The Munchy Munchy Cookbook for Kids: Essential Skills and Recipes Every Young Chef Should Know, written by Pierre A. Lamielle, features a fun collection of 28 recipes for every time of day with easy-to-follow instructions and engaging illustrations. A few highlights include Peanut Butter + Jam Breakfast Cookies, Pumpkin Pie Soup, Herby Chicken Stew, Simple Mini Cornbread Muffins, and Berried Treasure Crumble. I will also be sharing his recipe for a Very, Very, Very Slow Grilled Cheese following the review.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Familius in exchange for my honest review. All comments and opinions are my own. This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something through the link, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.
Pierre A. Lamielle
Chef Pierre A. Lamielle is a cooking instructor, chef, and illustrator. He competed on Top Chef Canada, won on Chopped Canada, and loves to teach cooking to all ages.
Pierre is also the author of Alice Eats: A Wonderland Cookbook and Kitchen Scraps: A Humorous Illustrated Cookbook.
The Munchy Munchy Cookbook for Kids
Pierre begins The Munchy Munchy Cookbook for Kids with a few safety tips and notes to help young chefs of all experience levels get started.
I especially appreciate that he has placed sharp, hot, and germ labels over steps that require extra emphasis. There are also illustrated guides on how to handle a knife and other sharp kitchen utensils, how to safely work with heat, proper cleaning of the kitchen, and more on avoiding cross contamination.
Chapters are divided according to the following: Get Started, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Sweets. The Table of Contents has a color-coded list of included recipes with page number for easy reference. The book is spiral-bound so the pages stay open on the counter and are easy to flip.
The illustrations are provided by Pierre with photos by Todd Patterson. Every recipes has large, vibrant photos of the finished dish along with individual illustrations of the steps. Pierre has also drawn a few enthusiastic characters to assist in navigating the recipes and create added some fun across the pages.
Measurements are listed in US Customary. Each recipe is arranged in short sentences with separated, numbered steps for easier reading.
Very, Very, Very Slow Grilled Cheese
To pair with this review, the kids picked the Very, Very, Very Slow Grilled Cheese in the Lunch chapter!
This recipe packs a grilled cheese sandwich with two processed cheese slices, a handful of grated Cheddar cheese, plus a few bocconcini balls for quite the incredible melted, cheesy texture in every bite.
After assembling, the Grilled Cheese is cooked over very, very, very low heat (the lowest possible on the stovetop) for 10 minutes on each side to create the perfect golden color with minimal work and guessing.
Allow the sandwich to cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving. A serrated knife is best to keep the cheese inside when cutting in half.
A Few Grilled Cheese Tips
Bocconcini are small fresh mozzarella balls. They can be found in the refrigerated cheese section of some larger American grocery stores or in specialty Italian markets. If unavailable, tear a larger ball of mozzarella into small pieces.
Use butter completely softened at room temperature (about 1 tablespoon per slice) to spread over the bread without tearing it. If still cold, soften in the microwave for about 20 seconds.
More Dishes
The kids also made Pancakes, Make and Bake Your Custom Pizza, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Peppermint Sugar Cookies.
Evan made the Pancakes as a breakfast surprise for Chad’s birthday. They came together easily and were especially delicious paired with chocolate chips and maple syrup.
The Make and Bake Your Custom Pizza was another favorite with a shaped homemade dough covered with desired ingredients and baked until golden. While the kids topped theirs with cheese and pepperoni, there are also recipes for Margherita, Pesto, Calzone, and Flammkuchen.
The recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies comes with a chart demonstrating how different variations of ingredients will yield different textures in the cookies. The kids went with Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies (other options were classic and chewy) and they were perfect for pairing with milk.
The Peppermint Sugar Cookies were wonderful for kicking off the holiday baking season. These peppermint-scented, lightly chewy cookies are baked until set, then covered with a sweet, runny icing. Claire sprinkled a few crushed candy canes across the icing for even more peppermint flavor.
The Munchy Munchy Cookbook for Kids is a fun pick for budding chefs, especially between the ages of 8-13. There is a nice variety of vegetarian dishes, meat-based meals, and sweet desserts. Some come together in as little as 10 minutes, while others require more prep or resting times.
Most of the ingredients are readily available in most larger American grocery stores. A few items that may require further searching include specialty extracts such as maple or banana, vanilla beans, prosciutto, edamame, and dulce de leche.
Very, Very, Very Slow Grilled Cheese Recipe
Excerpt from The Munchy Munchy Cookbook for Kids
Very, Very, Very Slow Grilled Cheese
Ingredients
- 2 slices sandwich bread
- 2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 2 slices processed cheese
- 1/4 cup (1 ounce, 30 grams) Cheddar cheese
- 5 bocconcini small fresh mozzarella balls
Instructions
- Preheat a non-stick pan on the lowest heat on the stove. Low temperature is very important.
- Spread soft butter on two pieces of bread, one side each.
- Start stacking by placing the first piece of bread, butter side down.
- Add a processed cheese slice for extra meltiness.
- Grate a bit of your favorite cheddar cheese and place over the top.
- Tear up soft little bocconcini balls and add to the cheddar.
- Place another processed cheese slice on top.
- Cover with the other piece of buttered bread with butter side facing up.
- Place sandwich carefully in non-stick frying pan on the lowest heat. It's okay if some of the cheese bits fall out of the sandwich.
- Cook for 10 minutes: set a timer and walk away from the pan (but not out of the room).
- Carefully flip the sandwich and cook for another 10 minutes on the other side.
- Let the sandwich cool for 5 minutes so the cheese becomes the perfect melty.
- Use a serrated knife to cut so the cheese doesn't squish out and serve warm.
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