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| Teachers present their recipes after our cooking session with Caroline. |
The new school year at BCS began yesterday, with kiddos moving in and moving up. It's always an exciting but tricky time, with everyone getting used to new classrooms, new friends and new routines.
The teachers and staff spent last week working tirelessly to ready their new spaces for the new year and the entire school looks amazing. The kitchen got a good scrub and a bit of a re-arrange. But the most exciting thing for me was our first workshop on Monday morning.
The wonderful Caroline Homan, Food and Nutrition Coordinator for City Market, joined us for a snack makeover session, bringing food and new snack time recipes.
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| Teams work on their snacks in the kitchen. |
But not just any snack recipes - super healthy and natural snacks made from scratch by us with only whole ingredients. Like Apple Cranberry bars, Date bars, Sesame treats, and honey yogurt dip. Like kale salad (that kids will actually eat), crispy kale chips, and kale/egg/cheese cups. Homemade butter, or blueberry frozen yogurt.
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| Crackers ready for the oven... |
Like cheddar and sesame crackers made with whole wheat dough that "soaks" overnight in yogurt.
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| Cheddar sesame crackers! |
Like homemade blueberry soda carbonated with a ginger "bug", and pickled carrots and cukes, and saurkraut!
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| Toddler teacher Miranda shows off the finished blueberry soda |
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| All the pickled veggies used lacto-fermentation for the pickling process, a method of preserving by submerging veggies in a salt water brine. |
We divided into teams and tackled the recipes. We had an hour to cook, then we put everything on display with pages for comments on taste and "makeability", both as a project with kids, or to make alone as a snack for the class. Then we got down to the serious business of tasting everything we'd made.
It was a blast. Everything was delicious, and while different and a little more demanding on the prep side, we all agreed that we want to start incorporating more homemade, whole food snacks into the rotation. The preschool is tackling some sesame crackers tomorrow, and I'm making kale salad for lunch. You should make it too!
Massaged Kale Salad (courtesy of City Market)
1 bunch kale (any variety, but the Lacinato works especially well)
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1-2 Tbs lemon juice
We also used 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds and 1 cup of diced green apples, but you could also add feta cheese, walnut pieces, pumpkin seeds, avocado, garlic, etc..
Remove the stems from the kale, cut or tear into small strips (for kids) and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and olive oil and gently rub into the kale for a few minutes with your fingers, until the kale starts to wilt. Add the lemon juice and anything else you're adding and toss. Taste and adjust the seasoning. It's incredible, I promise.
dilly beans!
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