Outside my son's classroom there is a sign up sheet for parents to volunteer. When it's full of generous parents volunteering their time to do an art project or cooking class I wonder, how do these parents find the time and where are they getting all these creative ideas? When the sheet is empty, I feel bad that we are all so busy and can't seem to find time in the day.
At first the idea of taking over a class with 20 toddlers seemed daunting to me. I can hardly handle my own 2 kids at times. The good news is you don't have to take the whole class at once.
In this episode of my cooking show I volunteer at my son Skyler's preschool to teach a cooking class. I break the class into groups of 4 to 5 kids and I break my recipe up into 4 parts. This makes it totally manageable for me to make a recipe and have fun with the kids.
Helping out in your kid's classroom is a great way to get involved with your child's school. Many classrooms are overcrowded and splitting the class into smaller groups gives the children more one on one attention. In my neighborhood many of the programs that have been cut back have to do with arts and sciences. Volunteering your time helps to give the kids back this important resource. I am always amazed at how many talented parents I meet at the school and the range of experience they have to offer.
I volunteered to make "Orange and Green Muffins" which are actually carrot and zucchini muffins. I call them orange and green muffins to celebrate the colors of spring. It was a great way for me to help out at the school and share my delicious healthy recipe with my son's class.
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Here is the recipe from my cookbook, "Make Me Something Good To Eat".
Orange and Green Muffins
(makes 24 muffins)
I was trying to come up with a good simple muffin recipe and work it into a springtime theme for Skyler's preschool class. We made these muffins and talked about the seasons, vegetables and seaweed. I used the spirulina as an alternative to adding artificial food coloring. You can also just make Orange aka Carrot muffins or Green aka Zucchini muffins by just using 2 cups of grated carrots or zucchini.
3 eggs
1 ½ cups of sugar
½ cup applesauce
½ cup of oil
3 t vanilla
3 c flour
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
½ t baking powder
2 t cinnamon
1 cup grated zucchini
1 cup grated carrots
1 teaspoon of spirulina (optional for more green coloring)
1 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 and grease your muffin pan. With a hand mixer, blend eggs and sugar till they get some air. Mix in the rest of the wet ingredients. Mix dry ingredients together with a whisk. Mix wet and dry ingredients together. Divide into two equal portions. Add one cup of shredded carrot to one mix and one cup of shredded zucchini to the other bowl of batter. Add spirulina to zucchini and it makes it really green! Bake for 10-20 minutes depending on the size of your muffins.
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