Monthly Archives: July 2011

Jul 29Summer Camp: Day 1 – Our Italian Menu

During the first day of this summer’s cooking camp, my students thought that our food was “awesome enough” for us to open a restaurant. So, we decided to capture the experience and share it with you. They called our restaurant the Kehillah Café, to honor the name of our camp. Here is our Menu of the day…Written in the words of 14 students, in 3rd – 5th grades… (This was quite the exercise in food writing and the use of synonyms and adjectives!) Kehillah Café Menu El Awesome...

Jul 27Trying our Zoku for the First Time: Pudding Pops...

My mom loves to surprise us with fun gifts for our family kitchen. And as much as we love to receive these gifts, I think it thrills her equally to hear about our adventures in the kitchen using them together. So, today's post is dedicated to her. Thanks, mama, for our new Zoku! As I was browsing through the pages of my recent issue of Cooking Light magazine, this pudding pop recipe caught my eye. I thought it would be perfect to try in our new gizmo - and yowza - it was awesome! After...

Jul 25Cooking with Kids - Raspberry Almond Cornmeal Cr...

Cooking with Kids – Raspberry Almond Cornmeal Crumble

My son and I haven't been getting along very well lately. In fact, I have been pondering a post sharing some of our struggles - but I am not sure if it would betray him or his right to privacy. At the same time, it might be useful to any of you out in cyberspace experiencing challenges raising your kids - especially to know you are not alone. But this is not that post. Instead, this is a mostly a photo essay, showing how we spent our afternoon today. We bonded. Over dessert. And it was...

Jul 22Cooking with Tweens at Star Academy

After their shopping trip to the farmer's market, the middle schoolers at Star Academy were excited for our cooking class together. And after worrying a bit about eating kale, they devoured our meal with gusto! Now that we had the ingredients, we had to prepare them and cook them up. We walked down to the Star Academy Kitchen and we started cooking. We had an amazing day cooking our creations and eating them. We tore off Dinosaur Kale leaves and then we massaged the dinosaur kale...

Jul 20A Healthier Take on Shaved Ice + Giveaway!

We love shaved ice...but not the artificial colors that usually come with it. Call me crazy, but I don't love the blue and red tint that colors my children's lips and teeth for the rest of the day. Thanks to West Bend, we got the opportunity to test out an Ice Shaver and try our hand at creating some flavorings that I could be proud of. The best part? You can win all of these awesome products, too (the details are below). And look at these adorable silicone molds and cute holders... Making...

Jul 18Summer Travel – Making Healthier Food Choices

Many of us are on the road this summer, heading to hiking trails, taking road trips with our families, or driving our kids to sleep away camp. It can be tempting to stop in for fast food when hunger strikes, but how can you select menu items that are good for you and your family? We all stop at side-of-the-road restaurants every now and then. But instead of beating ourselves up about being perfect when we feed our families, let's simply aim for progress. Making Better Fast Food Choices There...

Jul 15Farmer’s Market Scavenger Hunt with Tweens

The day before my cooking class with middle school students at Star Academy, they went to the farmer's market to collect our ingredients. I gave them a scavenger hunt, to encourage them to taste some new ingredients and meet the people who grow our food. A few students wrote about the experience... Visiting the farmer's market was enjoyable for many reasons. You can talk to the people that sell you your food and ask them questions. By asking the vendors about what they sell, you know what...

Jul 13Making Homemade Dog Treats with Kids

It never ceases to amaze me how much filler and junk is included in pet foods. I don't know about you, but I'm not so sure that I'd like my pets to be eating ground up feathers or other random inedible animal parts. One of the best parts about cooking with kids is that you can learn about ingredients together. When I was little, I used to tease my mom for reading all of our food labels. I figured that if we wanted to eat something, we should just buy it. But she knew better. (Did...

Jul 11Full Belly Farm Summer Camp (+ Mini Frittata Rec...

Full Belly Farm Summer Camp (+ Mini Frittata Recipe)

Thank goodness there were no speed traps on the highway when I was on my way to pick up our daughter from camp at Full Belly Farm. I missed her and couldn't wait to hug her and hear about her adventures. Of course, it came as no surprise when she wanted to show me all of her favorite animals, including a calf, some goats, and the chickens. We climbed over the fencing that surrounded the mobile chicken tractors and looked inside to see if the eggs had been collected yet. We found nearly...

Jul 8Family Food Challenge – Aiming for Progress

Progress, not perfection. It's what we should strive for - and it will save us a headache in the meantime. The What's Cooking with Kids Facebook community and I have been doing a Family Food Challenge for the past few weeks in an effort to improve our eating habits, one little assignment at a time. So far, the challenges have included: Trying a new grain – I used millet in this muffin recipe Planting something edible – our garden is a work in progress, but it looks like our beans...