New apron for "Miss Dub"

I was so happy to have little Miss Hailey in class!  She is a big 3 1/2 now, and it's her first one without her big brother. She did wonderful, as I knew she would.  Every day she would come in and say "hi Miss Dub, what are we making today?"

When we went for a stretch without a class, she apparently forgot my name and called me The Apron Lady.  See, she was really all about the aprons!  I had planned on making all kinds of sparkly designs on some aprons, and only got so far as to make one....a butterfly on a purple apron.  That is now her special apron.  The stones are falling off, and eventually it won't look like a butterfly, but it's hers.  I need to make some new ones.  I have the tool, but the stones are so darned expensive!

So, Hailey comes in today and hands me a bag.  It's a new apron for me, and I absolutely love it!  Thank you so much Hailey and M.E.!!!

A to Z Class: Ants in my Applesauce, Wednesday

Day 2 went well....and we remembered to put Ants in today!  I realized this morning that we forgot our ants yesterday.

I am going to really enjoy this session...even though the Tuesday and Wednesday classes are making the same recipe, the classes are very different.  On Wednesdays I get to enjoy the company of helpers.  The children in this class are younger and I need more than just my 2 hands (though these kids were pros with the Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer--so independent!)  We chopped up our apples with our choppers today instead of knives.  It's faster for them to chop, more fun than a knife, and the apples cook faster.  Everyone helped with cleanup, including loading the dishwasher.

Two of the children are younger siblings of previous Budding Chefs; it just amazes me how time flies and children grow up so fast.

For those who asked about the recipe box, here is the link:

My A to Z Recipe Box: An Alphabet of Recipes for Kids

A to Z Class: "Ants in my Applesauce"

I found a great resource:  "My A to Z Recipe Box:  An Alphabet of Recipes for Kids".  My preschool classes will be completing each recipe in order.  Most will work for our short class time; some will not, so I will be substituting other recipes.  Today was Ants in my Applesauce.  It was very yummy, though a little sweet for my taste. (The boys didn't seem to mind...."can we have more?!!)  We will probably use a little less sweetener in the Wednesday class.  The Tuesday boys are the "test chefs" when I haven't tried the recipe ahead of time!

The boys enjoyed using the Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer.  They each got to peel their own apple, and then cut them into chunks.  We smelled cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg, which is so much more fragrant than the stuff that comes in a container.  The recipe did not call for nutmeg, but since it's my absolute favorite spice, it had to go in the applesauce.  We had fun using the masher to smash up the warm apples.  We started with a very chunky applesauce, and for seconds, I mashed them quite a bit finer.  Yummmm!

http://www.amazon.com/My-Recipe-Box-Alphabet-Recipes/dp/081185521X

Ready to eat!! 

Keep cranking!

Pickett Family Fun

I had a great time the last couple of weeks with this awesome family. This is an extremely busy household, with very well-behaved, polite children (loved being called "ma'am!)  Grandma and Grandpa were visiting and got to see our first class.  The Organic Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Yogurt dressing was a hit.  We talked about how honey is made and why raw, local honey is great for your health.  Everyone had fun juicing the lime, peeling and slicing apples and pears.

We also made cookies for the holiday--Gluten-free Molasses Ginger cookies.  So much fun making the dough using the mixer.  It was hard work, very sticky!  Rolling balls of dough and bouncing them in the sanding sugar is always fun.  I wasn't sure if they would turn out if we used our gingerbread cookie mold, so we tried just one.  Now I know that next time we can make a lot of them...it just takes a little longer to bake, and you have to make sure to not overfill the mold.  We read three stories while they were baking: "Christmas Cookies:  Bite Size Holiday Lessons"; "The Gingerbread Girl"; and "Gingerbread Friends".  Great books!  We all laughed at the sassy gingerbread girl and were happy to hear that she did NOT get eaten like her brother; she's too smart for that.

Gluten-Free Ginger Molasses cookies

½ cup butter

¼ cup molasses (not blackstrap)

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla

1 cup sorghum flour

½ cup garbanzo (chickpea) flour

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon xanthan gum

½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons evaporated cane juice or sanding sugar, for rolling

1. Place a rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a 9x13-inch metal baking sheet (not nonstick) with parchment paper.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the butter, molasses, brown sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on low speed until well blended. Add the sorghum flour, garbanzo flour, ginger, cinnamon, xanthan gum, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, salt and beat until well blended.

3. With a 1 Tablespoon size metal scoop, shape 9 balls. Roll each into a smooth ball with your hands and then roll each in the evaporated cane juice. Place them at least two inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.

4. Place cookies in preheated oven and bake until they look firm and began to show little cracks on top, about 8 to 10 minutes. Do not over-bake.

5. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Then transfer to the wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Free Healthy Lunch Book!

http://momsbyheart.net/free-ebooks-healthy-lunches-for-children-more/

Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Sauce from Festival Foods class

Sauce:
1/2 cup plain yogurt or fat-free sour cream ( I use plain Greek yogurt)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup honey or pure maple syrup (I use some of each)
1 tsp. grated lime peel


Salad:
1 medium organic apple, cored and diced
1 medium naval orange, peeled and sectioned (or 1 can mandarin oranges, drained)
1 cup strawberries, halved
1 banana, sliced


1/2 cup seedless red or green grapes
1/2 cup diced pineapple
1/2 cup diced peaches
(or 1 15 oz can fruit cocktail in light/sugar free syrup, drained in place of these 3 ingredients)


Whisk first 4 ingredients in small bowl to blend; set bowl aside.  Combine remaining ingredients in large bowl.  Cover bowls and chill until ready to serve, up to 6 hours.  When ready to serve, add bananas.  Either mix dressing into fruit, or serve separately.  If mixing, you can let sit for 15 minutes for flavors to blend.

Adapted from Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing....http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fruit-Salad-with-Honey-Lime-Dressing-106941

Festival Foods 11/17/11 Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Sauce

We had so much fun tonight at Festival Foods in DePere!  Leah Anderson, a Registered Dietician at Festival, helped us shop for healthy ingredients for our Fruit Salad by explaining NuVal scores.  All of our fruits were very high...91 or above.  We chose to use some whole fruits--apple, banana, orange, lime; and one can of fruit, in the interest of saving time.  We chose the canned fruit cocktail with the highest score.  We also went down the Fruit Snack aisle to look at the score for those.  Hmmm, can you believe "fruit" snacks only have a score of 1??  Veda did find one with a score of 4, though.

We then picked Chobani Greek plain yogurt for our sauce, and for our sweetener, we used pure maple syrup which I brought from home, from a local producer in Holcombe, Wisconsin where my in-laws live.  We use it for everything at our house; pancakes, waffles, ice cream, fruit.... We also used raw honey, another great sweetener.

Everyone enjoyed dicing the apple with the chopper that acts like a lawn mower!  Juicing the lime was fun, and we all got sprayed by the orange.  We talked about how many quarters are in a dollar, similar to how many 1/4 cups are in one cup.  We sliced bananas and whisked our sauce.

This fruit salad was a hit!  I have a recipe I have always used, but wanted something a little bit healthier, and Leah recommended this one.  I changed it up a bit from the original.  I will try to post it tomorrow.

We ended the night by eating and reading a great book, Oliver's Fruit Salad.  We talked of shopping trolleys and tinned pears... (the only book I could find for purchase was published in the UK.  I used to borrow the library copy; they only had one, and someone lost it.) It's so frustrating when a book is out of print!  But it makes for a funny read.

The Unhealthy Truth About Our Food

On my book wishlist

Great information from Festival Foods Blog

http://blog.festfoods.com/2011/10/17/is-mold-on-food-dangerous/

Budding Chefs on WFRV "Terrific Teachers"

It was an honor to have Millaine Wells from the local CBS Affiliate, WFRV Channel 5, at our Budding Chefs class to create a story for the "Terrific Teachers" segment.   Thank you for the kind words. See us in action here:
http://wearegreenbay.com/fulltext?nxd_id=91407