I cannot tell you how grateful I am for chocolate and peanut butter covered frozen bananas.
In my after school program, I was trying to cook or do something nutrition related during each meeting. I have tried many, many things: Yogurt mixed with honey, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and bananas; fresh tomatoes or carrots dipped in homemade ranch, home-made pizzas... Anything that may give these students a fresh look at fruits and vegetables.
Well, after months of this, I nearly gave up; a cook can only take so many "yucks," and refusals to swallow.
Then, the wonderful World Wide Web introduced me to chocolate and peanut butter covered frozen bananas.
Okay, so adding chocolate and peanut butter to anything feels a bit like cheating, especially when I'm trying to teach students about healthy eating habits.
This one student in particular, who "HATES ALL FRUIT!" (Here's where I set myself up for another failure.)
Then, we measured equal parts chocolate and peanut butter, melted and incorporated the mixture together. While the mixture was melting, we peeled bananas, and cut them into small, bite sized pieces. Lastly, we inserted popsicle sticks into the ends of the halved bananas. (The student wanted popsicle-like bananas!) The popsicle sticks helped to coat the banana pieces with the chocolate-peanut butter mixture. We popped them onto a plate covered in wax paper and placed them in the freezer.
Two hours later, we came back.
The bananas had frozen through (lucky for us, the freezer was set to a deep freeze)!
I held my breath as my "HATES ALL FRUIT" student took his first bite.
"I actually kind of like this," he said.
Victory!!
The student even asked to take the leftovers home for his family to try.
Now, it's been two weeks since my victory dance through the school's kitchen classroom. Yesterday, at the end of my after school program, I asked the student if he'd tried making the frozen bananas again. He said that he made them a few times. Sometimes without even covering the banana with chocolate or peanut butter.
So here's where my crazy worry is catching up with what I logically believe. Teaching students healthier eating habits. That's the goal here. That's my goal here.
Additional notes: be sure to note the state of your student's/children/audience's mouths - frozen bananas are hard to bite through and pretty hard on sensitive teeth!
Special thank you for providing me recipe ideas:
http://www.neverhomemaker.com/2010/06/frozen-banana-bites.html
http://www.notenoughcinnamon.com/2012/07/04/chocolate-covered-frozen-banana-peanut-butter-bites/
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
A Place to Call Their Own
Two weeks ago we tilled up a garden space that is 12'x8'. The students were involved throughout the entire process:
Planning (this plan evolved from a paw print shaped bed, to represent their school's mascot, to something they're more familiar with: a rectangular bed)
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Tilling (an adult volunteer tilled up the grass sod, the students raked and collected the sod and then moved it to our new compost pile. In teams of four they carried a 40 gallon bucket of sod, laughing all the way.)
.JPG)
Next the students built a topsoil layer to cover the heavily compacted clay-like soil. (To do this the students carried buckets of leaf mulch to the new garden bed and after spreading these, they shoveled out carefully composted goat, cow, and chicken manure on top of the leaf mulch.)
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After covering the area with leaf mulch and well-composted manure, the students took a turn at the tiller (One even sang, "I'm a Cowboy Baby!" while doing so)
Lastly, they covered the new soil with a layer of landscaping fabric and secured this with a border of compost. (While securing the fabric under the border of compost they marched around the perimeter, singing a song they learned in Choir.)
Farmers around the area complain that it's difficult to find workers. I do not have this problem: I have an abundance of workers, who will sing, laugh, and dance while performing tasks many call "work." Sure, they may need constant reminders of the task at hand but in two and a half hours, a group of six students and four adults tilled up a piece of land to create an outdoor garden space fit for planting. A little place my students can call their own.
Last week, after four days of rain, we were ready to plant in our new garden bed. The students narrowed down their list of plants they wished to grow and marked the landscaping fabric to determine where to cut through and plant. Many families in this area have gardens, so this is not entirely new to the students involved in this Garden Project. What is new is that at school, the garden will be their responsibility. They have already been instrumental in the planning process. Next, in their garden, they will learn how to plant, tend and nurture, and harvest.
Planning (this plan evolved from a paw print shaped bed, to represent their school's mascot, to something they're more familiar with: a rectangular bed)
.JPG)
Tilling (an adult volunteer tilled up the grass sod, the students raked and collected the sod and then moved it to our new compost pile. In teams of four they carried a 40 gallon bucket of sod, laughing all the way.)
.JPG)
Next the students built a topsoil layer to cover the heavily compacted clay-like soil. (To do this the students carried buckets of leaf mulch to the new garden bed and after spreading these, they shoveled out carefully composted goat, cow, and chicken manure on top of the leaf mulch.)
.JPG)
After covering the area with leaf mulch and well-composted manure, the students took a turn at the tiller (One even sang, "I'm a Cowboy Baby!" while doing so)
Lastly, they covered the new soil with a layer of landscaping fabric and secured this with a border of compost. (While securing the fabric under the border of compost they marched around the perimeter, singing a song they learned in Choir.)
Farmers around the area complain that it's difficult to find workers. I do not have this problem: I have an abundance of workers, who will sing, laugh, and dance while performing tasks many call "work." Sure, they may need constant reminders of the task at hand but in two and a half hours, a group of six students and four adults tilled up a piece of land to create an outdoor garden space fit for planting. A little place my students can call their own.
Last week, after four days of rain, we were ready to plant in our new garden bed. The students narrowed down their list of plants they wished to grow and marked the landscaping fabric to determine where to cut through and plant. Many families in this area have gardens, so this is not entirely new to the students involved in this Garden Project. What is new is that at school, the garden will be their responsibility. They have already been instrumental in the planning process. Next, in their garden, they will learn how to plant, tend and nurture, and harvest.
It's true: May has arrived
Over the past four months, I have patiently awaited promised money for the needs of my two school garden projects.
My patience slowly fizzled out.
During the last week in April, my area's frost-free date came and went with no space to move outside to plant. That was difficult. I did not really mind being stuck inside, behind a desk during the cold and dreary winter months but now we are receiving more than 12 hours of sunlight a day and it usually reaches 60 degrees. The trees are flowering and producing spring leaves. At night, the temperature drops down to the 40s.
For Pete's sake, hearty greens could be sprouting and thriving outside!
Two weeks ago, my anxiousness was readily apparent to those who saw me on a daily basis. A Nurse Practitioner at the school who also farms on her own land, and I talked about options. In less than an hour we devised a plan to create a raised bed using donated time and resources. The money tied up elsewhere suddenly no longer mattered. (This was one time in my life where it really hit me how valuable talking can be to moving a project forward.)
Our plan meant we would till up a plot of land during my next After School Garden Project meeting.
I was so, so grateful!
(Once again, life has showed me that usually, it does not pay to worry and spend excessive amounts of time planning. Sometimes, things just fall into place and being open to that, although sometimes challenging, can bring you great opportunities and blessings.)
My patience slowly fizzled out.
During the last week in April, my area's frost-free date came and went with no space to move outside to plant. That was difficult. I did not really mind being stuck inside, behind a desk during the cold and dreary winter months but now we are receiving more than 12 hours of sunlight a day and it usually reaches 60 degrees. The trees are flowering and producing spring leaves. At night, the temperature drops down to the 40s.
For Pete's sake, hearty greens could be sprouting and thriving outside!
Two weeks ago, my anxiousness was readily apparent to those who saw me on a daily basis. A Nurse Practitioner at the school who also farms on her own land, and I talked about options. In less than an hour we devised a plan to create a raised bed using donated time and resources. The money tied up elsewhere suddenly no longer mattered. (This was one time in my life where it really hit me how valuable talking can be to moving a project forward.)
Our plan meant we would till up a plot of land during my next After School Garden Project meeting.
I was so, so grateful!
(Once again, life has showed me that usually, it does not pay to worry and spend excessive amounts of time planning. Sometimes, things just fall into place and being open to that, although sometimes challenging, can bring you great opportunities and blessings.)
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