The Peanuts Family Cookbook: Delicious Dishes for Kids to Make with Their Favorite Grown-Ups

by Weldon Owen

Grab your supper dish and head to the kitchen for scrumptious meals from the Peanuts Gang! The Peanuts Munchtime Cookbook features 50 simple, kid-friendly recipes covering snacks, drinks, desserts, breakfast, lunch, and, of course, SUPPERTIME!

The Peanuts Munchtime Cookbook is a collection of easy-to-make recipes for junior chefs to prepare with their favorite grownup. Featuring classic Peanuts art and comic strips, as well as 25 original Peanuts illustrations, this cute compilation will bring together generations of Peanuts fans.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Childrens

128 pages, Hardcover

First published October 9, 2018

About the author

Weldon Owen is an imprint of Insight Editions, a publisher of illustrated books on food & drink, photography, music, and popular culture. Elegant and informative, Weldon Owen titles showcase the best of art, photography, and design in exquisite presentations of the bookmaker's craft. They are located in San Rafael, CA.

Reviews

[Miranda Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a wonderful themed cookbook full of classic American dishes and fun comics from the Peanuts series. I'm first going to delve into the various sections of the cookbook then provide my overall thoughts at the end.

Breakfasts

Lots of these dishes are familiar to American families - these are the recipes we grew up on for big Sunday breakfasts or for quick school-morning meals. There's Warm Puppy Pancakes, Spike's Des[s]ert Waffles, Pig Pen's Scramble, and Woodstock's Egg-in-a-Frame (toast with an egg cooked in the middle). But there's also a few recipes that are more new to me like Peanuts Butter & Jelly Muffins, Joe Hunk's Power Smoothie, or Frieda & Faron's Broccoli Cheddar Frittata.

Soups, Salads, & Snacks

Here we have a good mix of sweet and savory recipes. There's Dog Food Soup (chicken noodle soup), Charlie Brown's Cobbettes (corn on the cob, cut into 3 pieces each), Schroeder's Fruit Medley (fruit salad), and Beagle Scouts Trail Mix. If you're feeling thirsty, there's an absolute classic - Lucy's Lemon-aid or Snoopy's Fruit Juice Soda Pop (making flavored seltzer water).

Easy Meals

Easy Meals can also be called lunches for the most part - we have some sandwiches a like Patty's Melt (basically a grilled cheese but with a burger patty) and Snoopy's Golf Club Sandwich (turkey, bacon, lettuce, and tomato). And there's a few larger meals like Jose's "Swedish" Meatballs, or Camp Kamp Chili Chow, or Sloppy Joe Cool. But overall they are well-titled. These are simple meals to make as a family.

Desserts

Hats off to whoever started this section with "Charlie Brownies" - you are a genius! Other desserts that are found in this cookbook include The Great Pumpkin Pie, Harold Angel Cake, Carrots-are-Vegetables Cake, and Sweet Babboos (thumbprint cookies). I like the seasonality of the recipes, which mirrors all of the Charlie Brown specials that I would watch with my family for every holiday - Peggy Jean's Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread Hearts for Valentine's Day or Peppermint Patty Candy Cane Cookies for the wintry holidays.

Overall Thoughts

Honestly, this was a great cookbook. I was thoroughly impressed by how well-themed the recipes were both to the characters but also to the era that Peanuts is set in.

One thing that really stood out was that each recipe was accompanied by a custom drawing AND a comic that was loosely tied to the food item on the page. There weren't any photographs but I feel like the connection to the original comics really elevated the book for me.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute cookbook for Peanuts lovers. A brief introduction that states Charles Schulz's love for family dinners. Comic strips throughout. All the recipes have names that connect to Peanuts themes or characters.

Con: very little originality at all. Recipes are for stuff like waffles, chicken pot pie, chicken noodle soup, brownies, etc. All things I already have recipes for, just with names that connect to Peanuts.

Another con: the cover says it's a cookbook of "delicious dishes for kids to make with their favorite grown-ups" but a lot of recipes are too complicated for kids.

Still, decided to try these:
•Peanuts Butter & Jelly Muffins: Delicious! Whole fam loved, even NPH! And not too hard to make at all.
•Sloppy Joe Cool: Really good! Recipe says you can make with either ground beef or ground turkey; I used ground turkey.
•Woodstock's Upside-Down Cake: Easy AND delicious! And we had just read a Peanuts book where Woodstock upends his wet nest on Snoopy, so there was connection and giggles.
•Sweet Babboos: Easy. Kinda bland. Basically Thumbprint Cookies.

[Natalie Pietro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a Peanuts fan since little, I remember a time longing for Sunday nights to come. Remember sitting on the couch next to my mom reading the Sunday comics. Discovering Charles Schultz’s clever little world of Charlie Brown and his Peanut gang made my childhood nights memorable.
Then many comic strips later this book, this cookbook of sorts was created. Created to delights fan of all ages and bringing back some nostalgia in ones life. Recipes based on Peanuts Comic Strips with some reference to food. The Great Pumpkin Pie based on Linus speech about the Great Pumpkin or Charlie Brownies, due to Charlie being nerves speaking to a girl that he fumbled and said his name was Charlie Brownie. Silly Charlie. And who could forget Snoopie’s alter ego Joe Cool. Well how about some Sloppy Joe Cool.
Now this book does lack in photos. To many pictures of the Peanut gang and comic strips and not any of the food made from the recipes. I cringe at cookbooks without pictures. I did let that slide seeing they had a comic strip that coincides with the recipe at hand. Still photos help sell a recipe. Though these were kid friendly recipes so they were quick easy and sounded yummy.
So now it’s time to get my little gang of peanuts together to cook up some new family favorites. Fun cookbook to bring back childhood memories and to make new memories for generations to come.

[June Jacobs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Peanuts since I was a child, so when I saw this new book in our library's catalog I requested it.

This book contains some great artwork by Charles M. Schulz and is very colorful and engaging. There are many of Mr. Schulz's original four-panel comic strips included in the book.

There is a wide variety of recipes presented in the book for a variety of occasions. Some of the recipes include more healthful ingredients such as 'low-sodium' broth and olive/canola oil.

I wish there had been photographs of the finished dishes for children to reference. I also wish the fonts used for the recipes and instructions were larger to make them easier to read while working in the kitchen.

I believe this would be a fun book for families and other groups to use together in the kitchen for some good, old-fashioned, 'off-screen' fun!

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I borrowed this book from the New Book non-fiction shelf in the Children's section of the local public library.

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[Sakura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had SO MUCH potential to be a super awesome cookbook- I mean, I love the Peanuts gang! But despite the theming….

This cookbook is severely lacking.

The recipes… are just SO basic. The most boring recipes for pancakes, granola, french toast, lemonade, sloppy joes, cookies….. nothing about these recipes makes the book worth buying. At ALL. They are SO plain and underwhelming.

The way the book is presented is adorable, though. The book is dyed in various illustrations of the gang, and each recipe includes a comic that (usually) matches the dish below. Honestly, the comics are what kept me reading, because, of course, they were still lovely. But I also didn’t like that there was no real-life photography here… I prefer to see what my food is meant to look like before I prepare it.

All in all, I wouldn’t waste money on this book. If you want to bond with your child and make some Peanuts themed dishes, please, go elsewhere. This cookbook hardly felt like it should’ve been a cookbook at all- it would’ve been better suited as a Pinterest board.

(This book contains holiday related recipes! I would give it an age rating of all-ages!)

[Sbwisni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the art and comics…cute recipe names…but in general the recipes were super basic, just with fun names 🙃 Not mad about having a look see thanks to the playful art and name, but wouldn’t use it to seek out new recipes! I’m always willing to try a new sloppy Joe recipe though. That might be the only one I try 😆

[Shelly-Ann Stone]

Peanuts fam