered with passata and sprinkled with toppings of your choice. We chose tuna, sweet corn and grated cheese. It's great to give kids a choice when they cook as it makes them feel grown up!

After 10 minutes in the oven they were ready to eat. They were absolutely delicious and something we could both make and enjoy. There's so many more recipes I want to try in this book, particularly the 'Kick N Roll Tin Can Ice Cream' which involves kicking a tin around to make ice cream!

The thing I love most about this book is that it is packed with photos of actual real kids who are actually really cooking in a real kitchen and not just posing with equipment. I've never seen a book like this. It's refreshing, inspiring and down to earth.

The recipes have the right balance of being fun and yet practical. Often kids recipes focus more on the novelty factor than the food, but Sue has included lots of recipes you can enjoy as a family for dinner. There's recipes for fish, ribs, prawns, chicken, rice and pasta dishes. 

Please don't get me wrong though, it's not at all boring and there's loads of fun sweet treats to make too like 'Sherbert Dippers' and 'Confetti Energy Balls'. There's also a section for edible gifts which I think is really lovely and we will make some things for Christmas.

The Kids Only Cookbook is also really funny. With titles such as 'How to not chop your finger off and other cool tips' and 'How to avoid epic fails' it makes me chuckle. Joshua is a bit young to appreciate the jokes at the moment, but I certainly do!

Here's a couple of brilliant little recipe videos made by Sue which show Ruby and Ben making ice-cream in a tin can (above) and chocolate meringue kisses (below). I love these videos as they really capture the heart of this book and they are super creative too.

If you want to get your hands on a copy of The Kids Only Cookbook you can buy it on Amazon for only £9.09. Such a great price for a hardback book kids will use again and again. I'm certainly going to be buying a few as gifts for friends kids.

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of 'The Kids Only Cookbook' in return for an honest review. All words and opinions and photos (but not the video content) are my own.