Chef Ellie Lavender of Lavender Design + Cuisine conducted two fun and delicious cooking demonstrations at Juana Briones Elementary in Palo Alto. The students learned how to make a healthy snack — vegan lemon-dill hummus! After the demo, the kids enjoyed sampling the snacks along with
organic persimmon slices. Who knew healthy snacks could taste so-o-o good! And as an added treat, everyone got to take home a persimmon.
Get the detailed recipe for this heavenly snack.
On Monday, all the 4th grade students at Addison enjoyed the visit of Chef Beverlie Terra of Dolce Hayes Mansion and Chef Kathy Niven. Chef Beverlie discussed the benefits of eating fresh seasonal foods, visiting local farms and farmers markets, while Chef Kathy shreded the vegetables.
The students were surprised to learn how we can taste food with our eyes and our nose. The kids mixed together vegetables that had an array of different colors, and they “tasted” the vegetables with their noses by enjoying all the different smells.
Chef Beverlie and Chef Kathy then taught the kids how to make lettuce wraps. Each child took a lettuce leaf and filled it with all the different shredded vegetables such as yellow 
squash, zucchinis, cucumbers and rainbow carrots…. They added some homemade Ranch dressing, and voila — delicious lettuce wraps. While the students were busy eating their wraps, Chef Beverlie demonstrated how to make Ranch dressing using a whisk.
The line for seconds was huge!! The lettuce wraps were a big success!
Today we had the pleasure to host “Snack Attack” with Chef Laura Stec at Addison Elementary School. Two classrooms attended Chef Stec’s workshop and learned about the importance of good food and healthy eating. Chef Stec opened the workshop with an introduction about herselfand how she became interested in food and cooking. She 
discussed three different categories of food: Whole foods/not processed, semi-processed foods, and processed/junk foods. After talking about different types of foods, the kids had the opportunity to participate in three hands-on workstations:
Station 1: Kale with Almond Butter and Craisins
After a brief discussion about the ingredients, the students took a kale leaf, spread on almond butter, topped it with a few craisins, and rolled
it up like a fruit rollup to eat. Yes, kids will eat kale! (An alternative version for kids with nut allergies used hummus and carrots instead of almond butter and craisins).
STATION 2: Fresh and Frozen Banana Ice Cream
What do we know about bananas? The students learned that after peeled and frozen bananas are put through a juicer, they can make amazing ice cream!
STATION 3: Candied Carrot Bites
Chef Stec showed the kids how to do a “roll cut” with the carrots. She then put the pieces of carrots in a bowl, added a pinch of salt, some olive oil and sesame seeds. She spread the carrot pieces on a baking sheet, baked them at 330 degrees and — voilà you have Candied Carrot Bites!