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Kids get creative with cuisine of healthy snacks
(by Lisa Kintish - April 09, 2008)
After weeks of learning about nutrition and healthier eating, the fourth graders at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Boonton had the chance to put their lessons into action by creating actual recipes. This was not merely a homework assignment, but also a contest, the Healthy Snack Competition.
The eight-week course, taught by Mary Ann Unterkofler, religion and life skills teacher at OLMC, included instruction on the food pyramid, proper food amounts, handling and storage of food, and proper cleaning of utensils. Some lessons included trips into the kitchen in order to learn how to mix things, such as trail mix, as well how to use a microwave oven and a conventional oven. However, the ultimate point of all this was to learn how to eat properly.
As Unterkofler said, “We have only one body.”
The students were encouraged to think nutritiously when going for a snack and not immediately go for the candy bar. Ah, but nothing compares to the real thing, so for the competition, the youngsters had to make their own healthy snacks. This meant creating a recipe or taking one from a cookbook, but putting their own spin on it.
Since this was a competition, there were winners, three in fact. Taking home the title of best overall recipe was Jonathan Eramian of Boonton, for his melted bites: toasted bread with melted cheese, blackberry preserves, and a cucumber on top. He and his mother came up with the recipe through trial and error.
“We just started thinking and my mom thought put something on bread and we experimented.”
Eramian said he thought this recipe was the best out of the group that he and his mother tried. As for what he learned in class: wash the sink more often.
Most creative presentation went to George Suppa of Boonton for his Yummysaurus. Designed to look like a stegosaurus, strawberries were placed on the back to represent plates, asparagus tip was used for the tail to look like spikes, and the head was a grape tomato. The body was a whole-wheat bagel with cream cheese.
The inspiration was simple enough. Suppa said he “really likes dinosaurs.”
Winning first-place overall was Manal Shaybob of Boonton with her entry of Moroccan fruit kabobs. The dish, she said, “is a tradition in our family.” It is made with grapes, blueberries, and watermelon on skewers with a dip made with raisins, oranges, cinnamon, and rosewater.
“I like that it has a lot of fruits and is very healthy,” said Shaybob. “If I were to have a snack, I’ll have this.”
Although there were only the three titles up for grabs, all the students presented worthy contenders.
Brighid Quinones of Boonton made a fruit pizza. Starting with pizza crust, the recipe then called for a topping of bananas, apples, yogurt, and a little bit of cinnamon. “My dad helped me with thinking of it,” she said.
Quinones noted that if she were hungry, “I could probably fix it and share it with my brothers and sisters.”
Boonton resident Kaitlyn Nathan made a fruit salad parfait with grapes, cantaloupe, blueberries, and pears, as well as cranberry vanilla granola, cinnamon, and French vanilla yogurt. Prior to the nutrition lessons, Nathan already had kitchen experience, baking apple pies with her grandfather. Now, she is thinking about expanding her culinary skills.
Sydney Striegel offered a tropical banana berry surprise: a banana and blueberry smoothie. She altered a recipe in her Everything Kids Cookbook. An important food lesson she’s learned comes from her stepmother.
“You have to try something 10 times before you know if you like it. You can’t just try it once. I hated broccoli after seven times, now I love it.”
Mark’s Moon Madness was the creation of Mark Borsellino, who adapted a recipe on a graham cracker box, combining blackberries, yogurt and melted fluff. Thanks to this class, he said he now is able to think of good things to snack on and is more open to trying new foods.
Raymond McCormick of Rockaway Township made a Paradise Parfait with strawberries, blueberries, granola, honey, dark brown sugar, and vanilla pudding topped with light whipped cream. The idea came from a trip to Las Vegas, but the version there included a wider variety of fruits, which according to McCormick didn’t taste very good. “So I played around with it and made it a little bit healthier.”
He noted that the parfait could be a snack or even breakfast when one is not in the mood for cereal. “I never liked a lot of healthy foods,” said McCormick. “Mrs. Unterkofler taught us if we mix around different foods, but healthy foods, it tastes a lot better than we think.”
Presenting a non-fruit entry, Joseph McGlome offered New Jersey Devil Deviled Eggs made from Jersey Fresh eggs sprinkled with red chili powder. He said it is good because it offers protein.
Other healthy snacks were made by Christopher Esposito, who not only made fruit skewers with strawberries, pineapples, and mangos, with a dipping sauce of cream cheese and vanilla yogurt, but also presented it on a table decorated with Hawaiian items, complete with leis and tiny plastic palm tree. Kaitlin Wendt made a snack with graham crackers accompanied with a cream cheese, fruit, and granola dip.
The competition proved one thing for sure, the fourth graders all mastered the key to healthier living through better nutrition. That certainly makes them all winners.
Lisa Kintish can be contacted at kintish@northjersey.com.
Photos courtesy of OLMC School
Photo 1: George Suppa of Boonton created a Yummysaurus during the school’s Healthy Snack Competition. His stegosaurus featured a whole-wheat bagel with cream cheese for the body with strawberries on the back to represent plates, and an asparagus tip on the tail.
Photo 2: A Healthy Snack Competition brought out the creativity in fourth graders at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Boonton.
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