REVIEW: Ready, Steady, Spaghetti

Broadhurst, L. (2009). Ready, Steady, Spaghetti: Cooking for kids and with kids. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC.

0740780875

Ready, Steady, Spaghetti goes out of its way to be child friendly. While initially flipping through the photos of all of the recipes, I found myself looking for that meal that would make any nine-year-old (or in my case 24-year-old) go “Eww! I’m not eating that!” I didn’t find many such recipes. (The Chicken Noodle Omelet did make me wonder a little) In fact, as I looked at the meals, I found that I wished I could cook. Or that what I can cook would look like the well-lit photographed versions of these recipes. Or that my mom and dad didn’t live so far away so they could make me some of these recipes. Or that I had a professional cook who prepared all my meals, drinks and snacks. Whichever.

This family-friendly cookbook does a great job of presenting many healthy meals and quite a few treats as well. I also found it was very vegetarian friendly. Which is saying something, as few mainstream cookbooks show love to us veggie-lovers.

While the recipes range in complexity, no matter the meal, this cookbook shares photos of most of the dishes as they are in process. This prevents fools like me from having to ask the nagging question of “Did I do this right?” Still, despite the ease to use this book, it would probably still be best to have adult supervision, especially if I’m the one doing the cooking.

Favorite Recipes: Cauliflower in Cheese Sauce, Moo Juice and Chocolate-Honeycomb Mousse.