Review/ Mommy & Me Start Cooking

I received this book for free from publisher/pr firm in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

  • Title: Mommy & Me Start Cooking: Cook and Learn Together
  • Publisher: DK Childrens
  • Pages: 80
  • Pub Date: January 2014

Cook and learn together with Mommy and Me Start Cooking.
Full of fun activities such as experiencing food with all five senses, designing dishes, and performing kitchen experiments, plus an introduction to measurements associated with cooking, this is the perfect cookbook for children who want to join their parents in the kitchen.

Readers will learn about staple ingredients such as eggs, flour, and chocolate. They will find out what is inside an egg, where vegetables grow, how flour is made, and more.

Mommy and Me Start Cooking will educate and entertain, and is a fun way for families to spend time together.

springbreak

In keeping with the baking theme I thought I would recommend Mommy & Me Start Cooking today.

This was one of Michael’s favorite books we got from DK last year so it was nice to pull this out again in honor of March Break.

The book is broke down into sections labelled Eggs, Flour, Pasta, Rice, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Peas, Chocolate  and Strawberries. Within each section you will get  1 to 3 recipes pertaining to that subject and what you need to make it. As always you get a ton of photos and for Michael he appreciates that because he can see what its suppose to look like each step of the way.

As Michael is getting older I realized that now is the time to start introducing him to the kitchen and how to cook things as these will be life skills he will need when he is older and I want him to feel comfortable and confident in the kitchen.

I remember when we got this book last year, Michael literally spent hours going through it trying to decide what we should make and this time was no exception. We had made little notes in the book on what he tried the first time.

He wanted to make pancakes again and he said that he enjoyed the home made ones better then the other ones I made. He loved decorating the plates with various fruits and powdered sugar.

Another recipe Michael loved making was the Pasta bake but the only complaint he had was he didn’t want to touch the ground beef because he said it was cold and gross but other wise he had fun making this.

Something fun we did was switch up a recipe something Michael never realized you could do and I told him that cooking is different then baking and you can do so much more so instead of Chicken Risotto we made Chicken Rice and he loved that. It was so much fun when Michael realized that you can substitute things within a recipe. I even said you can switch out the chicken for beef or pork.

This would be the perfect book to add into your march break collection. I think kids would enjoy being able to learn to cook and you can walk away knowing you taught your child something important and hey you never know when they will decide to make you a home cook meal.

Review/ Mommy & Me Bake

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I received this book for free from publisher/pr firm in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

  • Title: Mommy & Me Bake: Bake & Learn Together
    Publisher: DK Childrens
  • Pub Date: January 2015
  • Pages: 80

Is your child a budding chef, always wanting to help in the kitchen? Do you want to encourage your child’s cooking aspirations, but need recipes that are safe for children and things that you can cook together? Look no further than Mommy & Me Bake, the cookbook designed to offer parent and child the opportunity to work together as a team while teaching basic baking skills.

From simple kneading and mixing to creating whimsical designs and decorations that can be customized according to the creativity of your little chef, Mommy & Me Bake is designed to encourage experimentation, build self-esteem in your child, incorporate the silliness of cooking with a child, and encourage bonding and the joy of working together as parent and child. Every single recipe in Mommy & Me Bake is designed to teach, to be fun for children, and to taste delicious, so your child can be proud to share finished recipes at the family table or with friends!

springbreak

I was recently approached by DK Canada to help promote some Spring titles in honor of March break. I am thrilled to have been asked because there is a ton of great books for spring break that I am looking forward to sharing with you this week. Thank you DK for reaching out to me.

I am going to admit that I don’t know when everyone celebrates their spring break in Canada and the US. We celebrated our spring break from March 1st to  8th.

If your like me you were probably one of the families who stayed home during spring break but longed to be anywhere but home. I know I wished I was somewhere a little more warmer then it was here.

I always have a hard time trying to figure out what we are going to do because if I don’t plan anything then I can almost guarantee that Michael will end up in front of the tv either watching it or playing video games or on the iPad. Thankfully DK came to the rescue.

The first book I am going to show case is Mommy & Me Bake (Bake and Learn together). This is the perfect book for kids aged from 5 to about 9 and who love to bake or want to learn to bake.

I love DK books because they include a ton of photos to accompany each page and everything is laid out in basic English and its understandable directions.

The book is broken down into Baking Basics. Cookies. Cakes, Bread and Pastry. Then within category you will get recipes, what you will need to make it and how long it will take, (prepping and cooking) and how many it will serve.

This is the perfect book to introduce kids to baking. Michael had fun baking in the kitchen with me one weekend and he learned how important it was to follow a recipe, to measure, and what things were. These are skills he will need when he is older and it was fun spending time with him and helping he bake.

We made some cupcakes, a marble cake and some pizza. He told me the pizza making was the hardest (the dough part) but he had alot of fun and was so proud of himself for what he did. I wish I would have take pictures but we were having so much fun that it slipped my mind.

So if your looking for a great activity to do this spring break then let me suggest picking up this book and baking with your child.

Review/ Cars Character Encyclopedia & Cars 2 The Essential Guide

 
If you ask Michael what his favorite thing about summer apart from not going to school it would be going to cheapie Tuesdays at the movies and seeing all the new movies that are out and this year it seems to be a lot of great kids movies coming out such as Monster University, Planes, etc
 
Although I have to say nothing beats movies from previous summers which brings me to this post. I was contacted by the awesome Chris from DK books to let me know about the summer promotion that is happening on their website

Go Behind the Scenes with DK

Whether you love Disney princesses, superheroes or Jedis and droids, DK’s Visual Guides, Essential Guides and Character Encyclopedias are the perfect way to bring the excitement of your favourite movies home. Full-page profiles of characters, behind-the-scenes information and page after page of fantastic amazing photographs and images from the films make each of these books a must-have for any film fan!
Chris had asked me if there was anything I would like to review from the selection and I showed it to Michael and he was instantly thrilled because some of his favorite movies had books. So he was very good about picking out only two and they are:
 

I have to admit I was surprised he didn’t pick any of the Lego books and I asked him about it and he said I love Lego just not Harry Potter or Star Wars ones. Which is fine by me.

We got the box really quickly and Michael was thrilled to get something to open in the mail.

We love DK books because they are the perfect size for kids and they are so well made. Very sturdy and duable in my mind. Plus they have the best pictures and descriptions in them.

I would like to welcome Michael to his first official guest posts/review. He is going to be reviewing both these books for you today.

 


Book: Hardcover

| 184 x 240mm | 144 pages | ISBN 9780756688707 | 10 Jul 2012 | Dorling Kindersley | 7 – 17 years




Includes Mattel EXCLUSIVE die-cast model and a poster-sized collector’s list! Mattel has sold more than 250 million die-cast cars from Cars, Cars 2, and Cars Toons. Now you can find them all in one place: DK’s Disney•Pixar Cars Character Encyclopedia!
Featuring more than 250 different die-cast Cars models, this all-inclusive encyclopedia includes a character profile for each model with model descriptions, year created, unique characteristics, and much, much more!

For the avid collector or the young die-hard Cars fan, Disney•Pixar Cars Character Encyclopedia will be a must-have for both!

I am huge fan of the Cars movies as my mom can probably tell you (Yes I can vouch for that!) and I was thrilled when I saw these books on the DK site that I was able to get and review.

The first book I am going to talk about is the Cars Character Encyclopedia. This book came with an exclusive diecast model car which is now sitting on my night table and an exclusive Lightening McQueen poster which I have hanging on my wall.

I didn’t realize it until I opened up the book that this actually covers both Cars movies as well at the Mater toons that are on tv.

In the book it shows each character that was in the movies. Each character has a stat about the car and it tells us about the model name, series, how many versions of the car there is and the vehicles.

Some characters have additional information about them in little blocks/circles and they can contain info about the car, who the voices are, real facts etc.

There are a ton of pictures for the cars and it was nice to see that the cars had different versions of them that were in the movie.

I really liked the book and thought it was excellent. If you have a cars fan I highly recommend you buying this book for them. They will love it.

 



Book: Hardcover

| 210 x 133mm | 48 pages | ISBN 9780756675042 | 24 May 2011 | Dorling Kindersley | 5 – 12 years




Fasten your seatbelts! Lightning McQueen is revving up for another thrilling adventure, and this time he’s racing around the world! In Cars 2, our favorite racing car is back in action with his trusty friend Mater in tow and is ready to take on the world’s fastest and finest in this high octane new installment of the Cars saga. Packed with facts, character profiles, and amazing stills from the movie, the Essential Guide is the definitive reference to the world of Cars 2.

The next book I am talking about is this one the Cars 2 The Essential Guide. This book only covers the Car 2 movie.

The book is super easy to read and there is a ton of pictures.

The book shows the characters from the first movie from Radiator Springs and then they show all the characters from the World Grand Prix which is the second movie.

One of the sections of the book that I really liked was the part that had the info about all the race cars and it included info about where they were from, country they were from, type of car, their top speed, what they have gotten in their racing careers and their strength.

Another thing I really liked was the Did You Know bubbles that talked about stuff that wasn’t in the movie.

This is a great book to read probably before seeing the movie because you can find out more about each and every character and if you have already seen the movie that is okay because you can still learn something that you might not have known about the characters.

This is another book I would recommend if you are or know someone who is a cars fan.

*I just want to thank Michael for doing this review for me. I know he was a little unsure how to do this but I think he had fun doing it. Hopefully he will do some more reviews in the future.*

I just want to thank Chris from DK for sending us these two fantastic books to read and review. It was so much fun discovering more about the characters from the movies we love.


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