Wow - what a summer! The 2014 Great Foodini Elementary Chef Camps are in the can and my little chefs are cooking up a storm of their own by now! Such a great group of learners we had in our classes this year.
This year's teaching model was a fun-filled full day camp where we explored recipes for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and of course, healthy snacks - all the while focusing on nutrition, food safety, kitchen safety and exploring food science.
What I keep in mind - ALWAYS - is the secret ingredient, I call it
Great Foodini Magic, which is.....if the kids make it themselves, they
will eat it.....and I am talking spinach and zucchini, mushrooms and green onions, eggplant and tomatoes - we ate it all from the Great Foodini Bucket-o-Joy!
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| Meet the Bucket-o-Joy! |
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| My Pinckney Chefs and their Bucket-o-Joy! |
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| My Brighton Chefs - and their Bucket-o-Joy! |
For breakfast, we made Tic Tac Toast, Breakfast Burritos and homemade Salsa Fresca - the chefs learned how to crack an egg into a bowl to check for shells, and how to adjust recipes to fit their tastes - not too many jalapenos made it into the salsa at this point....
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| Making it..... |
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| ...and eating it are the best parts! |
Then for lunch, we made Burger Dogs (which took on a life of their own.....see previous post!!) with homemade seasoning, had an Everyday Salad with easy homemade vinaigrette and for dessert - some indoor fun with S'Mores Pops! The lesson was in food safety - always washing hands and all fruits and veggies, and keeping raw meats away from table ready foods.
The chefs especially loved smelling, tasting and blending dried herbs and spices to make their Very Own Signature Seasoning - what a fun way to teach children how to create recipes using their sense of taste, smell and sight to create something of their own.
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| Some of the options for their seasoning. |
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| Choosing what we like was fun/ |
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Smelling and blending....and
a photo bomber!! |
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We learned that it was okay to taste and make
adjustments - we also learned that a little salt goes a long way! |
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Sometimes you just have to close
your eyes and savor the goodness! |
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| Or just dig in.... |
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| Digging in! |
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| So good.... |
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| We determined this was a great lunch! |
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We loved the colors in the
Everyday Salad. |
What made the salad an Everyday Salad? We could use whatever we liked and whichever veggies we had on hand to make this bright and colorful salad, Every Day!
Of course - everything in moderation - we enjoyed S'Mores Pops - a real treat and fun to make - any time of the year!
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| Who wants.....S'More??? |
For dinner - our lesson was on Eating the Rainbow, growing our food and how easy it is to add veggies to our favorite dishes to make them healthier - check out these Lasagna Roll-Ups - we added some zucchini, some spinach and some bell peppers - who doesn't like Lasagna?
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| See the veggie goodness? |
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The chefs couldn't wait to try their
Very Veggie Lasagna! |
Confetti corn was another fun recipe, not only because the chefs like corn, but because each chef got to cut up and add their own favorite veggie to the corn and guess what happened? The colors were beautiful and made it very easy to
Eat The Rainbow!
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| Thumbs up! |
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| Filling the Lasagna Roll-Ups |
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It's always great to share - we shared with
the office staff in Brighton! |
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Final group in Pinckney - and the part where we learned about growing our own food - see what they are taking home?
Food science and food fun - did you know that you can regrow green onions in a glass with a little water? Just leave
the root end on and set the onions in a little water in a glass on the counter - cut and eat the green part, which is what
the kids like anyway and the onion will continue to grow for weeks or longer! It was a fun learning tool about eating
what you grow, and growing what you eat. |
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| A little fun with food too - Fruity Turtles! |
When it was all said and done - the kids were proud of what they learned and were eager to get home to make their specialty dishes for their families.
I firmly believe that good eating and better nutrition start with the students wanting to participate in the food selection and preparation, one new food and one new recipe at a time. This lovely young lady is an Elementary School Graduate and All-Star - she has attended every Elementary Chef Camp for the past five years! We love our Chef Mel!!!
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Chef Mel surrounded by her biggest fans, Great
Foodini and Chef Eddie - the best assistant ever! |
Great job to all of my special Chefs!
