With the Melissa and Doug Slice and Bake Cookie Set, kids can enjoy the step-by-step process that makes baking cookies so much fun. The cookies in this play kitchen food set come in a cookie dough tube. As with most of Melissa and Doug products, the cookies slices are stuck together with Velcro. When they come out of the can, it looks like a roll of cookie dough. In the first step, they can take the little wooden knife and slice off each cookie. The cookies have decorated icing that also is attached by Velcro. They can remove these, or they can leave them if on if they want. They should have a lot of fun taking the decorations off and on their cookies. All that is left to do is to put them on the wooden cookie sheet, stick them in the play oven, and watch them bake. When they are browned to perfection, the little oven mitt will be just the trick to take them out. They can use the spatula to scoop them off and serve them up.

We think the Melissa and Doug Slice and Bake Cookie Set is one of the best, if not the best, of all the toys made by this company. They have really targeted the most favorite thing kids love to do with mommy or grandma. All of us have wonderful memories of doing this when we were kids. It will be so much fun for kids to take these out of the can, slice, bake, and decorate them. Just a word of warning in regard to baking, our testers found one problem with this. The cookie sheet is really made to fit the Melissa and Doug wooden ovens. As a result, this may not fit in other brands of play ovens.

The Melissa and Doug Kitchen Bottle Set is a prime example of the creative design they put in their toys. With each of their great products, they try to incorporate a very realistic feel to the wooden play food. In this set, they have added a magnetic lid that snaps off and on the bottle just like the real ones you use in the kitchen.

All kids are normally enthralled with magnets anyway, so this just adds even more pleasure to their play time fun. In addition, this design makes it easy for them to get the lids on and off. As you well know, children can get really frustrated when their little hands and fingers can’t get something open, and it normally takes all of the fun out of it for them. This product has been designed with this in mind. Best of all, they can play with this on their own, and they don’t have to run to you every two seconds to open it for them. With this set, they can pour salad dressing on their play salads, use the olive oil for healthy cooking, the mustard and ketchup will go quite nicely with their hot dogs or hamburgers, and the grape jam will go perfect on toast. Mom won’t have to worry about any stains or messes from these. Since they are made from wood, you also won’t have to worry about the dog using them as a chew toy.

If you are considering this product, your child probably already has other items to go with it. If not, you should plan on buying some along with this. We think the Melissa and Doug Kitchen Bottle Set is a cute idea, but your kids will probably lose interest in it fairly quickly if they don’t have other food to make it more interesting. The magnetic lids are what make this fun. These lids offer up some educational value, as well. Little ones can learn their colors as well as match up the lids with the color of the bottles. It also works on their spatial skills because of the different sizes and shapes of the lids. This set is recommended for ages 2 to 6, and we agree that even two year olds can easily play with this.

The Melissa and Doug Wooden Sushi comes with 24 pieces for the little sushi chefs to make their creations. This company does a terrific job in their design of Velcro tabs to keep the wooden play food pieces together. With this many pieces, this is really necessary. It also gives an added touch of an authentic chopping sound when they use the play wooden cleaver to make their pretend sushi. This has shrimp, tuna, and salmon roe sushi rolls that they can slice up. All sushi needs some condiments to spice them up, so they have included some ginger, wasabi, and soy sauce along with a sauce bowl. Of course, no Japanese meal would be authentic if it didn’t have chop sticks. If they are really lucky, they might even be able to get the hang of these unlike a lot of adults we know. The sushi might even tempt kids to try this for real and expand their taste palettes a bit more.

For us non-sushi lovers, it was very interesting for our staff to see everything that goes into sushi making. You could say the Melissa and Doug Wooden Sushi educated everybody that works here, as well. We had to research a bit to see how authentic this was to the real stuff. We do not think this is very authentic looking, but it does contain some of the food items that go into sushi. However, we do like that it introduces children to food from other cultures. We are really glad to see that this company has finally included a lid for storage, especially with this many pieces. This product is the most unique item that we have seen in the Melissa and Doug food. We could be wrong, but we think this will have a very limited audience because most kids we know are very picky eaters and sushi would not be high on their food list. However, its uniqueness might just be what hooks parents into buying it.

The Learning Resources Breakfast Foods includes most of the food your child normally likes to eat for breakfast with the exception of cereal or oatmeal. It has a fried egg, two bacon slices, a muffin, a pancake with a slab of butter, a bowl of strawberries, and a glass of orange juice. These are not necessarily the healthiest choices, but they represent the normal breakfast foods. There is also a healthy breakfast set if this is a concern. They may even try to sneak it onto your plate. It comes with a great little basket that they can use to tote around their play kitchen food. They can use this basket to pretend shop for all their breakfast food. These items are made of soft vinyl that can actually be washed, and as we all know, they will definitely need to be washed after the kids get through with them. Our testers report that these are very durable, and they even tried biting them to see what would happen. While the food didn’t taste very good, they said they were so tough that they couldn’t even see any bite marks. This is really good to know because we can be pretty sure that kids will try to take a bite out of these. We have tested other brands that have not fared nearly as well as these did.

We think that any child will be greatly entertained by the Learning Resources Breakfast Foods. We also think that most parents will be very glad that they bought this set for their children. It is a good solution that lets kids cook their own breakfast in their own play kitchen without mom or dad constantly fussing at them about making a mess.

With the Melissa and Doug Cutting Bread Set, kids can serve up any bread they want in their play kitchens.

With all the bread that comes with this wooden play food, they can bake it, toast it, or serve it fresh. They will be busy little bakers in their very own bakery with all of these choices. A little baker’s hat would be just the thing to make their playtime baking a complete hit with them, and they will look adorable. They can even expand their business with a delicatessen to boot. Their sandwiches will be oh so good with the fresh bread straight from the oven. With all of these choices, their imaginations will soar. Only little kids know how many ways they can pretend play with this play kitchen food bread. Of course, they will definitely want to make a delicious breakfast or sandwich for Mom and Dad. Maybe they will even surprise you some morning with breakfast in bed. With this set, you won’t have to be surprised about the mess you might find in your kitchen.

The Melissa and Doug Cutting Bread Set has a nice variety of sliceable bread. You will find in this cute little set a bagel, two loaves of bread, slices of whole wheat bread, and an English muffin. No bread can be served without a slab of butter to make it even more mouthwatering delicious. This has a stick of sliceable butter that even has its own butter dish. To make this even more like the real deal, this comes with a wooden knife to slice the bread and spread the butter. However, each slice of bread and each pat of butter attaches to each other with Velcro tabs. Your kids will have a great time slicing the bread and butter with the fun little crunchy, slicing sound it makes. They will also think it’s pretty cool to put these pieces back together again. This will also engage their minds and improve their motor skills. This playset is also an ideal way for you to talk to them about different kinds of bread and what’s healthy and what’s not. Sometimes play kitchen food will often get kids to try something different when it comes to their real food, which is a definite added benefit.

We have evaluated many of the products from the Melissa and Doug line for quite some time now. We love how they continue to come out with such fun and creative items. The Melissa and Doug Cutting Bread Set has the same quality, durability, and ingenious design of all their products. They have used Velcro on many of their products that are sliceable, and we have always been impressed by this. The only downside we see to this set is that it does not come in a box. We are surprised by this because they usually include a wooden one with sets that have a lot of pieces. This is just a nicety to make it easier to store.

In the Melissa and Doug Deluxe Wooden Play Food set, everything is labeled and has great detail to make it look like mommy’s cabinets or fridge. This comes with 10 items that will look so cute in their play kitchen. While these are wooden, they have quite a bit of detail that makes them look close enough to their real food counterparts. They will last so much longer than if the boxes were made of cardboard or flimsy plastic. It consists of spaghetti, ketchup, soup, sugar, cereal, pretzels, rice, waffles, orange juice and mustard.

As we said before, these are all the staples any good kitchen must have on hand. If they have some play pots and pans and dishes, their kitchens will be fully equipped to fix just about any meal or snack. If they don’t have these, you should definitely consider adding these to their kitchen collection. Little ones can spend a good deal of their day playing house, and all of this will create a wonderful little play world for them.

We like just about any children’s product line that encourages imaginary play. The Melissa and Doug Deluxe Wooden Play Food does just this because once again this company has come up with another product that has endless possibilities for pretend play. We have said this before, and we will say it again; products that are made from wood just hold up better than ones that are made from plastic or cardboard. We compare this to kids’ wooden puzzles versus the cardboard ones. The wooden ones do not bend; therefore they are not easily torn or broken. The food items in this product can be thrown around, buried in toy boxes, taken outside, and they can last through more than one child in a family. You money is well spent, and the kids are happy. You just can’t ask for more.

All little kids love to play house. They love to emulate anything and everything that mommy or daddy does on a day to day basis. This includes pretend shopping, cooking, or taking care of their children, which are usually dolls or little brothers or sisters. The Learning Resources Lunch Foods will be a great little addition to help them out in their pretend housekeeping chores. When it is time to fix lunch in their pretend world, the items that comes with this product is just perfect for them. Throw some play dishes into this mix, and they will be good to go. Best of all, they will not need to sneak real food out of your kitchen that you may find or smell many days later. With this pretend play food, there will be no fuss or muss.

The Learning Resources Lunch Foods comes with a set of 13 play kitchen food items including a plastic basket. In this set, you will find a delicious lunch menu that includes a hamburger, a sandwich of white bread and lunch meat, potato chips, a slice of watermelon, lettuce, and tomato, an ice cream cone, and a glass of milk. The food is very realistic, which may catch parents off guard when they see it lying on the floor. Kids will have a great deal of fun mixing and matching the different options. They can plan out different meals to suit their diner’s tastes or offer up the chef’s special of the day. They can play restaurant, set up a grocery store, prepare a shopping list and go shopping with their little basket, or simply prepare lunch for their “families.” The possibilities are endless, and you will probably be quite surprised at what other play time fun they will invent with their set.

Our staff spends a great deal of time reviewing all kinds of different toys for little kids. We feel very comfortable with giving our seal of approval on anything that has the Learning Resources brand name on it. The designers of this company seem to take their job very seriously when it comes to creating a line of products for kids that are truly entertaining and provide a great opportunity for children to role play and use their wonderful imaginations. Their line encourages children to engage in active play instead of sitting in front of a computer or T.V. screen.

The Learning Resources Lunch Foods are no exception to the quality of products made by this company. We really like how durable these food items are. Our testers have put them through a few kid-tough tests, and they have passed with flying colors every time. We also like that they are made of a soft, non-toxic vinyl that is washable. Since we are sure that kids will inevitably put the food in their mouths on occasion, it is very comforting to know that these can be sanitized every once in awhile and will not fall apart as a result.

Our staff has had the privilege of reviewing a variety of the pretend play food products made by Learning Resources. The Learning Resources Picnic Basket is definitely in the running for one of our top picks for this product line. This fun item will give little ones hours of entertainment by allowing them to pretend they are going on a picnic. It has everything that you would take on a real picnic minus the ants. We believe that any child would be thrilled to have this pretend, yet very realistic, picnic basket with its items.

The Learning Resources Picnic Basket is loaded with a full array of picnic items. It has a chocolate ice cream cone, four potato chips, corn-on- the-cob, hamburger patty, hamburger bun, a slice of watermelon, a pear, a roll, a slice of cake and a chicken leg. They have even included a red checkered plastic table cloth to make this as authentic as possible. One of the best things about it is that each item is very close to being an exact duplicate to the real thing. This makes it a lot more interesting for children to play with as well as easier for them to identify the play kitchen food items.

We also thought it fulfills a dual purpose in regard to kids’ toys. When we review any product that is meant for younger kids, our first priority is that it is safe and easy for the recommended age group to use. Our next priority is that it will be entertaining enough to stimulate creativity and imagination, and it will have some level of educational value. Last, we want to make sure the product is kid-tough and made to last.

Safe, Easy to Use, and Durable

The recommended age for this product is 3 to 7, and, overall, the play food and basket makes the grade for safety and durability. With the exception of the potato chips, the rest of the pieces are relatively big in size, and there aren’t any small pieces. While they could put the potato chips in their mouth, they are not small enough for them to swallow. All of the pieces are made of a soft, durable plastic and are washable. Our testers stepped and sat on these, bent them, and soaked them in soap and water for about 15 minutes with no problems.

Encourages Creativity and Imagination

The items and the picnic basket create endless possibilities for imaginary play. Of course, when children engage in imaginary play, this stimulates creativity, as well. We also decided this would be a good choice for indoor and outdoor play, which gives it even more bonus points. This also encourages interaction and play between other children as well as adults. It’s really quite educational in that it can help children identify the various food items, increase their vocabulary, and, with younger children, it can help with color recognition and counting.

We think the Learning Resources Picnic Basket is a great buy for kids. After all, who doesn’t love going on a picnic?

If you are constantly trying to persuade your finicky little eaters to eat more fruit, the Melissa and Doug Cutting Fruit Crate might just help you change their mind about different kinds of fruit. If nothing else, it will help them identify the variety of fruit that comes with this play food, and just maybe they might want to try them for real. The power of subliminal persuasion can sometimes work in your favor. We know they will definitely like to slice these up with the wooden knife. In their pretend play, they can be the mommy or daddy and feed the fruit to their “children.” It should be quite hilarious to hear the conversations that will take place, which may just sound very familiar to you. Of course, it is more than like they will probably try to force you to eat their cut up fruit. However, don’t let them try to stuff it in your mouth because this is made of wood, and it might hurt just a bit.

Besides the fun of imaginary play, the Melissa and Doug Cutting Fruit Crate can be used as an educational tool.
First, it can help little ones learn the names of all the different fruit that comes in this play kitchen food. It has seven fruits, which includes an orange and apple, a banana, kiwi, lemon, melon, and a pear. This has a very good assortment of fruits and more than we have seen in other sets. Second, it can help them with counting because there are a total of 17 pieces. This would help them make sure all of the pieces were together before they put them away. Next, they can learn matching by putting these back together after they have cut them up. This is also a very fun and interesting way to introduce them to fractions. The wooden play food can be divided into thirds, fourths, or halves, and when they are put back together, they make a whole. This would be a great thing to have in a pre-school. It is certainly durable enough to withstand all the children in this type of environment.

At this point, we usually talk about what our staff likes and dislikes about the products we are reviewing. We have already talked in detail about the educational factor of this product. In our opinion, this is the best thing about the Melissa and Doug Cutting Fruit Crate. The designers in this company know how to create imaginary fun that teaches kids valuable skills for their growth and maturity. If you combine this with the durability of their products, this is our definition of quality toys. We have always liked the Velcro tabs they use to hold the pieces together. It works very well for this purpose, and if you have ever heard the sound of Velcro being pulled apart, it gives it a realistic cutting sound that kids really enjoy. We highly recommend this set.