So now that DD has the play kitchen...

[janine]

any recommendations for a good pot/pan set? We have the KidKraft retro kitchen so would love recommendations for what works best with that. Already have all the wooden M&D food!

[ellies mom]

I like the Green Toy sets. They have a pot/pan set alone and I believe they also have a pot/pan/dishes set. We have the pots/pans and tea set.

[malphy]

My dd loves her stainless steel pots and pans from IKEA. She doesn't even touch her plastic or wooden pots. And they are very inexpensive.

She uses them for cooking and for making music in a parade.

hth

[smcdonald2]

I could be wrong, but I think the IKEA ones are safe to actually eat out of, which is pretty cool. :-)

Plus, you can get the pots and pants, baking set AND utensils for under $25.

[janine]

Ohh, the IKEA one sounds great! Too bad it's such a long drive!

[Seitvonzu]

the IKEA ones are ABSOLUTELY food safe :) you can use all their "toy" stuff as if it were real kitchen stuff. a definite plus in my opinion! esp. for older children or those who like to do "real" cooking but with their own stuff (my child is into having tinier versions of my real stuff, especially recently at 29 months)

we , embarrasingly, have it all-- wood M&D pots/pans, enamel pots/random wooden serving stuff from novanatural.com, a tin tea set , the stainless (all the ikea stuff except the coffee/tea set--the baking set, the pots, the ceramic dishes, etc, the flatware,the "glassware"(big favorite) & the cooking utensils), fabric "spices" from pottery barn, and the green toys plastic dishes (the cookware/dishware set & the tea set). i had it all set up with our "best" stuff-- the enamel pots, the wooden serving stuff from nova, etc. and whenever more than one child was playing the kitchen was SO loud. i decided to take most of the good (read: anything HEAVY) stuff out of commission for the playdate we hosted recently. i didn't want any unfortunate incidents with the heavy food/accessories and the noise when lots of kids are playing really jangles my nerves.

this was a really good decision. i mostly left out the green toys stuff (and the plastic IKEA stuff (glasses/utensils), and the fabric spices. the green toys stuff is substantially designed but LIGHT. i've actually noticed that my toddler has been using her kitchen much more since i switched to the "back up" accessories that had been upstairs or outside. i dont' think it's just novelty because she had access to those things, just not with her kitchen set. i'm pretty sure it had more to do with the shear strength required to handle those heavier things...

we'll still use all that stuff eventually, but for now, we're using our "good plastic" and lucy is enjoying her kitchen more and i'm enjoy that its' more peaceful :) i do highly recommend the green toys-- i got mine at toys r us and was able to use babies r us coupons on it (20% and it's even better if you can wait for a sale). even if i'd paid full price , i think it would have been worth it- it's very heavy duty and ours still looks great even after keeping it outside much of last summer (can't tell the difference between pieces that were outside and pieces that stayed in the house)

[salsah]

we love the ikea stainless sets. but i bought the green toys tea set because the ikea one is breakable. i believe that both the ikea and green toys sets are food safe. the advantage of the ikea stainless cookware (over the the green toys) is that you can actually cook with them (on/in a real stove/oven).

[smcdonald2]

[QUOTE=janine;2742219]Ohh, the IKEA one sounds great! Too bad it's such a long drive![/QUOTE

I think you can order them online, though!

[katydid1971]

[QUOTE=janine;2742219]Ohh, the IKEA one sounds great! Too bad it's such a long drive![/QUOTE

I think you can order them online, though!

Don't order online from Ikea. My brother did once and I think it took him like 3 or 4 months to get the stuff.

[Swimfreak78]

How is the Ikea play kitchen? OP - where do you live? Could someone pick it up for you and ship?