Chef's Tasting Table Day 9 // Citrus + Fennel

Today's diary recap of our last Chef's Tasting Table starts on the day before, as I was picking up the produce at my Jewel Osco grocery store! In my hand, you can see my very first taste of the mouth watering apple-pears (aka Asian Pears - Thanks to the suggestion of Dan, the amazing produce manager!) And I bumped into West Oak School's very own Mrs Piland! Did you know that she and I also went to Mundelein High School together back in 1995? It's such a small school foodie ed world...

Our last Chef's Tasting Table consisted of the following: One mandarine orange for all, a few chunks of an apple pear, and a small scoopful of that gorgeous citrus and fennel salad. As the school year is running out of time, so is citrus season = Good tasting timing!

A Citrus and Fennel Salad

5 navel oranges

3 grape fruits

1 small fennel bulb sliced thin

sea salt to taste

1 tbsp chopped fresh fennel fronds

1 tbsp minced fresh parsley

2 tbsp honey

Cut off the rinds and pith's of the citrus using this awesome technique. Add the citrus, sliced fennel, parsley and fronds to the bowl and mix. Season to taste with sea salt and honey. Enjoy!

These kids have so much energy and smiles were abundant! Click here for some 8th graders reactions, and click back to my home Instagram page for the 5th grade school lunch room interview I posted today. 

Afterwards, the entire school went outside to walk after lunch as it was ACES Day (All Children Exercise Simultaneously) - What a fabulous "food and move day" combo!!

SO many things to celebrate in this wrap-up post:

1. School lunch participation went UP - You can't pull apart the impact of 2 important things:

• A new school lunch service coordinator - KIM! She brought so much more organization, enthusiasm and love into the lunch room.
• The addition of our 9 Chef's Tasting Table events.

You could say it was a perfect storm.

According to Kim, her West Oak School average daily school lunch tally grew from:
140 meals a day (October)
to
170 meals a day (December/January)
to
200 meals a day (April/May)

WOW

2. Overall, the Chef's Tasting Table participation and enthusiasm went UP every week, especially in the 7th and 8th grades.

3. We're doing it again next year! Perhaps into Diamond Lake School too! Stay tuned...

4. Greater school food "player" connection. Yesterday was our first meeting of the minds to connect Illinois Farm To School Network + Preferred Meals. May the 4th was with us - We're gonna start small and dream BIG.

Enthusiastic good food education inspires everyone at the table! I am learning so much about how school food works in Illinois and I'm constantly inspired by the people who are working to improve it.



Sue Kruckman = One superbly-amazing school wellness coordinator and school nurse. We could not have done this year's tastings without each other's partnership, vision and leadership. I love you girl.

Here is the equation that came together for a year of fun food education in the lunchroom:

Inside buy-in: Diamond Lake School District 76 administration and teachers who want and support it
+ A passionate outside volunteer (like me)
+ An incredible real school food education program grant from The Chef Ann Foundation | Healthy Skoop --> Project Produce = $2500 of funding!
+ Support from D76's school service provider Preferred Meals
+ A local farm (Jen and Jeff from Prairie Wind Family Farm)
+ A local grocery store produce manager (Dan from Jewel Osco on Maple/Midlothian)

= FOOD EDUCATION SUCCESS

THANK YOU from the bottom of my Food Revolution heart!


To the Mullies we go...
xoxoL

ps

You can catch up to the previous 8 "Chef's Tasting Table" events by scrolling down on the left hand side of my blog's home page under "Topics in the Mullies."

Chef's Tasting Table Day 7 // Super Food Salad + Dragon Fruit

HUGE rocking thank you's to Ambassador Sara Lohrmann's Stevenson High School Gourmet Foods and Food Revolution Club Students for coming out and helping with our 7th Chef's Tasting Table event!

Skoop and the Chef Ann Foundation Organization teamed up to launch the Project Produce Grant Program which awarded Diamond Lake District 76's West Oak School $2500 in funds to help give all students access to more fresh produce and food education during the school day.

It was incredible to watch this team of high school students taste the dragon fruit for the very first time! They prepped + chopped + mixed + INSPIRED real food education in front of over 400 students and staff!!!!

Get Jamie Oliver's Super Food Salad Recipe HERE.

With the Project Produce funds only going towards fresh fruit and vege, this salad was an almost perfect match! The only ingredients from the pantry were quinoa, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar! WOW!

Note: We did not include pomegranates (out of season), nuts (school allergy concerns) or feta cheese (school allergy concerns).

Did you know? Dragon Fruit can also have pink flesh!

The high school students demonstrated how to cut open a dragon fruit and took turns speaking to each lunch about the super food salad produce ingredients.

We left the peels out so that the students could come up and touch them!

West Oak Middle School's principal, Mr Willeford suggested we stuff the dragon fruit with the super food salad... WHAT AN AWESOME food plating idea!

Mrs Kluvers collected all of the dragon fruit peels for her class composting project!

Absolutely hilarious student feedback!

Smiles all around. Even on the students who didn't like the tastings... They were proud of themselves for trying something new!

Enjoy watching our fun interview video with some students!
(Note: Video can be viewed on computer, not on some phones):

I had never seen a dragon fruit or tasted one before. I cut one open the day before the tasting and made this fun video. (Note: Video below can be seen on computer, not on some phones):

See you next month West Oak #D76Diamonds! I can't hardly WAIT!

To the Mullies we go...

xoxoL

ps

Here are the pics from the Stevenson High School foods lab were we cooked the quinoa and roasted the broccoli + sweet potatoes the day before! Thanks again for helping and having me guys!

INCREDIBLE!!!!

I'm hungry again now...

Chef's Tasting Table Day 6 // Beet Hummus + Rainbow Carrots

A humble beet...

Gets roasted!

We all got BEET red for Valentine's Day!

Meet Jeff and Jen Miller, the owners and farmers of the beautiful Prairie Wind Family Farms located just 8 miles from West Oak School! They taught the kids fun facts about beets, watermelon radishes and rainbow carrots, three vegetables all grown and sold on their farm.

Skoop and the Chef Ann Foundation Organization teamed up to launch the Project Produce Grant Program which awarded Diamond Lake District 76's West Oak School $2500 in funds to help give all students access to more fresh produce and food education during the school day.

In addition to Jen and Jeff, Mary and Executive Chef Silvio from Preferred Meals joined us and spoke to the kids. Chef Silvio got the students thinking about the ratio of vegetables and meat in our grocery stores, in our diets and on our plates:

• There is so much more vegetable variety than meat at the grocery store
• Vegetables detoxify our bodies and give us essential nutrients and antioxidants 
• You can eat both raw and cooked vegetables (meat mostly cooked)
• Vegetables are much less expensive than meat
• Preparation methods are endless with vegetables
• Vegetables include essential proteins too

It was so FUN hearing Jen, Jeff and Chef Silvio speak to the students about their food passions, farming, cooking, and eating vegetables! Most especially sharing their knowledge of beets, watermelon radishes and rainbow carrots - three vegetables that most students had never seen or tasted before. Thank you SO much for volunteering your time to be with me in the lunchroom, the kids LOVED meeting and interacting with all of you. 

The kids were pretty enthralled watching the beet hummus come together in the food processor.

And the ruby red hummus certainly stretched a lot of students out of their food comfort zone. 

When's the last time you had anything that RED, which was NOT a fruit or colored by Red #40? 

Creamy Beet Hummus

Inspired by this recipe

1 small beet

1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans drained (reserve some juice!)

Zest from 1/2 a lemon

Juice from 1/2 a lemon

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 large garlic clove (or two small ones)

1/4 cup chickpea juice

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil

Combine first six ingredients into a food processor and blend. While blending pour in oil and reserved chickpea juice. Stop after 30 seconds and scrape the sides. Blend for another 30 seconds or until super smooth and creamy. 

Roasted Beet Salad with Citrus and Honey

4-5 roasted beets diced

Zest + juice from 1/2 orange

Zest + juice from 1/2 lemon

3-4 Tbsp honey

1/2 tsp sea salt

3-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and serve.

CRUNCH!

See you back in the lunchroom on the 28th!!

To the Mullies we go...

xoxoL

ps

The beautiful rainbow carrots can be found at the new Mundelein Jewel-Osco Store. A BIG shout out to Dan, the produce manager who finds any vege or fruit for me that is unavailable from our local organic farms. THANK YOU!!