For our final day of cooking together, the class decided to grill up some sandwiches. Spread out before us on the table was whole wheat bread, wheat wraps, 2% cheddar and 2% provolone cheese, Applegate ham,  peaches, apples, bananas, peanut butter and cinnamon raisin hummus. I tried to offer tomato slices, pickles, and spinach but had no takers. 😦

For the creamy round, we ended up with grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches, a grilled peanut butter and peach and apple sandwich, and a grilled cinnamon raisin hummus and banana sandwich.

For the ooey, gooey, cheesy round, we grilled up ham and cheese sandwiches for most everyone, and a couple of good ‘ol regular grilled cheeses for two of the kids.

And what’s a sandwich without chips? When we went shopping at Publix, we grabbed a bag of purple potatoes, and I thinly sliced them on my mandloine, laid them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet, sprayed them with olive oil, and baked them at 450 for  about 15 minutes or so. As soon as they came out of the oven, I sprinkled them with salt and pepper, and served them to the group until there was just enough left for me. 🙂

For dessert, I shared my all-time favorite cookie recipe- Publix’s breakfast cookies. We even made extra so Madi, one of our students, could share them at her birthday sleepover this weekend.

The greatest rewards from the week included:

• Ella going home and making her family the tomato and cucumber salad we made on Day 2
• Knowing that one of Madi’s favorite recipes was the summer salad
• Aleyah telling her Daddy how to read the ingredients list (i.e. the first ingredient on the list is the main ingredient)
• Madi informing her grandfather that the white grits he was eating are not as nutritional as the yellow ones

Sometimes we don’t think they hear us, and sometimes we predetermine what their tastes are, and so we don’t “allow” them to explore new foods. The above highlights show us just the opposite!

The pictures below of nail painting was part of a promise … I made sure to leave a little extra time at the end of this day because my daughters have been wanting to paint finger nails and toe nails with their old and new friends. The only spill we had was made by yours truly. 😛

A big thank you to each young chef who came this week, and also to their parents for allowing me the opportunity to share my love and passion with them!

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