Sometimes I think that things are meant to be.  When I signed up for the Adopt a Blogger program through Dine and Dish, I thought I would end up with a blogging newbie.  Imagine my surprise when I was matched with Food for My Family – a blog that blew me away!  It was filled with thought provoking posts, beautiful photographs and delicious recipes.  I honestly believed that there was nothing I could do to help Shaina improve her blog.  And I was probably right – but I did make a new friend, for which I am thankful almost daily!

About Shaina: Shaina Olmanson is the home cook and photographer behind Food for My Family, where she shares recipes, tips, opinions and her philosophy on food as she strives to teach her four children how to eat well: seasonally, locally, organically, deliciously and balanced.

Mango and Onion

From a young age I showed an interest in cooking, watching my mom and grandmothers, peering around their arms to see what was going on in the kitchen. It didn’t take me long to start experimenting in the kitchen, reading through my mom’s cookbooks, asking her if there was something I could do in the kitchen while she made dinner. Because I showed an interest, my mom let me in, happy to share the responsibility with someone else. But what if I hadn’t shown any interest? What if I would have gone about playing outside, oblivious to how dinner got to the table every night?

I knew once I had my own kids that I needed to share with them and invite them in the kitchen. My perfectionism would need to be pushed aside to allow them to spill, splatter and learn through trial and error because I wanted them to share in the experience of how our food gets to our table.

Peeling Mango

Even today with four kids, the entire family shops at the (way too crowded for comfort) farmer’s market every weekend together. We visit Trader Joe’s together and go to the grocery store as a family. When we planted seeds this year, my kids had a say in what vegetables and fruits we would be planting. I invite them along when it’s time to weed, water and harvest in the garden. They get excited when steam rises from the center of the compost pile as we add in the scraps from the day. I want them to experience everything, from start to finish.

I’m very aware that teaching my kids how to feed themselves is a lifelong lesson. They learn by my example daily, and it is a lesson that I know will stick long after they leave the house.

composting

We celebrated the first tomatoes from the garden with a light salsa. Everyone got involved, and when it came time to eat, there were no complaints. They proudly talked about what part they helped with and how they had seen their dad add the pineapple chunks.

Pineapple-Mango Salsa

2 mangoes
½ pineapple
1 sweet red pepper
2 plum tomatoes
1 jalapeño pepper
4 green onions
3 limes, juiced
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, optional
Kosher salt to taste

1. Peel and dice the mango and pineapple.
2. Chop red pepper, tomatoes, jalapeño and green onions.
3. Mix together.
4. Squeeze in juice from three limes.
5. Finely mince cilantro and stir in.
6. Salt if desired.
7. Allow to sit in fridge for the flavors to combine at least 30 minutes before serving.
8. Serve with chips, add to tacos or spoon over salmon or other grilled fish.

Makes 12 servings.

Pineapple Mango Salsa

Many thanks to Mardi for this installment of What’s Cooking with YOUR Kids. I love that she started a cooking club for boys!

When I watched the UK version of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution last year, I was, like many, horrified at what I was seeing.  Then, when I heard him speak in Toronto last year and received a copy of the Food Revolution Cookbook, I knew I had to go away and “pass it on”.  I am fortunate to be in a position to change little minds, working in a school with impressionable 8-12 year olds, teaching French, and I know the importance of teaching life lessons at a young age.

In January, I started “Les Petits Chefs” – an after-school cooking club for boys aged 9-12.  In the first term, we worked through  “C is for Cooking – Recipes from the Street” and the boys made a variety of dishes, both sweet and savory.  We focused a lot on the health factor, using brown instead of white rice, for example and adding a ton of dried fruits to our Rice Krispie squares for an added fibre boost.  The majority of boys in the club were 10-12 and we had a lot of insightful discussions about nutrition and dietary choices.  One of their favourite dishes, surprisingly, was the Cheesy Cauliflower and Broccoli Bake – who would have thought?

Last term I used Jamie’s Food Revolution Cookbook and had only a handful of boys join (it’s a big term for sports so many of them couldn’t do both), but we had an amazing 12 weeks.  The boys learned so much – from knife skills, to ingredient identification (!) to organizing their mise en place so the workspace would be tidy and, well, workable, these boys impressed me no end.

Bolognese Week!

We worked our way through a number of basic recipes – spaghetti bolognese, meatballs, and burgers for example.  We also branched out into some different dishes – chicken stroganoff and chicken chow mein and I showed the boys how easy it is to make your own sweet and sour dishes!  Jamie himself gave a few of our recipes a shoutout on Twitter and the boys could not have been more proud that Jamie himself knew what they were doing!

The parents were absolutely thrilled at what the boys were learning (and also what they were bringing home!) and I think one parent’s comment sums it up beautifully:

“Mardi, thank you for showing the boys that home cooking is a delicious and realistic alternative to dining out. We have looked forward to Tuesday night every week since the first week of Les Petits Chefs. We will need to adjust our dinner menu when Les Petits Chefs takes a break for the summer!”

If I have showed even a handful of boys that cooking is do-able and delicious, my mission this year is complete.  Next year? The Revolution will continue with more Petits Chefs sessions and perhaps a “pass it on” component included in the club.  Baby steps…  Rome was not built in a day and we cannot change the way people eat overnight.  But eventually, if enough people get on board, the “real food” revolution will succeed.

Mardi Michels is a full-time French teacher and part-time food blogger based in Toronto.  Her blog, eat.live.travel.write focuses on culinary adventures both near and far because she travels as often as she can!

I would love for YOU to share a story about your kids in the kitchen. I am also going to start sharing guest posts from children – sharing their perspective of a cooking or foreign food experience! This blog will be featured in Scholastic Magazine in August/September, so get your post in soon!

Just recently, I was wishing for a great app for my phone that would remind me which fruits and vegetables were in season around the country.  While I didn’t find any that I liked on seasonality of foods, I saw a few others that might be helpful to families trying to make better food choices for their families and the planet.

Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Guide helps you identify which types of fish are best to purchase or avoid.  These are based on health and sustainability.

The Environmental Working Group also has an app called the Dirty Dozen that  reminds you which types of produce have the most and least amount of residual toxins in them, after they have been washed and prepared to eat.

And this morning, I came across this one called IScanMyFood – it scans ingredients and checks them against a food additive database, telling you which ingredients you should avoid.  Here’s a video that goes over the features.  (I have no association with this product, but think it’s really cool!).

Thank you Jackie for this awesome post.  It is always so much fun for me when people send these in!  Plus, I am nosy and love to see where you cook with your kids.  (If you can believe it, I often end up cooking with kids on patios, decks, family rooms, on desks and sometimes in the middle of farms!)

Jackie Lee is a full time work at home mom who, in between cooking with a preschooler, raising chickens, and her own groceries, is all about Keeping It Simple and helping moms learn how to make some extra money from home.

My daughter and I love to cook together. She always wants to help, no matter what we’re making. It’s gotten so much more fun the older she gets for us to cook together.

Hanna in action

Here’s a couple things I’ve realized when it comes to cooking with kids.

1. Let go of perfection.

Whether it’s the food looking perfect, the kitchen staying perfectly clean. Let go of it all. The more you’re trying to make things perfect the less fun you and your kids are going to have. Just cont on the fact the kitchen will be a little messier, and the food might not look exactly how you would have done it. It will still taste great, and the kitchen can be cleaned.

2. Let kids DO!

The more you can let the kids help the better. When they’re younger let them pour the measured ingredients in the bowl.When they get a little older let them measure the ingredients. (it’s a great way to start talking about math, and fractions). Let them use the rolling pin to roll dough. Let them do the scooper to scoop cookies. So what if they aren’t all the exact same size… let them do. It’s how they learn and what makes cooking fun. It’s no fun to just watch.

With those two things in mind we recently tackled Calzones!

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 cup water
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups white flour
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 Tbsp sugar
1 package yeast

Calzones:

1 cup spaghetti or pizza sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
About 40 pepperonis
1 Tbsp olive oil
Couple shakes of garlic powder

What you do:

1. Combine all the dough ingredients in the bread maker and set it on the dough setting.
2. If you’re more adventurous you can do this part by hand as well. (I wasn’t)
3. Once the dough is ready you want to place it on a clean floured surface and knead it into a ball.
4. Cut the dough ball in half. Then cut it in half again, then cut it in half again. You will end up with 8 small balls. If you have little ones you might cut one of those balls even smaller for little mini calzones for the kids.
5. Once you’ve got your small dough balls add a little flour to the counter and you’re going to roll them out. (Remember the rule… Let kids do. Hanna loved rolling!) You’re looking to create an oval/rectangle shape with your dough. It will be about ¼ inch thick when it’s done.
6. Once you’ve got it rolled out slide it onto a greased cookie sheet, or pan.
7. Once on the pan you want to add your filling. While this recipe calls for pepperoni, any filling you and your family like will work as well.
8. Add a few pepperonis, then top with a spoonful of sauce, a pinch of cheese, and top with a couple more pepperoni to one side of the dough.
9. Note: if you love cheese as much as I do, do NOT get carried away with the cheese. Too much cheese will make it hard to close the Calzones,and much easier for it to leak out the sides.
10. When you’re done adding the filling you’re going to fold the half that doesn’t have toppings over so the edges meet.
11. Crimp the edges and then use a fork to seal them together. This will help keep the sauce and cheese inside. (Hanna loved this part)
12. Brush the top with a little olive oil.
13. Sprinkle on a little garlic powder.
14. Put them in the oven at 350 degress to bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until they are golden brown on the top.

We served this with a side salad and everyone loved it.

** These are great for freezing for snacks or lunches later. Freeze after baking.

Do you cook with your kids?  I’d love for YOU to do a guest post.  The timing is perfect, too – This blog will be featured in Scholastic’s Parent & Child Magazine in August/September!

You know the expression, “Don’t cry over spilled milk.”  It has several implications.  First, the word “spill” usually means that a finite quantity of liquid pours out of a vessel.  And then stops.  Because the vessel becomes empty.  It also suggests that it was an accident – but not an entirely unexpected one.  All evidence suggests that when there is a glass of milk next to a child, there is a significant chance that the child will knock over the milk with their flailing limbs at the dinner table.  It happens to my son all the time – sometimes more than once during a single sitting!  So we are not surprised, and we put protective measures into place, like using washable placemats and taking all homework away from the table before the liquids come out.  These strategies help to alleviate the negative impacts of the spreading liquids.

Hmmm.  What can we learn from this analogy?

1. Be prepared.  Have a “plan b” and maybe even a “plan c, d, e and f” just in case.
2. So far, there is NO end to the oil spewing from the bottom of the gulf.  I think we should consider renaming this environmental disaster something
   

   Image from National Wildlife Federation

   other than a “spill.”  It’s more like an “oil eruption.”  But other words come to mind, too:  surge, torrent, fountain or rupture.

Okay, enough complaining.  What can we do about it?

The National Wildlife Federation set up an awesome page to teach kids about this disaster – how it happened, the effects it is having on wildlife and tips for reducing our dependence on oil, so this might not happen again.  Please check it out and share it with your children!

Talk to hair dressers and dog groomers in your community.  Tell them that they can collect hair and fur clippings to send to Matter of Trust, who stuffs them into old nylons and uses them as booms to absorb oil on the surface of the water.  Check this out:

What would you name this catastrophe?  How have you discussed it with your kids?

I love how this video, from the White House Blog, captures the essence of the Chefs Move to Schools initiative:

Look! A new post about the initiative from my friend, Lia at the Nourish Network.

Since my return from the White House, just over a week ago, I have been invited to help launch salad bars in 7 elementary schools in our district next fall!

Thanks Flotus!