Experience with Kids Cooking Subscription Boxes?

[aristocatz]

I'm thinking of getting my almost 8 year old daughter a cooking subscription box. She loves to cook and she would be so excited to get a box every month with an activity.

I"ve narrowed it down to either Bakivity (which comes with most of the ingredients) & Kidstir.

I like Bakivity because it comes with the pre-measured ingredients & it's a fun to make dessert each month. I like Kidstir because it comes with several recipes (main course, dessert, etc) in a theme & it comes with some cooking tools each month.

Wondering if you have any experience with either and what your thoughts were? Thanks!

 

[Meriweather]

We did Foodstir for DGD when she was 6.
It had cute baking things, but was organic and had a lot of odd things to buy that DS didn't have.
She had fun with it, but this year I just made them for her myself. Got cute baking projects and for the price, a lot of extra things, like measuring spoons and cups, silicon pans, silpat sheets, cake molds, spatulas, etc.
Doing it again next year.
I wrap them up too. They were part of her Christmas present.

she did enjoying receiving the boxes

 

[FlightlessDuck]

You would probably save money and for sure would save on packaging by finding recipes and buying ingredients locally. This is what we learned from using Hello Fresh. although that wasn't a "kid's cooking subscription box".

 

[Southernmiss]

I bought kid cookbooks when mine were young.

Made it easy to pick out recipes for which we had ingredients on hand. The kids could also read the recipe and ask for me to buy ingredients we needed.

I also held 'Mom's Cooking School ' in the summer when they were preteens/teens and had them help me in the kitchen.

One of my sons is now famous in our family for his chocolate chip cookies and another one has a certain dish that his friends expect for gatherings.

 

[QueenIsabella]

There are some excellent kids cookbooks out there--look through the recipes before you buy, to make sure they're truly kid-friendly.

In addition, I hand-wrote each of my children a cookbook--I got the blank cookbooks at Ollie's, I think (salvage place). This way, they have "Mom's version" of important things like how to make meatloaf and roast chicken. It includes recipes I copied, like Tollhouse bookies (why mess with the best?). While it took me some time, writing these all out by hand, I feel like they have Mom right there with them. I also put in extra tips and stuff like "Snickerdoodles--Dad's favorite. Use real butter. Serves 1 Dad."

You could also search Pinterest for kids' recipes, and maybe have a "cooking night" where she tries them out (lots of pictures and videos). My younger two are 14 and 17, and I still try to be "available for consultation" when they're cooking something new. DD17 made a scratch layer cake the other day, and next up, DS14 wants to make Whoopie Pies.

 

[Turn the Page]

We got SD10 a Radish subscription for Christmas and she absolutely loves it. It doesn't come with the food which I like. I can schedule the dishes whenever I want without fear of the food going bad or being forced to make something that doesn't appeal. It comes with 3 recipe cards, activities, and a cooking tool each month. Most of the cooking tools are better than the ones we have and I use them daily. The recipes are generally good too. We have made several of them multiple times.

 

[Meriweather]

I also held 'Mom's Cooking School ' in the summer when they were preteens/teens and had them help me in the kitchen.

I am holding baking class once a week for DGD (7) and DGS (3). Part of home schooling.
We have a lot of cookbooks. I pick DGS's for him. We're in the no bake phase now.
DGD picks what she wants to bake out of a cookbook. I think this week she is doing cheesecake brownie bars. She is getting really good at baking. She can do it all by herself......little guidance on the measurments, but her fraction skills are getting better

 

[BearFamily]

We have also loved Raddish for a few years now. Most of the recipes have been good, I like that it doesn’t come with the food, the instructional materials are great and I appreciate the representation of kids in the illustrations. The tools that come with are generally very good quality - I figure my 13 year old is gathering a stash of kitchen implements she can take with her when she moves out!

 

[Frozen Canuck]

I'm thinking of getting my almost 8 year old daughter a cooking subscription box. She loves to cook and she would be so excited to get a box every month with an activity.

I"ve narrowed it down to either Bakivity (which comes with most of the ingredients) & Kidstir.

I like Bakivity because it comes with the pre-measured ingredients & it's a fun to make dessert each month. I like Kidstir because it comes with several recipes (main course, dessert, etc) in a theme & it comes with some cooking tools each month.

Wondering if you have any experience with either and what your thoughts were? Thanks!

Our family hasn't tried either of the subscriptions you mentioned (not helpful, I know! I'm sorry!), however my son has been a recipe tester for America's Test Kitchen Kids, which has a subscription box service called the Young Chef's Club. Examples of past boxes can be found here.

The recipes we have tested have been "real" recipes (not cutesy or ultra-simplistic ones like found in some kid's cookbooks) and our family has enjoyed all of them. Our son has gained confidence in the kitchen and is so proud when he can put a meal on the table or contribute a dessert or snack. Some of their recipes are based on science in the kitchen, while others are themed, like what you mention in your original post.

Instead of the subscription boxes, we bought our son the America's Test Kitchen The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs and The Complete Baking Book for Young Chefs for Christmas and he loves them. I get that selecting recipes to make from a book isn't nearly as exciting as receiving a box in the mail every month, but I could never understand the draw of paying for a few recipe cards and some cookie cutters or a child-sized rubber scraper or a whisk. I can buy my kids an entire recipe book or quality kitchen tools that they can take with them in life for less than the cost of the boxes themselves.

If your daughter enjoys baking, I suggest you take a look at Sally's Baking Addiction (either the blog or her cookbooks). Most of her recipes are relatively easy to execute and clearly written. She does a monthly baking challenge on her blog, which might be a nice start. September's challenge is a simple Cinnamon Swirl Quick Bread. At the bottom of the recipe is a description of how to enter the challenge (submit a photo of your loaf) with the potential to win a $250 Amazon GC. Sally is currently my son's favourite cookbook author, so we bought him two of her cookbooks as well, which he enjoys perusing and cooking from.

Enjoy your kitchen adventures with your daughter, whichever you choose!

 

[Frozen Canuck]

This doesn't have to do with subscription boxes, but after reading through this thread about kids cooking, I came across a new post by Kenji from Serious Eats for "The Food Lab Junior: Dakota’s Red Beans and Rice Recipe." Kenji describes it as, "A simplified version of New Orleans-style red beans and rice is a great way to get your kids involved in the kitchen (and it also happens to be delicious)."

It is a great article that ranges the gamut from encouraging kids to grow a bean plant from their soaked beans, what cutting tools might be the best suited to your child, learning some of the science behind cooking smells, and finally, putting it all together into a meal for the family.

 

[aristocatz]

You would probably save money and for sure would save on packaging by finding recipes and buying ingredients locally. This is what we learned from using Hello Fresh. although that wasn't a "kid's cooking subscription box".

Thanks-not looking to save money. Looking to save time, allow for mama-daughter time, and give her a monthly surprise

 

[aristocatz]

We got SD10 a Radish subscription for Christmas and she absolutely loves it. It doesn't come with the food which I like. I can schedule the dishes whenever I want without fear of the food going bad or being forced to make something that doesn't appeal. It comes with 3 recipe cards, activities, and a cooking tool each month. Most of the cooking tools are better than the ones we have and I use them daily. The recipes are generally good too. We have made several of them multiple times.

Thank you-those are ALL of the qualities I'm looking for!

 

[Turn the Page]

Thank you-those are ALL of the qualities I'm looking for!

This month the recipes were apple cider donuts whole roasted chicken.....and something else I can't remember. Each month has a dessert/baking recipe. The orange tea cakes in the Moroccan themed box were freaking deliscious. We have to make a double batch otherwise they don't last the night.

 

[aristocatz]

This month the recipes were apple cider donuts whole roasted chicken.....and something else I can't remember. Each month has a dessert/baking recipe. The orange tea cakes in the Moroccan themed box were freaking deliscious. We have to make a double batch otherwise they don't last the night.

Love it! Are the boxes usually themed? & did you guys the binder to store the recipe cards?

 

[Turn the Page]

Love it! Are the boxes usually themed? & did you guys the binder to store the recipe cards?

Yes, the boxes are always themed, though some themes are more cohesive than others. The first box we got was Swedish themed and had a recipe for Swedish meatballs (which was awesome, we have made that a couple different times), cinnamon knots, and a third thing I don't remember. Last month was lunchtime pals and had recipes for pizza pockets, pesto pasta salad, and chicken Caesar wraps.

Another thing I think is really cool is they don't ever repeat boxes. So you can do it for a few years and not worry about repeatsl

We did not get the binder but I may get it in the future because we have recipe cards falling out of our cabinet.

 

[aristocatz]

I ended up with Raddish Kids!