We just completed the 17 class series at Sonoma Academy and look forward to our next class series there. our most requested class series is for 5 after-school classes, but we are about to begin a 2-series class, and of course, we love to teach during the school day. In essence, we can work with your school and organization to create the program that works for ‘your’ kids!
Kids should not be exposed to synthetic food colorings and dyes. Please read on for options-that are really fun to make!
It’s Food Coloring Season
‘Tis the season for rolling pins, sugar cookie dough, cookie cutters, and little drops of color added to a bowl of white frosting that turns it into pumpkin orange, Christmas tree green and ornament red. The problem is what is in those little jars of color.
Did you know that every season is food-coloring season? Americans consume
15,016,634 pounds of dyes per year and just three dyes—Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6—account for 90 percent of all dyes used. The FDA’s data show a five-fold increase in consumption of dyes since 1955 pointing to the increase in the consumption of processed foods, such as soft drinks, breakfast cereals, candies, snack foods, baked goods, frozen desserts, and even pickles and salad dressings, that are colored with dyes. Synthetic dyes are produced from petroleum or coal tar, something none of us need in our bodies.
Recent studies have linked artificial food colorings to cancer and brain tumors as well as links to hyperactivity ADD, ADHD, and other disruptive behaviors in children.
So now what? Luckily you have choices. Avoid processed foods with synthetic food coloring-check those lists of ingredients- and when it comes to making all those holiday cookies and baked goods, use food coloring derived from vegetables, fruits and spices. If you don’t want to create your own food coloring, there are some companies that produce food colors and sprinkles produced from natural sources. Maggies’s Naturals is one of my favorites, but there are others as well.
Creating Natural Colors
Yellow: Saffron flowers and turmeric powder work well, but be careful as these spices are strong and a little goes a long way. If the recipe called for liquid, just combine the spice with the liquid and let sit a while to infuse the color into the liquid. This is infusing and is a method that works well in creating natural food color.
Orange: Carrot juice works great. If you don’t have a juicer just buy some fresh 100% carrot juice at the market. Carrots are naturally sweet so you won’t notice added flavor.
Red and Pink: You have options here. Just juice some beets, or boil them in very little water to make a concentrated liquid or roast them and add 2 tablespoons finely grated and then mashed, roasted beets into the frosting. Red berries and pomegranate juice work as well. Just mash them or blend them, then strain the liquid through mesh to remove the seeds.
Green: Spinach juice works well. Use your juicer to obtain the juice or infuse the liquid with spinach leaves, blend and strain. You can even whip whole spinach leaves right into your frosting if you have a powerful blender. Liquid chlorophyll adds anice green color and adds nutrients to that otherwise bowl of sugar, which I don’t worry about as it’s rarely consumed in my house.
Purple and Blue: Boiling red cabbage until you get a dark, concentrated broth. Easy as pie. To make your purple dye blue, add a little baking soda at the end. Kitchen chemistry!
Remember all these tips if you color Easter eggs. With eggs I find that adding a little white vinegar to the infused water helps to set the color. Obviously you don’t want frosting to taste like vinegar, so this tip is just for eggs.
This recipe is a delicious way to use all that zucchini! The kids love it and enjoy making it.
Zucchini Pizza
For a vegetarian version, simply leave out the ground turkey.
Serves 6
4 cups zucchini, grated
2 cups brown rice, cooked
1 1/2 cups Monterey jack cheese, or mozzarella, grated
2 eggs, beaten
1 pound ground turkey
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups marinara sauce
3 tablespoons fresh oregano, washed and chopped
3 tablespoons fresh basil, washed and chopped
2 cups cheddar cheese or other cheese, grated
Combine the grated zucchini, brown rice, jack cheese and the eggs. Press into a greased 15X11X1″ jelly roll pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
In medium skillet, brown ground turkey with onion and herbs. Set aside.
Pour marinara over crust, sprinkle with turkey mixture and top with cheese. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Nutrition tip
Summer’s bountiful zucchini is high in manganese, vitamin C, magnesium, vitamin A and dietary fiber.
It’s really fun-and very different- teaching different age groups. Today we taught 10-13 year olds at another Summer Camp. They had a great time and were really interested in the nutrition information as well as cooking! We look forward to seeing all their progress this week.
A picture is worth a thousands words! Here are some photos of our Summer Camp for 6-9 year-olds! The kids had a great time, their parents were impressed and our D5 teachers felt incredible that they were making such a difference in the lives of kids!
We are proud to announce that Dr. Adam Gazzaley has joined our Board of Directors. Dr. Gazzaley brings a depth of experience and important contacts to the Board that will serve DirectionFive well in our goal to expand our reach to serve kids not only locally but throughout the country. Here is Dr. Gazzaley’s brief biography. If you are interested in obtaining his full biography, please let us know.
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Dr. Adam Gazzaley obtained an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, completed clinical residency in Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, and postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at UC Berkeley. He is the founding director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center at the UC San Francisco, an Associate Professor in Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry, and Principal Investigator of a cognitive neuroscience laboratory. His laboratory studies neural mechanisms of perception, attention and memory, with an emphasis on the impact of distraction and multitasking on these abilities. His unique research approach utilizes a powerful combination of human neurophysiological tools, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and transcranial stimulation (tCS). A major accomplishment of his research has been to expand our understanding of alterations in the aging brain that lead to cognitive decline. His most recent studies explore how we may enhance our cognitive abilities, and/or prevent them from declining in various neuropsychiatric conditions, via engagement with custom designed video games, neurofeedback and tCS. Dr. Gazzaley has authored over 70 scientific articles, delivered almost 300 invited presentations around the world, and his research and perspectives have been consistently profiled in high-impact media, such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME, Discover, Wired, PBS, NPR, CNN and NBC Nightly News. Recently, he wrote and hosted the nationally televised, PBS-sponsored special “The Distracted Mind with Dr. Adam Gazzaley”. Awards and honors for his research include the Pfizer/AFAR Innovations in Aging Award, the Ellison Foundation New Scholar Award in Aging, and the Harold Brenner Pepinsky Early Career Award in Neurobehavioral Science.
According to one study of 31,337 children and adolescents, snacking can contribute up to 600 calories per day, mostly from high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar foods. Three snacks per day are common and more than 27 percent of children’s daily caloric intake is coming from snacks. These snack habits are eroding mealtime where healthier food is generally served. My guess is that adults aren’t too far behind in these statistics.
Snacks can be a healthy part of food intake, but should be eaten only when hungry, not as habit or from boredom. Here are some healthy snack tips:
Here are a few healthy snacking ideas:
Hummus
Serves 6
Yield: 2 cups
2 cups cooked garbanzo beans or 1-15 ounce can*
1 lemon, juiced
2 tablespoons tahini
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Rinse and drain garbanzos and place them in a food processor. Add the lemon juice, salt and pepper, tahini, garlic, cumin and cayenne. Turn on the processor and slowly add the olive oil in a thin stream until the mixture is smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings, if needed. Place in a bowl, drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with paprika.
*To cook your own garbanzo beans, also known as chickpeas, soak 1 cup beans in cold water and a piece of Kombu seaweed for 8 hours. Another way is the quick-soak method. Place 1 cup beans and 2 cups of water in a saucepan bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes. Next, cover; turn off the heat and let sit for 2 hours. After soaking, the beans take about an hour to cook at a simmer on the stove. The Kombu in the soaking liquid and in the cooking water makes the beans more digestible and less likely to cause gas.
Patty showing the kids how to make egg pasta
Sonoma Academy Kids
These kids prepares a meal for a group of Veterans and with the D5 Team and the kid’s parents we delivered the meal to them. We call this series, It Takes a Village. It’s wonderful to watch the kids give back to community at such a young age!
Learning to make homemade pasta.
We love school gardens! So many of our schools either have gardens or are planning gardens. We can take the kids to the gardens to pick the ingredients to prepare the recipes. They learn about where their food comes from and why fresh food tastes so much better!
