Celebrity Kid Chef #15 and Eat Your Colors!!!

Hi everyone! Wow, the salad recipes are really being tossed about right about now (Badump Pum!). I am wondering if the kids are emulating what their blog contestant predecessors are making for the contest? As we may well know, kids just LOVE being like their peers so make sure to have some good eaters over for play dates or have your kids check out healthy recipes on line made by other kids.

Today is your last day to send in submissions for the contest where they can win to make their recipe on channel 34, win a subscription to chopchop magazine and maybe even get their recipe on Chopchop.com's site. Wow! Now for today's colorful contestant......

NICKI:

Another third grader at the Hillside school, Nicki loves nothing more than reading a good book (or twelve) in an afternoon and writing stories about those she knows or those she imagines or just spending some quality time with her many dolls.

Twin sister to this month’s celebrity chef #11, Nicki’s taste in food runs more toward a good steak, baked sweet potato and a side of passion fruit. Serve her salad with his Shrimp Spectacular and you have the perfect, healthy meal!


NICKI’S DSS: DESSERT SALAD SUPREME

1 large bunch of arugula
1 small head of radicchio
1 mango – diced into bite-sized cubes
1 pineapple – diced into bite-sized cubes
1 quart of strawberries
1 pint of blueberries
1 pomegranate - skin removed, arils (seed casings) reserved
1 passion fruit - skin removed, pulp and seeds reserved
8 ozs. creamy goat cheese
3/4 cup wildberry yogurt (from Traders Point Creamery) or any creamy yogurt of a flavor to your liking
1 tbs. honey
1 tbs. peach infused balsamic vinegar

Remove stems and roots from arugula and separate radicchio. Wash thoroughly to remove sand and grit. Tear leaves into bite-sized pieces and toss in large salad bowl.

On top of arugula and radicchio, arrange remaining fruit for presentation, reserving a handful of strawberries and blueberries for dressing. Break goat cheese into small pieces and arrange on top.
In a smoothie blender, combine yogurt, honey, vinegar and reserved berries and blend thoroughly. Drizzle dressing over salad and serve. Enjoy.

Celebrity Chef #14 and Healthy Cooking Modeling Pays Off!

Hi everyone! Please don't forget to watch us, Parents Who Rock, on CBS news tomorrow morning, Sat., for the 9AM hour! I'll be preparing my make up tonight, thanks to my friend Christine who hooked me up!:-). Now for the recipes.....

All recipe submissions MUST be in by tomorrow to enter the Kids' Cooking contest! We will explain how to vote early next week! here's today's chef.....

Hi I'm Max. I am also Alma's son's best friend and I spend a lot of time watching Alma cook. She teaches me healthy habits (more than my mom) but my mom teaches me that cooking can be creative. So my special special salad I got from both of them. The healthy vegetables keep me fit and my curly cucumbers make it look great! Really try the spinach in the recipe – spinach is my favorite vegetable and all kids should try it. Its yummy and we all know from Take Back the Kitchen how important greens are in our diet.

His favorite thing to do is make salads and his special salad is what he calls "cucumber collage".

Cucumber Collage Salad:

Ingredients:
Lettuce
Cucumbers
Celery
Cucumber Shavings
Ranch Dressing
Balsamic Dressing

Chop all ingredients, but reserve half of the cucumber. Mix well add ranch dressing and mix again. Use spray Balsamic Dressing and lightly refresh salad. Use the peeler and shave cucumber to make long shavings. Place on top of salad. Max says " I like to add fresh spinach too but I didn't have any tonight.

Celebrity Kid Chef #13 and A Recipe to Make B4 American Idol

Hi everyone! Today's celebrity kid chef would like to be referred to as "Ice Cream Boy". He is a first grader who LOVES American Idol, especially Scotty Mcreary and James Durbin, and drawing. He LOVES ripping things up so a salad with torn lettuce is just perfect for him and extra healthy. He now knows to add the pineapple right before serving so the salad does not get all wet.

Please send in your kid's recipes before January 28th so that your child can perhaps be one of the top five winners. The winners will win a subscription to chopchop magazine and will get to make their dish on channel 34 here in NJ. Most importantly, we are trying to get our kids to see how fun it can be in the kitchen so that when they are older, they will not be dependent on a bag of Ramen noodles :-)..

Ice Cream Boy's Salad:

One small head of lettuce, washed and torn into small pieces
2 TBS golden raisins
2 TBS chopped pineapple
1/2 avocado , cubed
2 TBS peanuts

Dressing:
drizzle olive oil
drizzle of chocolate vinegar
salt and pepper

Add salad ingredients together and gently mix. Drizzle on dressing ingredients. Enjoy!

Celebrity Kid Chefs #12 and Parents Who Rock on CBS News Saturday-I PROMISE!

Hi everyone! We are almost at the end of our January Kids Cooking month where the top five winners get to be on channel 34 making their dish! Send in your recipes by Jan. 28th to enter!

Before we present this threesome's recipe, please note that Parents WhoRock will indeed be on CBS morning news for the 9AM show this Saturday! I know that I sound like the rocker who cried wolf but, hey, there was a snowstorm last week and we had to postpone. Please tune in or wait for the link. Thanks!

Now for a recipe from three health minded gals, one of whom I am proud to say participated in a kids healthy cooking class I taught-she was very adventurous!

Also, thanks to their parents for modeling EXCELLENT cooking behaviors!

Here we go:

The Splat Smoothie,
created by Olivia Williams,
Catherine Chaladoff and Nancy Valvano:

1 mini banana
1 mini apple
1 ice cube
5 frozen strawberries
1 cup of lemonade

Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth. Drink and Enjoy!

A Haitian Breakfast and a Haitian Fundraiser!

Hi everyone! What a busy week! We had a wonderful Parents Who Rock event where I made edamame dip and my new homemade health bars for the bake sale. We raised more than $1,000 for http://www.GoalsFor Life.com and had a great time doing it. See the wonderful photos here:

http://montclair.patch.com/articles/parents-who-rock

and here:

http://www.baristanet.com/2012/01/montclairs-dylan-fest-by-parents-who-rock-raises-750/

As many of you know, food makes all events , especially fundraising events, more festive and successful. Why just have music when food can add to the fun?

For today, we will take a moment away from our Kids' cooking contest to tell you about the upcoming concert and bakesale for Haiti. What better way to tell you about it than to show you a recipe by my Haitian friend, Schela, who will be helping us with the event? Watch the video above and enjoy her Sweet Milk and Sweet Potato breakfast!

Also, if you want to bake for the bake sale at the Haiti event, details in poster above, please email me at alma@takebackthekitchen.com

Celebrity Kid Chef #11 and Parents Who Rock on CBS News!

Hi everyone! Welcome to our January Kids' cooking contest! Remember to submit your kids' recipes by Jan. 28th so they can win a spot in the top 5 to make their dish on channel 34!

Before I introduce you to our latest contestant, please know that we have a Bob Dylan tribute show for Parents Who Rock tomorrow night benefiting GoalsForLife.com (http://www.goalsforlife.com) AND I will be interviewed on CBS news tomorrow in NY on the morning show. Two of our excellent musicians will perform on the segment, Ellen Paretti and Tim Oconnor. Note: We may get postponed because of the expected snowstorm. Tune in or wait for the link.

For more PWR details, go to http://www.parentswhorock.com
And now for our celerity kid chef #11! Here's BEN:

A third grader at the Hillside school, Ben loves playing soccer year-round. He enjoys biking to school, swimming and skiing (when there’s snow).

He has always loved eating. And nearly every food available on the planet, at that! Sushi was an early favorite while living in New York City, but once he moved to the suburbs, fell in love with the escargot and whole branzino (head included!) at Don Pepe’s in Pine Brook.

His latest feat is getting up early and frying eggs for breakfast before the rest of his family has even opened an eye. He is well on his way to being a chef, keeping his family well fed, or both!

BEN’S SHRIMP SPECTACULAR

1 lb. pasta – Ben loves organic Strozzapreti - Montebello brand - from Whole Foods, but any small to medium sized shaped pasta is fine (ie. fusilli, penne or cavattappi)

1-1/2 lbs. extra large uncooked shrimp

3 large carrots

1 lb. brussels sprouts

1 lb. sugar snap peas

3 garlic cloves - minced

basil infused extra virgin olive oil

sesame oil

3 tbs. chopped fresh cilanto

Bring 6 qts. water and a few tbs. of olive oil to boil and prepare pasta following package directions. Be sure to add 1-1/2 tbs. of salt to boiling water prior to adding pasta. Once cooked to al dente, drain pasta and set aside.

While pasta water is warming up, peel and devein shrimp, cutting into bite-sized pieces - 2 to 3 per shrimp.

Bring a little water in a second pot with a vegetable steamer to boil. Peel and slice carrots into thin slices. Halve and trim sprouts. Steam carrots and sprouts ‘til crisp tender – about 4 to 5 minutes. While waiting, trim ends from sugar snaps, if you prefer.

Heal olive oil in large skillet at medium high heat and add garlic. Sauté garlic for 1 -2 minutes and then add shrimp, carrots and sprouts and cook until shrimp is pink and no longer translucent, stirring occasionally about 5 to 6 minutes.
Add sugar snaps, pasta, sesame oil and cilantro and cook an additional 2 to 3 minutes, tossing all the while. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve in large pasta bowl. Enjoy.

Note that plain extra virgin olive oil can replace the basil infused oil. Also, a favorite sesame-cilantro marinade made by Fresh Direct inspires the sesame and cilantro combination.

Celebrity Kid Chef #10 and Now ChopChop Magazine is With Us!

Hi everyone and welcome to our January Kids' cooking contest! Remember to submit your kids' recipes by Jan. 28th so they can win the top 5 spots to make their dish on channel 34!

Wait! This just in from Take Back the Kitchen's favorite kids' cooking magazine, chopchop:

"We are looking for people and things to feature on our new "What We Love" blog. We would also like to give away a subscription to the winner of your contest. If the winning recipes are healthy we can perhaps feature one of them online.

Did you all know that we had the White House chefs in our fall issue and that we also publish our magazine in Spanish? Our Spring issue (our 2nd birthday issue) will be released in March."

Wow! Thanks, Chopchpmag.com! http://www.chopchopmag.org

Now for our Celebrity Kid Chef #10, Ella:

Ella is in 4th grade and loves Mexican food, reading, and all sports especially swimming and soccer. Her all time favorite foods are bean burritos, huevos rancheros, and guacamole. She is ecstatic that the taco truck from the farmer’s market has opened Taqueria Autentica restaurant on Broad Street!

Ella’s Insanely Good Guacamole

Ingredients and Supplies needed:

2 ripe Haas avocados
3 tablespoon chopped onions
1 teaspoon chopped cilantro
2 tablespoon chopped tomato (no juice or seeds)
Juice from 1/2 lime
Salt
Wooden Spoon
Molcajete or Bowl
Steps
1. Combine onions, cilantro, salt and lime juice in the molcajete or bowl.
2. Use the back of a wooden spoon and mash the ingredients into paste.
3.Split the avocado in half and remove the seed.
4.Scoop the avocado out of its skin and place it in molcajete or bowl.
5.MASH.
6.Fold tomatoes in taking care not to crush them. Enjoy!