Cooking with Kids

By Lori Powell,

Recently, I had the privilege of teaching some children’s cooking classes at my job as Food Director of Prevention magazine. Rodale, the publisher, has a Take your Kids to Work Day, where the kids participate in craft, fitness and food activities for a day. My contribution was, of course, food and it was a home run!

It was a privilege since I felt like I was playing hooky because I was having so much fun teaching these amazing kids. I had four classes of 11 kids ages 6 to 13, back-to-back, teaching them about food styling, creating a better salad and making your own salad dressing with just three ingredients. It was such a joy to see how interested and enthusiastic they were and how smart regarding food and nutrition.

I first discussed the food styling component …how to compose your plate…what the camera sees versus what your eye sees…and then how to present it. We discussed the nutritional value of eating better and what makes a better salad, such as veggies, fruits and lean protein, while taking into consideration texture, taste and color.

Then we moved on to the dressing or vinaigrette for the salad. They were blown away by how easy it is to make your own, in lieu of buying a store-bought one that I explained can sometimes be high in fat and calories and loaded with sugar and preservatives. A young girl, upon tasting the vinaigrette, commented that she could drink it, it was soo yummy! Talk about win-win!

The kids then picked out a plate and topped it with their salad creation. Next they picked out a placemat and then they were off to the in-house photographers to shoot their work of art. Finally they could drizzle either a homemade ranch or vinaigrette over their salad and chow down. Smiles all around!

So now that I have had at least 20 requests for the salad dressings, I decided I would share these recipes with you, so you, too, could share in the salad joy!

Light Ranch Dressing
Makes about 1 cup

1/2 cup olive oil mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons chopped chives
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or to taste
2 teaspoons finely chopped sweet onion
½ teaspoon minced garlic
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients until combined. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Keeps about 2 weeks.

To get the Light Ranch Dressing recipe and shopping list on your smartphone (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android device) or PC, click here.

Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette
Makes about 1/2 cup

2 tablespoons cherry or fig balsamic vinegar (new from Lucini or just use regular balsamic vinegar)
3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 to 2 tablespoon finely chopped shallot (optional but makes it super good)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Whisk together vinegar and mustard in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisking slowly, add oil in a stream until emulsified (thickened) and vinaigrette is a creamy mixture. If you add the oil too fast, the vinaigrette will break. If this happens begin again with some vinegar and mustard and slowly whisk in “broken” mixture. Whisk in shallot, if using, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

To get the recipe and shopping list on your smartphone (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android device) or PC, click here.

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