What's Cooking With Kids

Aug 17Clean Plate Club

We recently returned home from our annual summer vacation to Montana. As we ate our dinner at a brewery in the Salt Lake City airport, I overheard a woman commenting to her server as she handed him her empty plate. "I just always think of those starving people in Africa" she said. I casually glanced behind me and saw her grin and then ask for the dessert menu. I have learned a lot about healthy eating habits since I formed my business, What's Cooking, nearly 5 years ago. For one, it has...

Aug 11Cooking Up Ideas for a Sustainable Future

It has been just over a year since I went to Honduras on the Educator's Study Tour with Heifer International, and I am feeling quite nostalgic. As an ode to our adventure and my life-changing experience, I thought I'd post an article that I wrote at the request of a local magazine. Soon after I submitted the article, they ceased to run that particular section, and it has gone unprinted. It is time for it to be unveiled and shared... A single cricket chirped outside, and I could hear the murmur...

Aug 7Luring Kids into Eating Healthy School Lunches

After being contacted by two journalists and a television show for interviews about Back to School Lunches, I though I would re-publish this article from last year. Our fishing expedition on Flathead Lake this summer was comical. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to catch anything, even though the boat next to us was reeling in fish every time we looked! Clearly, there was something we weren’t doing right. As a man from the next boat yelled over to us, “What kind of bait are you using?”...

Jul 25Kids, Food and Community Service - Call for Idea...

For the past two months, I have been working on a book proposal that combines my passion for getting kids into the kitchen and into their communities to make a difference. Here are some examples of activities WE are doing with our students to promote community service through food and cooking. We participated in the Great American Bake sale, sponsored by Share Our Strength, in an effort to raise funds for hungry children in America. We are spending time with Humane Society Day Campers to cook...

Jul 21Doof-A-Palooza = A Giant Portion of Fun!

The now famous Doof-A-Palooza was nearly 2 weeks ago, and I am just now finding the time to sit down and write about it. In case you aren't familiar with this event, it is an annual interactive celebration of the new TV show, DOOF, due out on Public Television in 2009. DOOF celebrates food, kids and nutrition in a fun, interesting and entertaining way! I should start by thanking the wonderful crew that came to help at our booth, What's Cooking at the Toddler Cafe. Thanks Maria, Jessica and Drew!!!!...

Jul 18Place Mat Project Dilemma

As many of you know, I have been working on a project with my students, friends and neighbors to decorate cheerful place mats for children at our local children's hospital. The project was initially encouraged by the food service staff that I spoke to at the Children's Hospital in Oakland, so I decided to spread the word by writing about it on my blog. I have received wonderful feedback from you, and the traffic on my blog has nearly tripled, since. BUT, there appears to be trouble. I decided...

Jul 15Animal Themed Cooking Classes for Kids...and a C...

As with many teachers, I have been working on curriculum for the upcoming school year. I have been perusing the Content Standards for California Public Schools (not exactly summer reading that I would recommend!) and am now working on some fun themes for the actual classes. We have some great ones in the works, such as an entire 8-12 week series devoted to Recipes from Books and Movies. Each week, we will focus on recipes that relate to a particular book or movie. Within that theme, we will be...

Jul 10Make Your Placemat for kids even BETTER!

On the day that we posted our first Recipe For Action, our blog got more hits than ever. Even though I heard from only a few of you, I am getting some great feedback about this project. In case you didn't see the original post, here is a summary of the project in a nut-shell. We are working with our kids and their friends to decorate place mats to send to children in our local children's hospital. It is just one small way that we can build community during mealtime. So often, children who...

Jun 30Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants

I love living in the SF Bay Area. In addition to the wonderful natural resources we have here, there are also a plethora of wonderful speaking engagements to attend. In the past year, I have seen Mollie Katzen, Ellie Krieger, Marion Nestle and Jacques Pepin speak. This week, I was able to see Michael Pollan, NY Times Best Selling author of Botany of Desire and The Omnivore's Dilemma, at Toby's Feed Barn in Point Reyes. We sat on hay bales, piled high in the back of the feed store, and listened...

Jun 26Love Sushi?

Seeking sushi sources Help the Monterey Bay Aquarium with the details for their upcoming Seafood Watch sushi guide! This fall Seafood Watch will launch our first-ever sushi pocket guide in collaboration with the Blue Ocean Institute and we could use your help. Have you wondered how our Seafood Watch research staff decide which fish to include and what common names to use on our pocket guides and website? You can help us with this very important step so our recommendations are relevant...