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PBJ and Banana Hand-Roll “Sushi”

Our teacher Sharla brought in a booklet from the Mission Tortilla Factory that had fun recipes and inspired this simple one. It's kind of like a PBJ and banana burrito, but done the CATS way.  This is a little like a sushi hand roll.

Date-Crusted Yogurt Fruit Tart

I saw this on the Web, described as a breakfast food. In my book, it would work all day long! The kids enjoyed making it -- it was like a little art project that also tasted amazing. The dates in the unbaked crust really added a depth of flavor and some nice fiber to boot. You'll want to use a food processor to make the crust.
45 min
6-8

Watermelon Pizza

No crust, no cheese. This fruit pizza is beautiful, delicious, fast, low-fat, nutritious and easy to eat. We loved it! You can make it into a fun little project at a picnic or party. Watermelon is loaded with vitamins A, B and C and lycopene and many other beneficial components. In the hot summer, it's also a great thing to help replenish fluids for active kids in the sun.
45 min
varies

Chocolate-Dipped Clementines & Strawberries w/ Sea Salt

ONCE in a while, we have chocolate. And the kids went nutso for these fruit-and-chocolate goodies, even with dark chocolate. They are so simple and quite rewarding. ;) You could also use apple slices or pears (Nirvana!) and can roll them in nuts if nobody is allergic.

Delicious Black Bean Brownies

I'd seen recipes for brownies using rinsed, blenderized canned black beans, but never had the courage to try them. This one, one, adapted from Meal Makeover Moms, had great reviews, so I was convinced. I asked the kids if they were brave enough to try healthy bean brownies, and recruited a small crowd for the first round of cooking class. While the brownies were baking, they gave off an amazing scent -- so I soon had a big second round of eager volunteers. The results were excellent. Everyone wished we had more to share! The bean flavor is nearly undetectable, but the texture and taste are great. And you get all the low-fat nutrition and fiber of the beans without losing anything -- except dairy and flour. I hope you try these!
9 brownies

Assorted Apples with Honey-Yogurt Fruit Dip

In early October, I took a day trip up to Apple Hill, east of Sacramento -- a wonderful place to visit in the autumn. It would be even better with kids! It's a collection of apple orchards, wineries, and farms that offer opportunities for apple-picking and apple tasting and learning about the industry. Of particular note: apple cider doughnuts. They just aren't the same anywhere else. We stopped first at High Hill, which has a fishing pond, an ongoing crafts fair, and a fudge factory to offer, plus fantastic fresh apple cider, doughnuts, fritters, sandwiches, and an open-air apple market. I brought back four varieties to taste: Red Rome, Honeycrisp, Mackintosh and Empire. The runaway winner with the kids was the Honeycrisp. Later in the season (towards Thanksgiving) excellent Pink Ladies are available. At any rate, at CATS, we made a simple yogurt dip that goes beautifully with any apple variety - and is good with pears, bananas, strawberries and whatever else you would like to dunk into it. This recipe makes a lot, so halve it if you like.

Easy Apple Puffed Pastry

Having grown up in Seattle, I am an apple girl. Here's an easy way to make a  fancy apple pastry that is pretty low in fat and sugar. It takes just a few minutes to assemble TWO rectangular pastries. For this, we used delectable, colorful Pink Lady apples. I saw a video of Ree Drummond, thepioneerwoman.com, making this fast dessert and was inspired to try it at CATS. Some supervision with apple-slicing is important. We're going for thin slices, and the skin is left on, which can be hard to cut through with a dull knife (we use  tame knives.) I tell the kids to cut apple halves with the flat side solidly planted on the cutting board for safety, as shown here. Slices don't have to be perfect or even uniform. They should just be on the thinner side.

Winter Fruit Salad

It's not every community that has five-year-olds who already know what Bosc pears are. "Oh, I love those brown ones!"  Yay! We are lucky. Everyone should be friends with Bosc pears, they are delicious.  And just wait till you mix 'em with pineapple and apples and a bit of brown sugar and spice.
30 min
4-6

Fresh Grape Salad

Here's a winner! Adapted from Eating Well, this easy fruit salad is healthy, low in fat and calories, and will delight all ages (though for toddlers, cut up the grapes.) It's creamy, smooth, and sweet, and a little reminiscent of ambrosia or a Waldorf salad, but those can be packed with calories - and mayo!  Give this a try - nice for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Add toasted almonds on top if you like for crunch.
20 min
4

Vanilla Ice

Trust me, you and your kids will love this recipe.  Now, we can all (even the lactose-intolerant) enjoy vanilla frozen "treats" in our beverages! Three simple ingredients make up a heady, frozen vanilla mini-bomb. Depending where you put it, it can turn root beer into a float, coffee into a fragrant iced surprise and iced tea into (almost) chai! We used low-calorie root beer, which is caffeine-free, to make great floats, though some of the kids just wanted the ice, nothing else. The fun of using a real vanilla bean, which packs SO much flavor, was not lost on the kids! They enjoyed knowing that it comes from a very specific type of orchid that grows in tropical climes, in Mexico, Madagascar, and a few other locales.  The only drawback is that the beans are expensive -- we got them on sale at Safeway. I am investigating ordering online... but meanwhile, the real thing makes a huge difference in flavor!

Chocolate Tacos with Fresh Fruit

Yes, this does sound crazy. And yet these are durn good!  Next time, however, I might make chocolate crepes, rather than homemade tortillas, due to the consistency of this mixture  (thick and chewy!) and the fact that certain parties got impatient waiting for them to cook all the way through, which I hear took FOREVER. We did use whole wheat flour, and very little sweetener in the tortillas, which might be why they were so challenging.  Also, we used coconut oil which (surprise!) some kids do not like. Before we go back to the drawing board, however, consider this recipe - bet your kids can't keep their hands off the novelty of a chocolate taco.
60 min
16 tacos

Stained Glass Jello

This recipe was a whole lot of fun - and it looks very festive, good for a holiday table.  It can be a salad or a dessert or a snack. It's very easy, but chilling time is needed. The "stained glass" look of this recipe comes from making four flavors of Jello, cutting them into cubes, and then creating a white gelatin mixture to hold the cubes together.

Klaus’s Mango-Tofu Pudding

Yes, it really tastes like pudding.  And though I didn't know how the kids would like it, the overwhelming response was excellent.  Some of the youngest kids didn't like the taste too well, but most asked for seconds and thirds in their little paper cups! I am hurrying to post this due to lots of requests for the recipe.

Instant Frozen Banana-Strawberry Ice Cream

Oh, boy. This seems too good to be true, but sometimes... it's true!  First we checked for lactose and almond allergies.  Then, we took six ingredients and made something very much like soft-serve ice cream in less than ten minutes. But our version has very low sugar, almost no fat, and tons of fresh fruit. The kids polished it off so fast we had to make it twice. You will want to freeze the fruit the night before.
4 servings

Fruit Leather Sushi

Rolling up sushi made with colorful fruit leather, gummy worms, and a sweet cereal mixture was exciting for the kids, and made this recipe a runaway favorite. These will disappear!  The sushi rolls are sweet, so one piece might just be enough.
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