Baking With Kids, by Linda Collister

This is the second kids' cookbook and latest offering from Linda Collister, a veteran author of cookbooks on baking, chocolate, and bread. It is a solid and sophisticated cookbook that will appeal to both preschoolers and adults in the family. With both holiday and everyday baking ideas, you and your preschooler will use this cookbook all year long. Seasonal highlights include a decorated Yule log and holiday cookies. The long list of everyday baking recipes goes on to provide ideas for dinner meals like tostadas and chili, snacks like homemade granola bars, basic breads, and plenty of desserts. So get in the kitchen with your preschooler, knead some dough, get flour on your clothes, and make some smiles and memories.

Chocolate and Sweets to Make (Usborne Activities)

If you are looking for homemade treats for your preschooler to give as gifts, this is the book for you. Choose from over a dozen recipes to create eye-catching gems – try delicate cubes of 'creamy coconut ice,' cute-as-can-be 'chocolate bugs,' or traditional favorites like chocolate-dipped fruit and chocolate fudge. And the cookbook goes one step further. Use the book's wrapping ideas and sparkling gift tags to complete the package. Teachers, grandparents, friends and neighbors will enjoy getting these gifts from the heart and home.

To Every Season: A Family Holiday Cookbook, by Jane Breskin Zalben

Don't let a holiday pass this coming year without cooking something special with your preschooler. To Every Season contains a selection of recipes and a background story for each of sixteen holidays. For Christmas, try Santa's Elves' Eggless Eggnog, Spiced and Iced Gingerbread Animals, or Candy Cane Hot Chocolate. For Chanukah, try Pearl's Potato Latkes and Bubbe's Baked Apples. For Kwanzaa, try Buttermilk Corn Bread and Sweet Potato Pudding. Need last minute ideas for holiday's that creep up? Go to the Mother's Day, Father's Day, or Valentine's Day sections. This book places a high value on sharing food and cooking with children - "Cooking is a way for the generations to connect."

I'm Kati Chevaux, the Nutrition writer at PreschoolRock.com. Let's talk about how to how to help our preschoolers eat well and develop life-long healthy eating habits. Contact me with your preschool nutrition questions and healthy eating ideas.

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Involve children in food preparation. Children who help prepare a meal are statistically more likely to eat it, even if it contains ingredients they previously rejected.

• Picky eating peaks between ages 2–5 and is developmentally normal. Most picky eaters significantly expand their diets between ages 6–10 without intervention.

• Serve new foods alongside accepted foods. A new food appearing next to something the child loves reduces threat and increases willingness to try.

• Family meals where everyone eats the same food are the most powerful eating behavior intervention available. Children whose families eat together have better diets across childhood and adolescence.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many servings of vegetables does a preschooler need per day?

The USDA MyPlate recommendation for preschoolers is 1–2 cups of vegetables per day (about 2–3 servings). For reference, a serving for a preschooler is approximately 2–3 tablespoons (their palm full). Because preschoolers have small stomachs, frequency of offering matters as much as serving size. Offer vegetables at every meal and snack across the day rather than trying to deliver all servings in one sitting.

How much dairy should a preschooler consume per day?

The USDA recommends 2–2.5 cups of dairy per day for ages 2–8. This can include: cow's milk, plant-based milk (check for calcium fortification), yogurt, and cheese. Whole milk until age 2; 2% or low-fat is appropriate from age 2 onward. Calcium needs for preschoolers are 700–1000 mg/day — most children meet this through regular dairy consumption and fortified foods. Calcium-rich non-dairy options: fortified plant milks, canned fish with bones (salmon, sardines), edamame, and tofu.

Related reading: See also our rainbow snack board guide and our cooking projects guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🍽️ Independence & Life Skills — Learning to serve themselves, pour a drink, or prepare a simple snack builds practical independence and the self-care capability that kindergarteners need to manage their own nutrition during the school day.
• 🧁 Kitchen Science & Math — Cooking is applied chemistry and physics: watching bread rise, butter melt, or egg whites stiffen teaches cause-and-effect science while measuring cups and counting portions deliver authentic math in context.
• 😊 Positive Relationship with Food — Joyful, pressure-free food experiences build the positive relationship with eating that underlies lifelong nutritional health — and is far more protective against disordered eating than any restriction-based approach.
• 💬 Vocabulary Expansion — Nutrition activities introduce rich vocabulary — nutrients, protein, fiber, harvest, ferment, season — expanding language range in a domain that connects directly to science, social studies, and health literacy.

Cooking with preschoolers is a way to create memorable holiday traditions. Instead of scanning through the same cookbook you use for Thursday night dinners to find new holiday recipes, why not check out a cookbook designed with kids and holidays in mind? Whether you're looking for a baking guide, food gift ideas, or a cookbook covering every holiday of the year, one of these three cookbooks will do the job.