Monthly Archives: October 2009

Oct 31Halloween Cooking Projects with Kids

It came as no surprise when my son's 2nd grade class "party parent" called to ask if I would lead a food project at their Halloween party. Of course I agreed, and set to work to find something healthy that the kids would not only have fun making, but would love to eat as well. I settled on an oldie-but-goodie, Monster Paws (gloves filled with popcorn and candy corn finger nails) but wanted one more simple idea. I decided to try making some Banana Ghosts that my pal Aviva created with her son. ...

Oct 27Cooking With Toddlers: D is for Deviled Eggs

Each week, my mommy & me cooking class has been cooking and eating our way through the alphabet. Last week's class was the letter D. Take a look at these photos and see if you can guess what we made... Makes 2 dozen deviled eggs.

Oct 25Full Belly Farm's Hoes Down Festival: Kids ...

I love watching kids connect with their food... Playing with it... Learning about it... Cooking it... And, of course, eating it...

Oct 23PBS Makes It Fun for Kids To Eat Better

PBS has done it again. They have come up with a creative, funny, and interesting way to bring up a topic that is important to parents: Healthy Eating for Kids. Instead of relying on tactics (like bribery or long-winded lectures) this video is fun and exciting. Oh yeah - it's educational too. Stay tuned. It all starts on November 16 on PBS Go.

Oct 21Loving our Backyard Chickens

Oct 19A Few Pollan-isms and Food Rules

A few weeks ago, a friend and I went to hear Michael Pollan speak at UC Berkeley. Given his passion for eating "real food", the audience was surprised to see him walk on stage with two plastic bags filled with food packaged food-like substances. He pulled each item out of the bag, and mocked the marketing claims that covered their packaging. Gotta love this one: vitamin enhanced water... in powdered form! Before he began his presentation, which was similar to the one I heard last year, he...

Oct 15Blog Action Day - Kids Can Fight Climate Change ...

I have a few pet peeves. One is when people chew with their mouth open. Another is when people assume that kids can’t make a difference (except to sully an otherwise clean room). While we, as adults, have lots of power (we do all of the driving and buying, at least for now), it’s best not to overlook the influence that children can have on the world. For this reason, I wanted to focus my Blog Action Day post on what kids can do in the kitchen to prevent climate change. It’s their...

Oct 12Cooking With Kids at Full Belly Farm's Hoes...

For the third year in a row, I found myself cooking with an eager and hungry group of kids atop hay bales in the middle of Full Belly Farm. We were sitting outside with dust in the air, ants skittering around, and hay bits clinging to our ingredients. It was a far cry from cooking in a sterile commercial kitchen, and to be honest, much better. We were close to our food. Most of our ingredients, in fact, were grown within a stone's throw from our makeshift kitchen. It was perfect. Just...

Oct 8Cooking With Toddlers: C is for Crunchy Carrot ...

Living with my husband has taught me that not everybody looks forward to going to work. It seems as if I am unusual in this regard. And probably in other ways, too, but that is another story. Anyhoo... One of my absolutely favorite new classes to teach is my Mommy (or Daddy...or nanny) & Me preschool class at one of our local recreation centers. Each week we meet for 45 minutes to cook and Eat The Alphabet. My whole family gets involved in the planning for these classes. We sit around...

Oct 5Kids Creating…For The Benefit of Others

I recently posted about the benefit that I am doing with Kebby from Studio4Art to fight childhood hunger in Marin County. Since it is hard to get people excited about an event that is all the way in November, I thought I'd share some photos of our students at work. Please show your support for the kids who are working working so hard on the behalf of hungry children by making an online donation.