Chili and cornbread

One of my lunch lady goals is to bake more.  We love to bake with the kids during the cold months. Its such a relaxing, thoughtful activity, and it works nicely with small groups. Plus the kids love trying their own creations and sharing them with friends. A few teachers and I are working on a plan to bake all of our own bread at BCS. I'll keep you updated on our progress. For now, cornbread from scratch to go with our vegetarian chili will have to do!

The Recipe

A four-year-old friend of mine at BCS recently had an idea for a recipe. This is a kiddo who is endearing, loving, energetic, and challenging, and who isn't always that interested in lunch, for a variety of reasons. So I was surprised and thrilled when he stopped me as I headed for the kitchen one morning a few weeks ago, waving a homemade book.





"Erinn!!! I made you a recipe!"

the recipe

The recipe, it turned out, was a multi-page, illustrated list of ingredients. With a drawing on the back of me...

back cover of the recipe, with my notation

He wanted to get started that instant, but lunch had to be made, so we made a date to meet and make a plan. I asked a few preliminary questions and discovered that the recipe was intended to turn out as a cake, that he anticipated we'd need a big bowl and a little spoon in order to make it, and that it would likely need to cook for either 5 minutes, or 20 hours.
Armed with this information and the proposed ingredient list (flour, milk, cereal, raisins, apples, and rice) I set out to look for cake recipe inspiration.
I found a ton of cake, muffin, and quick bread recipes online that incorporated cereal, and thought that raisin bran would be ideal since it essentially gave us two ingredients from the list for the price of one. I printed out a muffin recipe that seemed like a promising starting point and we met the next morning before lunch prep began.
We looked through the recipe booklet he had made and talked about each ingredient. We had quite a discussion around the rice. I gently suggested that we try rice as a side dish with our cake, since cakes with both rice and cereal as ingredients were unusual, if not completely unknown to humankind. We agreed that we'd proceed omitting the rice, this time.
We decided that the finished cake should be a rectangle, and there should be enough to share with his classmates and teachers.


He invited one friend in to help us out, and we gathered our ingredients...

Our preschool recipe developer and friend gather our ingredients

Preparing our baking pan.

We went over the muffin recipe I found and talked about why we'd need to include some other ingredients in our cake that weren't on the original list - eggs, sugar, a little butter, baking powder - and how we thought it would taste when we were done. 

We measured, poured, and mixed ...

measure and mix

And we made a beautiful cake! 

The pride and sense of accomplishment that comes from cooking something from scratch, to share with people you care about, is a powerful thing.  I couldn't have been happier when I showed this kiddo his finished product, and he couldn't have been more proud when it was served to his friends. 

Food is love, folks. 

BCS Cereal Cake

• 2  cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 cup brown sugar
• 2 1/2 cups raisin bran cereal
• 1 1/2 cups peeled apple chopped into small pieces
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup canola oil

Preheat your oven to 400.  Oil and flour a 13x9 inch baking pan and set aside. 

 

First, stir together this flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl, and set aside.

In another large mixing bowl, combine the cereal, milk and honey. Let stand 3 minutes or until cereal starts to get soggy - for once this is a good thing!

 Add the egg and the oil and beat well until everything is combined. Mix in the apples.

Add the flour mixture and stir just until everything comes together. Do not overmix!

 Pour the batter into your prepared pan. 

Bake at 400° F for about 25 minutes, then check by inserting a toothpick into the center. The cake may need more time, but you'll know it's done when your toothpick comes out clean and the top is turning a lovely, crackly brown. 

If you're so inclined, serve with a side of rice. 

xoxoxo

Erinn

What Farm to School month means to US...

 Farm to School month is almost over but we have a lot to say! And that's a good thing because the national Farm to School organization is inviting folks to share  stories about how they're connecting kids with local food and the farmers who grow it. And not just elementary schools - The National Farm to School Network began working to include Early Education settings in their great work back in 2011.
From their website:

Farm to preschool is a natural extension of the farm to school model, and works to connect early care and education settings (preschools, Head Start, center-based programs, programs in K-12 school districts, and family child care programs) to local food producers with the objectives of serving locally-grown, healthy foods to young children, improving child nutrition, and providing related educational opportunities. The National Farm to School Network (NFSN) began working to expand its robust farm to school networks and expertise to include early child care settings in 2011. Since then, NFSN has acted as a lead convener and facilitator for the farm to preschool movement, providing vision, leadership, and support at state, regional, and national levels.


At BCS, we know we are so lucky to live in the center of a thriving local food movement. If you read this blog you probably already know that we have a strong connection to the Intervale Center - an organization dedicated to building a  sustainable food system in our community by providing stewardship for the beautiful 350 acres of farms along the Winooski River known as the Intervale.  They do this by supporting new farms and farm business development, providing agricultural land stewardship, providing food systems research and consulting services, and  celebrating food and farmers!

illustration of the Intervale farms from the Intervale Center website

The Intervale is a special place for the children of BCS. They can reach it on foot, and spend lots of time there as a group in the spring and summer - looking for frogs in the pond, checking out the chickens, visiting parents who also happen to be farmers, and just enjoying the space.

For the past three years BCS has been lucky to participate in their Farm Share program - collecting and distributing gleaned produce from Intervale farms and sharing it with groups and organizations that feed kids and folks in need - for free.

I have so many stories about how our homegrown farm-to-school model has changed our school, our kids, and our families I can't fit them all into one post. But here's my favorite one right now.



 Every Monday from July to October I head down to the farm to pick up boxes (and boxes) of organic produce -   kale, spinach, greens, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, beets, radishes, watermelons and cantaloupe and, as we move into the fall, beautiful apples - all grown within walking distance of our school.

Fantastic volunteers load up the minivan with produce

Our Diggers! Thank you farmers, we love you.

Naturally we use lots of it for lunch every day. 

Kale salad for lunch

But there is more than we can reasonably eat, and lots of it doesn't lend itself to storing. Mesclun mix is best eaten fresh! So we started giving it away. Each Monday I would sort, package and store everything I knew we'd use that week, and pack up the rest in take-home sized packages. I'd put out a big bin full of fresh veggie packs with a sign letting folks know what was there, where it came from, and some cooking tips or recipe ideas they could take along with them.





Everything disappeared. Every time. 

Corn, arugula, butternut squash and carrots ready to take home

Kids loved seeing the veggies come out on Monday, and would often stop what they were doing to ask what was there and let me know they would be taking some home, whatever it was.
Our families were thrilled, and we were thrilled to know we were getting local organic produce onto  plates at home, not just at school.

Spinach and corn on a Monday afternoon

Sarah's zucchini cheat sheet!

We also plan our our Friday Take Home bags around the farm share. 

Friday Take Home bags ready to go

 Every Friday we pack up 10-15 bags with the ingredients for a large family meal, including lots of fresh veggies, and an easy-to-follow recipe.
Bags are free to anyone who requests one.
We do this because we know lots of our families struggle with food insecurity, particularly when school food is not available ( weekends, holidays..) but also because we believe in the power of family meals. We think cooking and eating together are important, and we want to help our families do more of it! In every bag we include a survey asking families if they used the recipe, if they liked the meal, how many people did it feed, and what else we can do to help. We want to know what obstacles people have to cooking and eating together. Lack of space? Needed kitchen equipment or utensils? Know-how? We want to know, so we can help with a solution.
The response to the take home bags has been incredible. But the best feedback came from a longtime BCS family. They, like many families, found themselves struggling to juggle the demands of budgeting, planning, and cooking healthy food for their two kids, and felt stuck relying on processed stuff, even though it's more expensive and not great for you. They were in need of inspiration, support, and some extra food to get through the week. Through their surveys and the photos they so kindly share with us, they let us know that Friday take-home bags have changed dinner at their house. They are cooking, and eating together, learning new recipes, and enjoying fresh veggies with their kids - something they never did before.

BCS family's homemade pizza with red peppers!

empty bowl of curry chick peas and carrots!

BCS kiddo enjoying family dinner at home!

  A family who never cooked from scratch at home are now roasting local carrots and squash and making spinach salad to accompany homemade pizza with local peppers.

So that's our story. For us, Farm-to-School extends all the way Home, and the benefits keep on growing! We love our families, we love our farmers, and we celebrate them this month and always!


xoxo
Erinn

Oh, Quinoa!

I wrote a post for the KidsVT Family Newspaper blog about my latest quinoa salad creation.

You can read it here if you're interested in a funny story about my quinoa obession.

OR just check out the recipe right here! The bottom line? Kids and grown ups love this one. Give it a try!

prepping ingredients

Warm quinoa salad

2 cups quinoa (I usually cook 2 cups of quinoa with 3-3.5 cups water and a pinch of salt. Bring it all to a boil, then cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes.)

1 medium butternut squash – peeled, seeded, cut into ½ inch dice

1 small red onion, diced

3 or 4 scallions, thinly sliced

3 Tbsp olive oil, divided

1 cup crumbled feta cheese, divided

2 tsp dill

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

1 tsp black pepper

Juice of ½ a lemon

Preheat your oven to 400. Toss the squash cubes with 2 tbsp of the olive oil until all the pieces are coated. Arrange in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and roast in the hot oven for about 15 minutes.

While the squash is roasting, cook the quinoa, then transfer it to a large bowl.

Chop the onion and the scallions, and add to the quinoa while it’s still warm.

Check your squash! It’s ready when it’s easy to pierce with a fork and turning brown and slightly crispy on one side.

 Add it to the bowl, making sure you get any nice crunchy bits and all the oil from the pan.

Then throw in the salt, pepper, dill, and lemon juice and mix everything well.

Last, add ¾ cup of the feta and toss to combine.

Taste and adjust the salt, pepper, or lemon juice if you like.

Ready to serve!

To serve, sprinkle the last ¼ cup of the feta over the top, and drizzle over the last Tbsp of olive oil.

Enjoy!

Ever heard of the Center for Agricultural Economy?

Neither had I. But now, they are my new heroes.

Last week we were were lucky to try out some pre cut veggies from a new program called Just Cut. Their mission is to provide options for seasonal produce from small Vermont farms to institutions that are looking to increase their local buying options, but that face the usual challenges of limited storage capacity, kitchen equipment, or skilled kitchen staff time.   This very cool project is supported by.... yep,  The Center for Agricultural Economy, based in  Hardwick VT.

From their brochure:

Founded in 2004, the Center for an Agricultural Economy has acted as a non-profit resource for local food systems in the northeast kingdom.

From food systems planning, technical assistance, business advising, to hunger relief, public events and community projects, the CAE is striving to create a regenerative, local based, healthy food system.

Pretty great, right?

They also run the Vermont Food Venture Center, a "multi-use process facility" designed to help budding food  entrepreneurs and farmers get their businesses running. They offer business plan consulting, training in the use of their industrial kitchen spaces - they have three, each with different specialty industrial equipment - and storage for farms  and food businesses.

Just Cut offers veggies that have been minimally processed (peeled and cut, or cut and frozen, nothing else) right at the Food Venture Center. The produce is high quality, local and traceable, and available for ordering right now through several area produce distributors.
Currently they are offering beets, potatoes, carrots, and broccoli in various cuts, fresh or frozen. We sampled three cuts of fresh carrots ( shredded, diced, and sticks) and fresh sliced beets.

They were great! Everything was fresh and delicious, and the beets especially were a huge hit.

beautiful beets

even the pan was pretty

Chicken soup made with the Just Cut diced carrots

Lunch for the babies

I am beyond excited about this program! Getting more local produce into schools and other institutions while strengthening small farms and community food systems...? Everybody wins.
Read more about the CAE and everything they do here...

www.hardwickagriculture.org


Meanwhile, we've been cooking and eating up a storm in the kitchen at BCS. Here are some little folks enjoying some shepherd's pie along with shredded carrot slaw made with napa cabbage and sweet dressing...

Yes, these are....

actual preschooler lunch plates!

And a few random kitchen pics from this week.....

Shepherd's pie headed for the oven, 

Beautiful radishes from our farm share get a soak in the sink

Have a great week!
xo
Erinn

Fall is here, and we're happy

There's no denying it, summer is pretty much over here in Vermont.  The days still warm up by the afternoon, and yes, there will be those few sweltering days that always pop up sometime in October, but the angle of the sunlight has shifted. The nights are cool. The air smells different.
Fall has arrived.


But we're glad, really. It's harvest time! Our weekly boxes from the Intervale have been FULL of wonderful organic kale, carrots, chard, herbs, fennel, melons, cucumbers, and peppers.
We've been giving lots of  beautiful produce away to our families, and turning the rest in to delicious lunches!

Here's a journey in photos, from farm to school lunch...

The gorgeous grounds at the Intervale Center

My trusty minivan, full of organic goodness!

Kale, kale, and more kale! Time to wash, dry, and remove stems.

Kale and carrots in the food processor, ready for chopping

Finely chopped kale and carrots, cooking in a little olive oil

Turkey meatballs, made with kale and carrot mixture

Fresh tomato sauce for pasta, also made with kale and carrots

Kale salad

Here's a recipe for my easy tomato sauce with extra veggies..


1 bunch kale, washed, dried, tough stems removed.
4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into one or two inch pieces
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. black pepper
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried basil (or three or four fresh basil leaves, chopped)
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar


Add first five ingredients to food processor and whizz until everything is chopped finely and almost forming a paste.

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat, then scrape everything out of the processor and into the saucepan. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is heated through. Add the can of crushed tomatoes and stir to combine everything. Let simmer over medium/low heat until it's just starting to bubble. Add the salt, pepper, herbs, vinegar, and sugar and stir well. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for at least 15 minutes, or up to an hour or two. Taste and adjust seasonings if you like.

Tomato soup with kale and carrot base, on an Actual Preschooler's Lunch Plate!

Serve over pasta,  use as a sauce for homemade pizza, OR stir in 1 1/2 cups of warmed milk (2% or higher, no skim!) and 1/4 cup of good grated parmesan cheese for a delicious soup - as seen above!

xo
Erinn

A new school year begins

"Do you have a....what's that word? Recipe! A recipe for these?"
                        -Preschooler at lunch, enjoying the heck out of some organic carrots

organic carrots from our farm share

It's the first week of the new school year at BCS, and we're enjoying the best part of harvest season at lunch. Carrots, green beans, cucumbers, greens, herbs, melons, zucchini and more loaded our farm share boxes last week, and I "pickled" the carrots and beans using the lacto-fermentation method I learned from our friends at City Market. Just veggies in brine with dill, sealed and left to turn salty, crunchy and delicious.

Lacto-fermented veggies. Aren't they gorgeous?

The staff ate them with biscuits..

I am obsessed with biscuits.

Lunch for my amazing co-workers

 and a veggie frittata for lunch during their week of setting up and settling in for the new year. We also had burgers, and two amazing salads I lifted  from the fantastic food52.

Raw corn salad...pretty much summer in a bowl

I love those pickled carrots, so i made a lot. Like, a LOT. I served them to the kids for lunch on Monday.

Actual preschooler's lunch plate

We also had pancakes with my secret maple cinnamon yogurt, and bananas. Simple, easy, and familiar. Just the thing to soothe those first-day-of-school jitters.  Not that there were many of those. The teachers at BCS are absolute masters at what they do, and everyone was humming along like they'd always been in their new classrooms by the time lunch rolled around.
Fall, here we come!

                

Make this for dinner...

Quinoa, black beans, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper. Tried it out on the kids for lunch with our farm share cilantro a few weeks back and I can't stop thinking about it.

I'm on a Family Vacation!

...But since I can't let go of lunch lady life completely, I thought I'd post a few photos from the last few weeks, plus a link to my latest post over at Kids VT!
We had an awesome summer family dinner last Thursday, featuring local greens, pesto, and heirloom tomatoes on pizza.

The preschoolers have been growing peppers on the playground.

We found crazy carrots in our farm share.

We ate some beautiful, healthy summer lunches.

Blueberries burst into full season in Vermont.

And I wrote a sentimental blog post about pie.

Read it here...
Http://m.kidsvt.com/KidsVTBlog/archives/2014/07/30/its-time-for-pie