Strawberry Orange Salad

Cutting the Oranges and Strawberries

The filling for the crepes was so delicious that we had to make a fruit salad with strawberries and oranges.  I don't usually think of these two fruits together but they compliment each other nicely and the end of the orange season is the beginning of the strawberry season so it makes sense.  Strawberries have been wonderful for the last few weeks and we have been using them as much as we can.  You don't really need a recipe for this just cut up strawberries and oranges and mix - some tangerine segments are a nice addition.

EAT YOUR VEGETABLES!!!!!!!!!

Caesar Salad

I am aware that we do not eat enough vegetables and I am frequently told by parents that their children are picky eaters or will not eat salad but my experience cooking with students is that they love vegetables and salads.  The salad that no one seems able to resist is the Caesar salad that we make at Peralta.

The recipe for this salad is 
Romaine Hearts
Croutons
Grated Parmesan Cheese

The dressing is -
1 Bulb Crushed Garlic
2 teaspoons of Capers
Grated  Peel from One Lemon
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon of Dijon Mustard
1/4 Cup of Olive Oil

These amounts are approximate but should make a nice dressing - you can just mix all the ingredients together for a great dressing.  If you want to you can emulsify the dressing by mixing all the ingredients except the olive oil then add the olive oil slowly stirring all the time with a wire whisk.  My students have lots of energy and enthusiasm for vigorous whisking so we get great thick smooth dressings.

Green Salad with Oranges

We have been making this salad all winter with lettuce from the Peralta Gardens and oranges from neighborhood trees.  It is one of my favorite salads and my students enjoy it.  A few of the older students are getting pretty good at cutting off the orange peels and then slicing the oranges.




Lettuce
Peeled and sliced oranges
Tangerine segments
Sliced jicama
Sliced avocados
Dried Cranberries

I make a dressing with lemon peel, orange peel, lemon juice, orange juice, olive oil, a little dijon mustard and salt

Buckwheat Crepes

Making Crepes

I am so happy to see some spring fruits and vegetables at the markets and stores.  Strawberries are plentiful and inexpensive now so to celebrate we made buckwheat crepes filled with strawberries and oranges.  We added some vanilla yogurt for a sauce.  These are delicious, nutritious, gluten free, easy and fun to make.  This is the recipe that we used - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Basic-Buckwheat-Crepes-357236

Preparing the filing

Avocados

Cutting Cilantro

A recipe - you can decide on how much

Avocados

Chopped or mashed garlic

Chopped Cilantro

Chopped Jalapeno

Lime Juice

Salt

You can add also onions, jicama or tomatoes

This has been an amazing year for avocados, these all came from a tree in the neighborhood.  The avocado tree at Peralta is bearing fruit for the first time in any one's memory.  What is really surprising is that they taste great.  We have had a surfeit of them and so we made guacamole that we scooped up with carrots and jicama.  I was surprised at how many carrots the kids ate even after we finished the guacamole they couldn't get enough raw carrots.

Mashing Avocados

Eating Guacamole with carrots and jicama

Ribollita

We have been making lots of wonderful dishes with the greens from the garden this season, one of my favorites was a stew inspired by Ribollita the Tuscan stew made with lots of vegetables and several different kinds of greens.  We used canned tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, greens, garlic and cooked cannellini beans.  I cooked the greens, potatoes and carrots ahead of time so that we could prepare and eat this stew during our 45 minute class.   The students cut everything up and we put it in boiling water then let it cook while we cleaned up for about 10 minutes.  We added grated Parmesan cheese right before we ate the stew, which was fabulous.


Here is a recipe for a traditional version from Bonappetit -
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/02/ribollita

Citrus Week

The last week of January was citrus week at Peralta the entire school cooked recipes that featured citrus in one way or another

Kindergarten made a kale salad with lemon.  I have learned that knives and Kindergartners are not a good combination so making this kale salad with scissors was perfect.  We added lemon juice, lemon peel, tangerine slices, olive oil and salt.  The kale was grown in our gardens

 

    









Second Grade classes made orange cake that filled the entire pod with the most amazing aroma.                                                          

 1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal

1tsp. baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

½ cup oil

2 oranges

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl.  We used the entire orange grated on a grater, the Cuisinart works also but isn't as hands on.  Mix the wet and dry ingredients and pour into a 9" x 12" pan and bake at 350 until done, about 20 - 25 minutes in our little convection oven, possibly a little longer in a conventional oven.  

Third Grade Students made a citrus salad with Oranges, Tangerines, Grapefruit, Pineapple and Lime Juice.  

 

A Fourth grade class made preserved Meyer lemons.  The recipe that I have been using has been a little too salty lately so you might add less salt.
 http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Preserved-Meyer-Lemons-102747

Fifth grade students drew all the different kinds of citrus and then tasted them.

Broccoli and Citrus Salad

What's more fun peeling tangerines or cutting broccoli?

Even though some Presidents aren't fond of it kids usually like cooked broccoli. This recipe makes it even better.

To make this recipe we used -

Cooked or steamed broccoli
Peeled and segmented tangerines
A dressing of rice wine vinegar, a little roasted sesame oil and salt.

We made this salad with the addition
of steamed brussel sprouts
in a first grade class

The addition of some steamed brussel sprouts was also very good.  We made this salad right before lunch in a first grade classroom and the students couldn't get enough of it.

These are students lining up for seconds

Winter Greens and Pasta Salad

We have a nice crop of winter greens  
in the Peralta Garden this year
including red and green chard,
red kale, collards and sorrel. We made
a wonderful salad with all of the different
greens and some pasta

Red Chard 

Sorrel and Chard



This is of course a rough recipe but any combination
should be good. We added tomatoes and sorrel but
they are optional. The basic recipe is cooked greens,
pasta, Parmesan cheese, garlic and lemon juice.

1 pound cooked pasta
1-2 bunches cooked greens - kale is good
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 - 2 lemons
Grated Parmesan cheese
1 clove of smashed garlic
Olive Oil
Salt

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