KidStir was created to help kids have a “happy and healthy food connection.” It is a monthly cooking kit with sending recipes, tools and fun food-related activities for kids to learn from and create with adult supervision.
This box was sent to us for review purposes. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
The Subscription Box: KidStir
The Cost: $15.95 per month plus $3.95 shipping ($19.90 per month) with price breaks for longer prepaid subscriptions.
ACTIVE DEAL: Get 3 free Halloween cookie cutters with a new subscription
CODE: SPOOKTACULAR
The Products: A monthly cooking kit including recipes, tools, activities, and more.
Ships to: U.S. only
Check out all of our KidStir reviews and the Kids Subscription Box Directory!
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This month’s theme was “Gobbling Good Fixings.” We were provided with three recipes to get us ready for Thanksgiving.
Each month, KidStir includes the following:
- 3 step-by-step recipes covering all food groups
- 2 kid-sized cooking tools and themed activity materials
- A digital and printed shopping list
- 3 fun games and puzzles
- An e-newsletter packed with recipes and printables
- 3 educational foodie pages
- Bonus with a prepaid 12-month subscription - A special cookbook binder to collect all your recipes
When you open the KidStir box, there is a card printed to the top of the box so you can see right away what you’ll be doing that month. We love this idea! Also, a printed card with the shopping list was included in the box. Most of the items are staples for us so limited shopping needed to be done. KidStir has a fabulous website too with lots of great information and downloadable items. Check it out!
Other than the recipes, these items were included in the box. Cira had so much fun doing the placeholders and assigning the seats for Thanksgiving!
Recipe #1: Pilgrim Popcorn
First, we made the popcorn bread which is basically corn bread with popcorn ground up in it. We are huge popcorn fans in this house so this looked like fun!
We started by making the popcorn (of course!). We ground the popcorn up in the Cuisinart and then added it to the other dry ingredients. The wet ingredients (milk, oil, and egg) were mixed separately and then the wet and dry were combined and poured into a cake tin. The finished product was good but not great. This was very easy and Cira completed most of the instructions with minimal assistance.
Recipe #2: Zesty Cranberry Sauce
Next we made the “zesty cranberry sauce”. We washed the cranberries then put them in a pot with the cinnamon stick, maple syrup and orange (both zest and juice). Once the cranberries popped, the sauce was done. This was very easy and had a great taste. Unfortunately, no one in my family eats cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving.
Recipe #3: Awesome Apple Stuffing
Finally, we made the “awesome apple stuffing”. We don’t usually stuff the bird so we used this as a dressing (cooked on the side).
We began by toasting the bread. Next we sautéed onions, garlic, and celery and then added the apples, salt and fresh herbs. We mixed the wet ingredients together and then added the bread and sautéed veggies. We also added some sausage because our family loves sausage stuffing. The result was fine but not great and certainly not even close to replacing the beloved family recipe.
Verdict: Generally, I really like KidStir but this month was not great for us. While I’d love for my daughter to get into the Thanksgiving cooking effort, I don’t want to use the Kidstir recipes for our family Thanksgiving meal and I wasn’t happy buying groceries for two of the same side dishes (stuffing and bread). A nice appetizer or a cute kid dish– anything but the turkey dinner basics. We ended up making all the recipes and eating almost none of it.
As for the value of this subscription, most of the time I feel the $19.90 ($15.95 plus $3.95 shipping) is fair for what you get. The graphics are good, cardstock is used for the recipe cards, the two kitchen gadgets were decent quality, and the website is great. It doesn’t feel like Kidstir is trying to cut corners in any way but this month the recipes were a real bust for us.
What do you think of KidStir?
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