From cooking to creating, keep kids busy with fresh, fun activities delivered to your door. We’ve tested out a variety of boxes and will roll out a new review for you each week. Up this week: kidstir.
kidstir
Monthly cooking boxes from kidstir aim to get your kids excited about working in the kitchen and making smart food choices. Each box includes three step-by-step recipes, a cooking tool, games and puzzles, and a food-related craft activity. You’ve got to shop for the food, but they also provide a handy shopping list. My kids and I tested out the March box which centered on the theme of Pi(e) Day. The recipes included a frittata, chilled chocolate pie — and Primo Pasta Pie, a savory culinary dish that involved standing up a whole box of rigatoni in a springform pan, which we made.
While I drained the pasta, prepped the sauce and took the pie in and out of the oven, my kids did the rest of it on their own. I had my 7-year-old daughter, Adela, read out the steps to us, and she and her little brother followed the directions. (Her knowing how to read and follow recipe directions is at least one good thing that will come out of our self isolation!) Standing up the semi-cooked rigatoni in the pan was a little bit of a challenge, but that was the only tricky part of the recipe. As my daughter was sprinkling cheese over the pasta she exclaimed, “Hey this is like a pizza!” She compared their shape, look and ingredients.
And the payoff for all our work was pretty good. The pie looked extremely impressive when we unsheathed it from the pan. My 5-year-old son, Cruz, does not usually like pasta with tomato sauce (so I saved him some unsauced rigatoni just in case), but was willing to try the dish and ate all of his portion. And my husband (our chief dessert pie maker) was impressed with the serrated-edged pie server that came with the box.
The verdict: We liked this kit a lot. The recipe was easy to follow, the utensil included was high quality and our dinner was delicious. Pro tip: Kidstir is giving away 15,000 free kits to families impacted by Coronavirus school closures. And they also are providing free online recipes. Find out more at kidstir.com/kitchenclassroom.
$24.99 for monthly billing, with a reduced rate for 6-month and 12-month subscriptions paid up front. Option to add an additional utensil for a sibling. Find out more at kidstir.com.
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