Everyday Chef

Apr 16

Spinach Smoothie

Adding leafy greens into your or your child’s diet may seem like a challenge. Everyday Chef and Everyday Kids are here to tell you that it’s not as hard as it looks! Getting a variety of leafy green vegetables into your diet is extremely important. These veggies minimize the risk of cancer and heart disease because they are so low in fat and so high in dietary fiber. Leafy greens also contain tons of nutrients, vitamins, and enzymes, including iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and vitamins K, E, and C. Greens are great for those with type two diabetes, as well, as they are low on the glycemic index and high in magnesium. Eating plenty of leafy green vegetables will not only make you feel better (they’re high in antioxidants, which boost your immune system), but they will also keep you younger for longer (phytochemicals in greens prevents cell damage and increases eye health).

Ok, I think I’ve made quite an argument as to why you need to add more greens into your diet. - But maybe you or your child don’t like the taste of greens in general. There is quite an easy solution to this! Start making “green smoothies” for breakfast every morning – you will not be able to taste the green ingredients because they are masked by the fruity flavors you love – but you’ll still enjoy all of the benefits. Below is a recipe for a delicious spinach smoothie, but be be sure to seek out other smoothie recipes for different types of greens (kale, chard, etc.), as variety is key! Trust me, you can get very creative.

Ingredients:
1.5 cup water
1 ripe banana, peeled
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup of fresh spinach

1. Add the water first, then the banana into a blender.
2. Follow with the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.
3. Enjoy!

Make sure to blend everything very well so that there aren’t bits of spinach floating around. If you’re making this for a child who is afraid of anything green, feel free to add more strawberries or blueberries to the mix!

Apr 11

Newspaper Seed Starting Pots

Oh, how the time flies! If you are a home gardner (or aspiring to be), it is time to start your seeds indoors for many plants. Starting seeds is a great gardening activity that is easy and fun for kids of all ages. This activity involves using old newspaper to make sturdy little starting pots that can be transplanted directly into the ground when the time is right.

Newspaper pots are very easy to make and a great way to recycle the old newspapers that might be sitting around. All you need are two things: Old newspaper and a long glass drinking cup (or empty/clean bottle). Then of course you will need to add some high quality potting soil or seed starter mix and your seeds once your pot is made.

Steps:

1. Begin by laying a piece of black and white newspaper flat. Make sure to not use shiny or colorful paper like magazines, as they can contain heavy metals. Newspaper is usually made with safe, soy-based ink.

2. Fold the newspaper twice lengthwise to form a narrow strip.

3. Lay the glass on its side and begin to roll the newspaper tightly around the glass. Make sure about half of the paper overlaps the glass.

4. Push the ends of the newspaper into the open end of the glass.

5. Then pull out the glass to reveal the shape of your pot.

6. Push the bottom of the cup into your pot, flattening out and creating the closed bottom portion.

7. Pull out the jar for the last time! Fill the pot with soil, plant your seeds according to the seed packet directions, and water so your seeds will germinate.

It is a good idea to place all of the starter pots you make on a plastic tray, so that water won’t seep everywhere.

Have fun! And go here for a video how-to

Apr 5

Root Salad

After doing quite a bit of research, I came across a website that is extremely helpful for farm to school programs and healthy food tasting. I recommend visiting Washington State’s Farm to School website and checking out their “Washington Grown Food Kit,” where you will find a number of links to vegetable and fruit nutrition and education facts, as well as recipes that are often split into appropriateness for schools, seniors, and child care. This is where I found this mouth-watering root salad recipe that is perfect for preparing in the classroom or in your home kitchen.

This recipe is adapted for a classroom size of 25! Each student would be able to try a 1/4 cup.

Ingredients:
1 pound Parsnips
1/2 pound Carrots
6 oz Beets
1 tbs Grated ginger
3 tbs Honey
3 tbs Fresh lemon juice
3 tbs Fresh orange juice
6 tbs Olive oil

Begin by cleaning and grating all vegetables and set aside. Then, mix in the ginger, honey, fresh juices, and olive oil. Combine the veggies into the homemade dressing and mix well. Let stand for about one hour so that the vegetables can marinate. Then serve and enjoy!

Pretty easy, huh? - And a perfect recipe to do with students of all ages – knives aren’t necessary except to initially cut through the fruit (which an adult can surly handle before the salad preparation begins). Also, using peelers to create ribbons of vegetables instead of graters can be a fun and safe way to get kids involved in the cooking. Adding raisins, cilantro, parsley, and/or scallions are other interesting and delicious variations to this recipe.

Happy Wednesday and remember to eat lots of vegetables !

Mar 31

flourless chocolate beet cake with beet sauce

Healthier Chocolate Beet Cake

Incase you were wondering about chocolate beet cake, here is a delicious recipe (adapted from Straight from the Farm) that Everyday Kids used to reward our students for an excellent day of learning!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
3 eggs at room temp
1/4 tsp salt
2-3 oz. dark chocolate
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 medium beets (2 cups pureed)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

To make beet puree, trim stems and roots off beets and quarter them. Place in a heavy saucepan filled with water and simmer for 50 minutes or until the beets are tender. Drain off remaining liquid and rinse beets in cold water. Slide skins off and place beets in blender or food processor. Process until a smooth puree forms. Let cool slightly. Can be made up to several days ahead and refrigerated.

In a mixing bowl, add cream, butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Melt chocolate using a double boiler or in the microwave and cool slightly. Blend chocolate, beets and vanilla into the creamed mixture.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch cake pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Eat as is, or sprinkle lightly with confectioners’ sugar. For a decadent twist, whip up a batch of orange cream cheese frosting.

Mar 25

2 Comments

Root Veggie Scavenger Hunt

Getting kids to try new vegetables isn’t always the easiest thing – but someone has to do it! The Everyday Kids pilot went into local schools last week to bring some veggie-love into the classroom. After some hands-on exploration with soil types, we presented a crazy idea to kindergarteners and third grade – that many of the foods we eat are actually the roots of plants!

To prepare for some taste testing, the first lesson also consisted of introducing these delicious root vegetables; beets, daikon, carrots, radishes, black radishes, ginger, and parsnip. In order to get both classes really excited for trying them, we set up a root vegetable scavenger hunt on the playground. The kids loved this activity and highly anticipated trying out the veggies for the next class. This veggie hunt is also adaptable for fun at home.

For the root vegetable hunt:

1. Make sure to hide a variety of root vegetables (we had about 15 kids in each class so we made sure to have at least 15 vegetables in total, but ended up with much more) in a contained area like the playground or in a fenced backyard. Save one of each of the types of vegetables for the next step.
2. When you’re with the children, introduce them to the root vegetables you hid. Make sure they remember the names of each one. **It is up to you whether you want to introduce the activity by presenting the parts of a plant and explaining that roots are also our food.
3. Next, let them know that they will be going on a hunt for these vegetables. If there are a number of kids, separate them into teams. The team who finds the most vegetables wins. If these are older children, tell them that in order to receive a point for a find, they must be able to name the vegetable.
4. After about five minutes (or more depending on how many vegetables you hid), have the groups come back so that they can compare their findings.
5. Have a reward available for everyone, even the losing teams. After a taste test of the raw roots, Everyday Kids gave both classes chocolate beet root cake with ginger. It was a hit ! – and had plenty of healthy hidden beets in it, too.

Mar 20

Carrot Love

I found this gem of a photo on the web today (on the Farm Food Freedom Coalition Facebook page to be exact) and it made me smile. I hope this carrot hug makes you smile, too, as you get ready to start planting your own garden.

Have a lovely, warm week !

Mar 13

Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes

All of this talk about maple syrup is getting me hungry. This recipe serves 12 and only takes about 10 minutes of active cooking.

Ingredients:
2.5 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1.5 in pieces (8 cups)
1/3 cup Vermont maple syrup
2 tbs butter or margarine, melted
1 tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
Pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place sweet potatoes in an even layer in a glass baking dish. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a small bowl and pour the mixture over the sweet potatoes. (This is the perfect time to get a child helping with dinner!)
3. Cover and bake the potatoes for 15 minutes. Uncover, stir, and bake again while stirring every 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender and beginning to brown. This will take 45 minutes to an hour.

Using a non-dairy butter instead of dairy will bring this recipe down to no cholesterol! Get more information on this dish’s nutritional content here .

Mar 13

What do you Know about Maple Syrup?

In 2010, Vermont produced 1,140,000 gallons of delicious maple syrup – more than any other state! Although maple syrup is available locally anytime, the sugaring season has just begun and fresh, sugary sap is now being made into the mouth-watering and rich syrup most of us delight in. But do you know how this great product is made?

Maple syrup was discovered by the Eastern Woodland Indians when they realized that sap cooking over a hot fire turned into a sugary substance. Since then, people could not get enough of this wonderful syrup. European settlers who were offered to share in the Indians’ new discovery, began to develop technologies to make the process faster and easier.

Nowadays, maple syrup is made from placing taps on trees and allowing sap to travel down into buckets. The sap is then collected through tubing, trucking, or other means to get to the sugar house. Sap is then boiled when it is fresh to make the highest quality syrup. Water then evaporates from the sap, leaving a thick sugary syrup behind. This point usually occurs at 219 degrees and has a density of over 60% sugar. Next, a valve is opened by the sugarmaker and the syrup is drawn off. The maple syrup is then checked for the proper density of sugar with a tool called a hydrometer. It is then filtered to remove sugar sand and other minerals found naturally within the tree. Finally, the syrup is taste tested and color-graded!

Interested in teaching your class about maple syrup? Kidgardening.org offers a simple activity to do with children.

1. Hold up a bottle of maple syrup and ask the students if they know how syrup is produced.

2. Tell the students that syrup comes from trees, but do not tell them how it is extracted.

3. Using existing knowledge and their own imagination, have the students predict the sequence of how they think syrup is made from trees. They should list their “steps of production” from beginning to end. Their assignment should include pictures to accompany the steps for greater clarification.

4. Ask the students to share their assignments with the class.

5. Have the students recall what they know about trees and list their responses on the board.

6. Read the story, Sugarbush Spring to the students. Share some photographs of sap collection with the students.

7. Were any of the students’ sequence predictions similar to how the sap was collected in the story? How does this new information relate to what they already know about trees?

8. Have the students discuss the importance of scientific prediction. What is a hypothesis? How can it assist in discovering new information and ideas?

EXTENSION

- Have students map the Top 10 Maple Producing States. Examine their climate and geography, what do all of these states have in common? What can be learned about the needs of the maple tree by this determination?

*If you cannot use the specified book, play a short movie or documentary or simply read from another source to describe the maple sugaring process.

If possible, bring your kids to a local sugarhouse or tapped tree for a real, live experience! Sugarmakers are usually very welcoming to schools and will offer some yummy maple snacks before you leave. If the resources are available, this may also be a great time to incorporate cooking and tasting of a local product into the classroom, as well. Get creative!

Mar 6

Microgreen Gardening

There are only two weeks left of March until Spring ! Besides being a spring-baby, this time of year is one of my favorites because of the rainy, fresh smell in the air, watching the flowers and trees bloom, and most of all I love the increase in availability of fresh local fruits and veggies. If you are getting a bit impatient with the wait and are craving something “springy” and new for your salad, why not try to grow a bit indoors?

Growing microgreens are a fun, healthy, fairly cheap, and super easy gardening (and eating) activity. All you have to do is decide which greens you want to grow – maybe mesclun, cilantro, kale, mustard, arugula – the list goes on! You really can pick almost anything because you are going to be harvesting your vegetables at a young age, when all of the nutrients are packed into those little sprouts. Try something you’ve never had before and let the taste be a surprise. After you pick your seeds the next steps are quite easy.

You can start growing in a plastic recycled container. These can be restaurant take-away containers or feel free to go and buy one at your local hardware or garden store- just make sure whatever you pick fits well on or by your windowsill so that your plants get a good amount of sunlight. A bit of drainage in whatever you choose is beneficial. You can easily punch a few holes on the bottom of your container and make sure there is something underneath to catch excess water (maybe the lid!).

Then fill up your container with some good-quality soil and mix in compost if you have it, about an inch or so away from the top. Sprinkle your seeds over the surface of the container. Try giving seeds an 1/8th or so of room in between each one if you can. Sprinkle a bit of soil on top of your seeds (another 1/8th or so inches deep). Water your seeds well to help them start germinating. As your plants grow, keep the soil moist but not dripping wet. In 10-15 days you can cut your plants for eating. When you cut is essentially up to you but the earliest should be when the plant’s first true leaves start to pop out.

Unfortunately, after you harvest your microgreens they will not grow again from the same seeds since they are only sprouts. However, after harvesting you can reuse your soil and start with new seeds.

Happy growing!

Feb 28

Vermont Blueberry and Maple Syrup Sorbet

Did you know that you can get locally grown and flash-frozen blueberries in Vermont this time of year? Check your local co-op or health-food store and look out for Vermont-made labels. Also, try buying local berries this summer and freezing them for winter use.

Homemade sorbet is great way to make a scrumptious and healthy dessert that is also low-fat. Sorbets can be made with all different types of fruits – so don’t be afraid to try different forms of this recipe! This recipe does not require the use of an ice-cream or sorbet maker and only takes about 5-7 minutes to prepare. - And it was a hit tonight with all of my friends!

Ingredients:
1.5-2 cups blueberries
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 lemon, juiced
~tsp lemon zest
dash of vanilla extract

1. Combine all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mash (or have a helper do so) with a potato masher just until the mixture is combined and the blueberries are smashed up a bit.
2. Place mixture into a blender or food processor. Blend, pulsating when necessary. My blender has a space at the top to insert a mixing device. If your blender doesn’t have this ability, simply blend the mixture, stop it, and then mix it with a spoon. Blend again and repeat until the entire mixture is fairly smooth. Some bumps are perfectly fine. Hand-held electric mixers would probably work fairly well for this purpose, too.
3. Dig in and bask in blueberry deliciousness:)