The day before Christmas Break I visited Edgewood School in New Haven, CT to try out my Black Beans and Sneaky Greens recipe at lunch and see what the kids thought. My son goes to school there, so it was fun to see some kids that I know and ask them and others for their opinions on the recipe. I submitted this recipe to the USDA healthy kids recipe contest, part of Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign together with the New Haven Public School's Food Service Director, Tim Cipriano and a team of parents and students. Over all, the beans were a big hit, especially when we served then in a soft taco tortilla with some yogurt and lettuce. The kids didn't know it but I'd cooked a whole bunch of kale into the beans (hence the name "sneaky greens"), so they got a double dose of veggies!
Full Disclosure: the "cream" so many kids said they liked was low fat plain yogurt. The "chip" that some kids had was a triangle of whole wheat flour tortilla toasted with nothing on it. The beans were cooked with lots of garlic and onion so they were very flavorful.
Check out their comments:
Recipe coming soon.......
I LOVE THIS T! You are amazing!!!!
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A lovely comment via email, (with permission):
ReplyDelete"Tagen!! This is FANTASTIC! The special cooking, and the marvelous, nurturing conversations! You know, Fritz Perls used to "yell," "GO OUT OF YOUR MIND AND COME TO YOUR SENSES!!" So, beside the charm of it all, I think you were encouraging and supporting mental as well as physical health!
You go!!! Love you, Lisa"
I will give it a try with our family. I loved the video comments, and I expected you to ask the kids if they liked it in a box, with a fox ... (a la Green Eggs & Ham)!
ReplyDeleteI just found a very interesting nutrition blog from an educated layman's perspective that may be of interest: www.wordofwisdomliving.com
Also, do you have any good granola tips/recipes??
HI, I still haven't figured out how to respond directly to people commenting in the best way, so I hope you see this. Granola, I'll have to do a post soon, since winter is great granola making weather. I usually put a mix of rolled oats and quick oats into a large bowl, I coat them in whatever sweetener I have or can afford, some oil, any spices I'm in the mood for, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, a pinch of salt and spread it on a cookie sheet or roasting pan. Bake at 325 tossing occasionally until the oats are lightly toasted and dry. towards the end of cooking add nuts or coconut so it gets lightly toasted. Dried fruit is added once the granola has cooled. You can also add flax or other seeds to the mix at any stage of cooking depending on if you want them cooked or raw. If you use sugar as your sweetener try mixing a bit of hot water into the sugar to dissolve it and help it coat the oats evenly. Granola is easy to make and a few experiments with it and you'll get ideas about what you like and don't like. It is much much cheaper to make it than buy it pre-made and you can control the sweetness and other ingredients to your liking. good luck and please let me know how it comes out! - Tagan
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