Wednesday, December 5, 2018

3rd Graders Have Fun with Food and Chef Makani from Pono Burger

This week, Chef Makani Carzino from Pono Burger, helped Ms. Schwartz's 3rd grade class at Marquez Charter School have fun with food.

She started by talking about eating a rainbow and asked the kids to name the colors of the rainbow and some foods that matched them. She had brought a selection of colorful organic vegetables with her including cucumbers, rainbow carrots and red peppers. She also brought a selection of edible flowers and herbs including rosemary, chives and nasturtiums.

Each child had the opportunity to cut some colorful vegetables to put on their plate, to peel an organic egg from Makani's hen, Fluffy Buns, to make an animal out of rice and and to cut small shapes from seaweed.  Some children had seconds and thirds!
 

































Jessica Siegel from Gelsons Makes Salad with 2nd Graders

This week Jessica Siegel, Gelson's registered nutritionist and dietician, made a kale and strawberry salad with 2nd graders in Mrs. Fein's class.  The children actively participated in making the salad.
All children received two pieces of kale which they tore into small pieces. They also cut the strawberries in quarters.  Several children eagerly cut the red onion and avocado into small pieces while others mixed the olive oil, lemon juice and soy sauce dressing.  After the avocado was added to the salad mixture, several children massaged the greens. Then the rest of the ingredients were added. We made four batches of the following recipe.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons lemon juice (juice from 1 juicy lemon)
1 teaspoons San-J tamari lite 50% less sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon Napa Valley organic olive oil
1 bunch organic lacinato kale leaves, center ribs removed, leaves torn into bite-size pieces
1 small firm, but ripe organic avocado, diced in ½-inch pieces
12 medium organic strawberries, hulled and quartered
2 tablespoons minced red onion
optional- not included in the class lesson-1/2 cup Gelson’s Finest Chandler walnut halves and pieces


Directions:

In a small container with a lid, combine lemon juice, tamari, and olive oil. Let stand while you prepare the salad. You may not need all of the dressing
In a salad bowl, combine the kale and avocado. Use your hands to gently massage the avocado into the kale so that the leaves are lightly coated and the avocado pieces are still intact. Add in the strawberry pieces and onion. Shake dressing well and toss the necessary amount with the salad. Toss in walnut pieces and serve
Massaging the kale and avocado




Tuesday, December 4, 2018

CC Consalvo Makes Frittata with Two Classes at Marquez Charter School

CC Consalvo, a personal holistic chef in Pacific Palisades has made vegetable frittata with two classes as part of Marquez Charter School's celebration of farm to school.  She uses organic ingredients in her cooking. At Marquez we purchased organic ingredients for the frittatas with a donated gift card from Gelson's Markets.

CC explained that a frittata is an Italian egg dish-an open faced omelet.

The children participated in all steps of the frittata making. They cut up peppers and broccoli, whisked the eggs, stirred the egg mixture and of course ate the frittata!






Sweet Rose Creamery Staff Makes Banana Ice Cream with 3rd Graders at Marquez Charter School

Recently Chris and Bella from Sweet Rose Creamery made banana ice cream with Ms. Bihari's 3rd grade class. Sweet Rose Creamery is part of the Rustic Canyon Restaurant Group. One of their stores is in Pacific Palisades.

Sweet Rose is a good fit for our school as it uses organic ingredients. There special monthly flavors use seasonal ingredients.

Chris explained the four main ingredients in ice cream: milk, cream, butter and sugar. He had pre mixed some of the ingredients but also had the students take turns adding them together and adding vanilla, bananas and salt which he then put into an ice cream machine.  The kids were able to taste the ice cream at a couple different points in the process.

Chris and Bella served the children banana ice cream and brownie bites that they had brought from the store as the ice cream maker would take 90 minutes to complete the process.

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Farm to School Month Extended at Marquez Charter

Our Farm to School Month activities are extending into November and probably into December as we're still scheduling guest chefs.

We are so grateful to local businesses and chefs that are working with our students. To date:

October
- Chef Sam Minin from Tratto
- Chef Saw Naing from Tallula's
- Laurel Gallucci from Sweet Laurel
- Executive Chef Doug Silberberg
- Natasha Mmonatau from 1 Gun Ranch
- Harry's Berries
- Frecker Farm
- G Farm
- John Givens' Farm

November/December
- Chef Makani from Pono Burger-in November
- Sweet Rose Creamery
- CC Consalvo, Wellness Coach and Holistic Chef
-  Chef Kirstin Uhrenholdt- co-author with Laurie David of The Family Cooks 
- Jessica Siegel, Registered Dietician, Gelson's Markets
- The Draycott

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Chef Saw from Tallula's Cooks in Ms. Palo's 4th Grade

Today Executive Chef Saw Naing from Tallula's cooked with the 4th graders in Ms. Palo's class. Tallula's, a Mexican restaurant, is part of the Rustic Canyon Restaurant Group and is located in Santa Monica Canyon.  They are known for using fresh organic ingredients from local farmers' markets.

Saw learned to cook from his grandparents.

The students made their own tortillas from the masa dough that Chef Saw had made.  He brought blue corn and white corn dough. The students rolled the dough into golf ball sized balls, and then put the balls into a tortilla press. The flattened tortilla was then cooked on a griddle. Elise cooked the tortillas and the kids added cheese before the tortillas were folded.

The students also made guacamole and cut peppers to add to the quesadillas.  They were delicious!
































Chef Silberberg Cooks in Ms. Conn's Class

Last week Chef Doug Silberberg cooked with the 5th graders in Ms. Conn's class as part of the Visiting Chef's Program of Farm to School Month.


They made quinoa with vegetables.  It was delicious!

Laurel Gallucci of Sweet Laurel Cooks with Ms. Chaides' 4th Graders

This week Laurel Gallucci of Sweet Laurel made pumpkin muffins with Ms. Chaides' 4th graders.  Sweet Laurel is one of the new businesses in Pacific Palisades.  The muffins were delicious!


Pumpkin Muffins

3/4 cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cardamon
3/4 cup 100% maple syrup
3/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
6 eggs
3/4 cup pumpkin

*Pepitas for optional sprinkle

Preheat oven to 350.

Prepare a muffin pan by lining with muffin tins. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together coconut flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cardamon. Set bowl aside.

In another bowl, whisk eggs, coconut oil, maple syrup and pumpkin. Slowly add in dry ingredients, then using an ice cream scoop, scoop batter into prepared muffin tins. Fill batter to nearly the top of each muffin liner, as muffins will rise.

Sprinkle optional pepitas on top of each muffin and bake for about 24 minutes.

Allow to cool and enjoy!

This recipe is by Laurel Gallucci Sweet Laurel and is paleo, and completely gluten free, grain free, refined sugar free, dairy free and nut free!












Friday, October 12, 2018

Week Two of Farm to School Month

During the 2nd week of Marquez Charter's celebration of Farm to School Month we had a visiting farmer, Natasha Mmonatau, from 1 Gun Ranch in Malibu who spoke to Ms. Yoshida's class and Ms. Gardner's class. We also had two visiting chefs: Chef Sam Minin from the new Italian restaurant in the Palisades, Tratto, and another chef, Doug Silberberg, a parent at the school.  In addition, several classes planted in their class garden beds!
Chef Sam from Tratto and Tabbitha 


















Natasha from 1 Gun Ranch




These classes planted in their beds: Ms. Yoshida's 2nd graders, Ms. Bazan's kindergarteners and Ms. Hain's kindergarteners. Ms. Yoshida's students planted tennis ball lettuce, purple radishes and purple carrots.  The seeds were donated by Seed Savers Exchange. Ms. Bazan's and Ms. Hain's students planted sensory gardens with lemon verbena, scented geraniums, lambs' ear and white sage.
Ms. Bazan's students planting


Ms. Hain's students planting


Ms. Yoshida's students planted veggies and composted

Chef Sam from Tratto Makes Ratatouille In Mrs. Farrell's 3rd Grade Class

On October 11 Chef Sam Minin from Tratto Italian restaurant visited Mrs. Farrell's class as part of the celebration of National Farm to School Month. He, along with his Tabitha Kenney, explained how to make ratatouille. He also talked about how he became a chef and growing up in Italy. Chef Sam cooked a lot with his grandma when he was a child.










The ingredients in this recipe are yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, thyme, basil and oregano. Chef first showed the children each ingredient and then each child got a piece and cut it into smaller pieces.  He showed them how he held the zucchini when cutting with his big chef's knives.

Cutting eggplant


The ingredients







Chef showed the children how to take the small pieces of thyme off of the stem. They also tore small bits from the basil and oregano.  The children added the contents of their plates to the skillet and Chef cooked the mixture with olive oil before adding a can of organic tomatoes that he had mixed with an immersion blender. He explained that he uses the canned variety for such a recipe.






 Each child got a spoonful of the ratatouille with parmesan cheese. The ratatouille was delicious!





















Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Thanks to Harry's Berries, John Givens, G-Farms and Frecker Farms


The students and parents of Marquez appreciated the before school tastings courtesy of the following local farmers from Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades Farmers Markets. Please support them!

Harry's Berries of Oxnard donated a flat of cherry tomatoes today! Yum!! We'll use some in cooking and some on Friday for the before-school tastings!

Cherry tomatoes from Harry's Berries of Santa Monica Farmers Market
Donation from John Givens of Pacific Palisades Farmers Market



Donation from John Givens


G- Farms of Pacific Palisades Farmers Market donated apples, stone fruit and grapes
Frecker Farms of Pacific Palisades Farmers Market donated carrots and cucumbers
















Day 3 of Farm to School Month at Marquez Charter

Today we celebrated National Kale Day by distributing kale smoothies and kale chips. We handed out more than 200 smoothies before school. That's at least 14 batches of the recipe.
Thanks to the many helpers: Leaf, River and Winter Armm; Kristiana Tarnuzzer; Sabrina Valensi; Sophia and Veronica Kissane, Logan, QZ and her daughter.

Thanks to Gelson's for donating the ingredients! We appreciate their generous gift card!

Kale Smoothie Recipe

8 oz liquid ( orange juice, almond milk, rice milk, orange juice/water combo)
1 cup kale leaves torn in small pieces with spine removed
1/4-1/2 c. frozen mango or other frozen fruit
1/2  banana

We used a combo of orange juice and water for the liquid.

Kale Chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Wash kale and tear into small pieces.
Place in a bowl and mix in small amount of olive oil. Add small amount of sea salt if desired.
Prepare sheet pan with parchment.
Put kale on it.
Cook 10-15 minutes until just brown at edges.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Day 2 of National Farm to School Month

Day 2 of Marquez's celebration of National Farm to School Month involved tasting cucumbers, apples, carrots and strawberry guavas. The cucumbers, apples and carrots are from John Givens Farms, Frecker Farms and G-Farms all of which are vendors at the Pacific Palisades Farmers Market.

The strawberry guavas are from our very own Marquez Edible Garden.

All of the fruit and vegetables are organically farmed!

Thanks to the parents and students who helped to pass out the food before school.