30 Recipes ~ 2 1/2 Day - Part 3

This is the last of the highlights from the Healthy Cuisine For Kids Class. If you missed Part 1 & 2 - You can find Veggies here and Meats here.


Asian Sesame Noodle Salad made with whole grain pasta. This one had some kick to it...I think there was a bit of measuring issues with the red pepper flakes, actually.



This dough is amazing. It is a yeast dough that is thick and pourable. It can be used to make pizza crust, or baked into focaccia bread. This one was made with half whole wheat flour, with herbs and garlic granules added to the dough and topped with olive oil and low fat mozzarella cheese. It is so delish that I make this one at home.



Tabouleh salad is my favorite! The flavor combination is fabulous! I find this does not go over well with the majority of students at my school when offered as a choice with the main meal, but it is a huge hit with my vegetarian eaters who frequent the salad bar.



These whole wheat sugar cookies are the bomb! The wheat flour lends a nutty flavor and if you get the right type of wheat flour where you find bits of the grain you can deceive everyone to think there are nuts in the cookies. I'm not a fan of nutmeg, but I can tolerate it in these cookies.

FYI - The Culinary Institute of America writes, reviews, and updates the recipes that the USDA gives all schools as standardized recipes. All of the recipes I have featured between the three blog posts are available to every school that participates in the National School Lunch Program.

Cupcake Fun

For those of you that know me well, you know I'm no Martha Stewart in the kitchen. Meaning - I don't do all of the fancy "perfect" stuff, I'm a plain jane, K.I.S.S., type of cook. Every once in a while I get inspiration to try something new and "fancy". It just so happens the inspiration for the aboved pictured delicacy was birthed from the Cupcake Pop recipe on the Bakerella website.

Mine certainly are not perfection like hers. What I can say is that they are #1 - too time consuming to reach the end result and #2 - I am wearing cake, frosting, chocolate bark and red candy melts; my kitchen doesn't look much better. They taste good, but the texture put me off. I like my chocolate cake and frosting, just not mixed/mushed together like this. I'll stick with baking cupcakes and leave it at that.

Potato Salad on my Plate

There's nothing like a good old fashioned picnic. One of my favorite picnic foods is Potato Salad. Not your ordinary Potato Salad with Egg and mayonnaise. While I enjoy eating Potato Salad made that way, my favorite Potato Salad heralds from my Paternal Grandmother that immigrated to the United States when my father was 11 years old.

My father was 2 years of age when his parents fled their homeland of Latvia after the Soviet Union took control of their country. They left behind 2 much older sisters that had married Soviet officials and had families of their own. For the next 9 years they lived in the sub-standard conditions of DP (Displaced Persons) Camps in Germany. A third sister, 16 years older than my father and closest in age, immigrated to the US about the same time.

My Grandmother passed away when I was a mere 7 years old. I have no recollection of ever cooking with her, but I do have fond recollections of sitting in large Daisy patches watching her pick the daisies, then twist the stems to make Daisy Crowns. When the crowns were finished, she would place one on my head and tell me I was a Princess.

I am fortunate in that I had a wonderful Aunt who preserved my Grandmother's recipes and passed them down to the rest of us. I don't know as though this is traditional Latvian style Potato Salad, but we've called it that since I was old enough to know what potatoes were. I find this Potato Salad to be very refreshing on a hot summer day. Not heavy like the ones made with mayonnaise.

Latvian Potato Salad
5 Pounds of Red Potatoes
1 Large Onion
1 jar Polish Dill Pickle Spears
1 Container Sour Cream
Fresh Dill

~ Boil Potatoes until tender, drain and chill overnight. Peeling off skins is optional. Cube Potatoes and put in Mixing Bowl.
~Diced Onion Fine and Add to Mixing Bowl.
~Reserve Juice from Pickles...Chop Pickles (entire jar) Add Pickles to Mixing Bowl.
~Finely Chop Fresh Dill (about 1-2 Tbsp.) and add to Mixing Bowl.
~Add Sour Cream to Mixing Bowl and begin mixing ingredients. Add some of the reserved Pickle Juice to loosen up the sour cream to make it easier to incorporate. I find that most of the time I end up using all of the juice, depending on the thickness of the sour cream.

Cover and chill several hours, toss before serving.

Healthy Cuisine For Kids

This week I had the pleasure of attending special training put on by the National Food Service Management Institute ~ Healthy Cuisine for Kids. A chef/instructor from the Culinary Institute of America was brought in to teach the lab portions of our classes.




Our mission was to attend the three days of class/lab sessions, and then spend another day in training to begin preparations so we can teach the course to other food service staff around the state. We prepared 60 different dishes. The pace was hectic, and we all felt like we were Iron Chefs for the week. At the end of each lab session, we were expected to taste test every dish and rate it. By the end of the day I was so stuffed that the last thing I could think about was eating dinner. It was insane, my poor belly felt worse than over-indulging on Thanksgiving Dinner.

Here are some examples of the end results...

Drop Biscuits made with Whole Wheat Flour

Mexican Quiche made with whole wheat pie crusts

Homemade Pizza Crust with Homemade Sauce and Reduced Fat Cheese