CATS Stone Soup
Some recipes blow us away with how deliciously simple they are. This vegetable soup was like that – everyone loved it and wanted seconds. We read the story of stone soup (in which some tired soldiers come to a poor village, and start heating a big soup pot with only water and a big stone in it. Curious townspeople come by and add a carrot, an onion, etc. and then everybody has a feast.)
Each child had something different to chop up and add to the pot. Recipes abound for this great vegetarian soup, but we made up our own delicious version and here it is:
Simple Sesame Noodles
Here’s the answer to what to make for nearly any occasion: cold sesame noodles. Breakfast? Sure. Potluck? Yes! Dinner? Yes please. The kids were beyond enthusiastic for this dish, which comes courtesy of the website of Ree Drummond. the Pioneer Woman.
Most of the ingredients can be found at Trader Joe’s or in the ethnic food aisle of other stores.
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!
Banana Dolphins
So simple, so rewarding, so cute.
For this recipe, something really ordinary takes on a new character.
CATS Tropical Smoothie
I don’t have a photo of this recipe. We made three batches, with about 24 kids total. With each batch, the smoothies vanished before I could take a picture. I’ve never had a more-requested recipe! So here you go. I put together a few recipes from the web, and then we added our own CATS touches.
Pizza Mummies
I have NEVER had such a large group of kids turn out to make a recipe – we had two groups of 12, plus 6 more added in. The word “pizza” is magical. Add the mummy component, and you have a real winner. Plus these are easy and take only about 20 minutes to make.
The idea was to make a little rectangular French-bread pizza, laying strips of white cheese over the sauce to look like mummy bandages. The eyes are two sliced black olives at the top. What resulted, however, were some very cute face shapes, some geometric compositions, one barn design, and a few mummies. The kids loved the final product.
To get a nice oblong shape, I used Ciabatta rolls sliced in half (one half for each mummy.)
Fresh-Picked Basil Pesto
Green is good.
Your kids never fail to amaze me. Some of them are quite familiar with basil and pesto. They know the names of their favorite pasta shapes and are pretty comfortable with ingredients such as pine nuts and good olive oil. Ah, back in the day, I was pretty comfortable with spaghetti and red sauce. But hooray for savvy young consumers who already know a bit about healthy choices.
This recipe was especially fun due to a small problem: Trader Joe’s didn’t have any fresh basil the day I shopped, so instead I bought two big basil plants in pots. The kids loved harvesting the fresh leaves! We washed and patted them dry, and then the sauce came together very quickly. This recipe is made in a blender or food processor.
Pine nuts are pretty darn expensive, so a lot of recipes like this can use walnuts interchangeably (if you’re not allergic).
Here is a classic version that worked very well.
Mollie Katzen’s Tuna Salad
The author of the Enchanted Broccoli Forest and many other cookbooks, Mollie Katzen, has a recipe for Tuna Salad that is fresh and fantastic. The kids made it disappear quickly.
This was an attempt to get them familiar with something they could make at home – and though it has a couple of extra ingredients like apple and fresh parsley, it didn’t seem too hard to recreate!
We served it on Wheat Thins crackers but it could make great sandwiches, or be the main feature on a salad. It would be perfect in an open-faced sandwich on toasted English Muffins.
See if you like it at home.