Friday, May 20, 2016
Photo
Neighbors | Abby Slanker.A student at Canfield United Methodist Preschool practiced her cutting skills while slicing a tomato during the school’s monthly Lil Sprouts Cooking Class on April 29.
Photo
Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Healthy Hands Cooking Certified Instructor Rachel D’Onofrio demonstrated how to make vegetable stir fry for students attending the Lil Sprouts Cooking Class at Canfield United Methodist Preschool on April 29.
Photo
Neighbors | Abby Slanker.A Canfield United Methodist Preschool student tasted the vegetable stir fry and brown rice, which was made by Healthy Hands Cooking Certified Instructor Rachel D’Onofrio, during the school’s monthly Lil Sprouts Cooking Class on April 29.
By ABBY SLANKER
Students at the Canfield United Methodist Preschool had a chance to put their chef hats and aprons on for the school’s monthly Lil Sprouts Cooking Class on April 29.
The Lil Sprouts Cooking Class, by Healthy Hands Cooking, is an enrichment program offered by the school, while partnering with EduKitchen, a local company run by Healthy Hands Cooking Certified Instructor Rachel D’Onofrio.
“Healthy Hands Cooking and EduKitchen’s mission is to fight childhood obesity and teach children about nutrition and healthy cooking. If we start at this young age, it will instill good and healthy eating habits in the children and teach them to cook healthy foods for themselves. I try to choose dishes the children can easily make at home with Mom and Dad,” D’Onofrio said.
The theme of the day was “Grow it in a Garden,” which focused on homegrown vegetables. D’Onofrio began the program by showing the children several raw vegetables and giving them a chance to feel and smell the vegetables by passing them around the circle. She showed them lemons, sweet peppers, green onions, green leaf lettuce, tomatoes and carrots.
D’Onofrio then read the book “Growing Vegetable Soup” to the students. D’Onofrio told the children they, too, would be able to plant a vegetable as she moved them to a table full of small cups filled with dirt. She explained that the children would plant green bean seeds in the cups and would be able to take them home and eventually transplant them to their own garden. She played a song which gave instructions on how to plant the seeds so the children would know each step in planting.
When the children were finished planting their seeds, D’Onofrio announced they were going to make vegetable stir fry with brown rice. While she already had the rice cooking, D’Onofrio asked for volunteers who wanted to practice their cutting skills to help cut some vegetables for the stir fry. When the cutting was done, D’Onofrio loaded up her skillet with vegetables and also added chick peas, soy sauce and seasonings.
While the vegetables cooked, D’Onofrio read the children “From the Garden.”
With the vegetables sizzling in the skillet, D’Onofrio declared to the students that the vegetable stir fry was ready and promptly served it with rice to each child, much to their delight.
“I see lots of kids eating vegetables. Who is trying something today that they have never tried before?” D’Onofrio asked the children, with many answering that, yes, they did try something they had never eaten before.