Vegan Ventures

Teen Cooking Club ventured into a Vegan menu on Veteran's Day 2017.  For those readers who are unaware, vegan diets eliminate all animal byproducts.  Meat, dairy, and honey are also eliminated from this diet.  "NO CHEESE?!" screamed a few unsuspecting students.

Soup's On!

Once we covered the basics of what not to expect, we rolled up our sleeves and got chopping.  Despite no cheese, the apparent main food source in the minds of these students, the menu was filling and easy to accomplish on a cold Friday afternoon.  Soup is a great entry into a vegan diet.  It's easy to avoid meat, while getting lots of flavor and substance using beans and greens.  Cookie and Kate provided this yummy Spiced Lentil Soup, which included curry powder.  Insert the olfactory scent of the kitchen here.  

Sweet Treats

When veggies are involved, I stress to students to "Try it!  We made it together, so it won't kill you.  If you decide it's not for you, the round file is in the corner."  They laugh at the idea of a trash can being a round file, but they respect my efforts and give the required taste.  Not everyone liked the soup, but those who did came back 2 or 3 times!

A sweet addition to our menu involved no-bake cookie balls.  The Beaming Baker posted this recipe for No Bake Peanut Butter Coconut Bites (Vegan, Gluten Free).  Since they were gluten free and no-bake, this seemed like a simple recipe to tackle.  I swear the holiday off of school and the phase of the moon had a portion of my students in a tizzy!  Just look at the top left corner of these pans---that is not the best work of my budding chefs.  I believe we need to focus a class on meal presentation.  At least these treats disappeared in zero seconds flat.

Chewy Cookie Bars

The last recipe on our menu was a suggestion from a patron.  These Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies are tried and true in her vegan home, but we ran into some issues.  Switching the butter with a vegan replacement was not much trouble.  Using "fleggs" in place of chicken eggs offered a great lesson. {A flegg combines ground flax seed and water to create a gelatinous mixture quite different from the average egg from an animal.}  Despite following this recipe step by step, the group of students found the mixture to be tough to blend and very dry.  We added extra oil and water to adjust the issues.  Baking the mixture in a pan to make bars rather than cookies allowed them to be quicker to prepare, since class was quickly coming to a close.

Come and Get It!

Despite our concerns about the cookie bars, they also disappeared within seconds!!!  Families were arriving to pick up their charges, so younger siblings and curious parents tasted the foods we cooked.  Everyone was surprised to eat simple food that tasted so good.  Only one family of the group lives by the vegan diet, but everyone decided it's an easy solution to cook healthful foods that have a low impact on our environment.

Clean up!

Kitchen chores are the least favorite of my students.  I stress that balance is important to life, so with fun comes responsibility.  Sometimes it's a struggle to get these students to clean up, but I love when I catch them in the act without any prompting. <3

Last chance to create with Me!

This wraps up another fun-filled year in the kitchen with teens.  Join us in December to catch a recap of the annual Make & Bake Gifts event.  Filomena Jack will bring her stuffed creatures to teach some sewing skills.  Craft Farm will enlighten students with some kitchen chemistry while making lip balms.  We will also test an old-fashioned corn flake candy wreath recipe, plus add in cinnamon-sugar pretzels.  It is always a great way to get into the holiday spirit.

Thanks for visiting!

xo,

Erica

Freaky Eats

This October appropriately became a spooky month with life and family circumstances shaking up plans and postponing the Freaky Eats theme from Friday the 13th to October 30.

Mind Control:  Fact or Fiction

A spine tingling program was in full swing in the adjacent community room as I prepared my ghoulish program.  While Chris Johnson's traveling library show, Mind Control: Fact or Fiction was toying with the powers of the brain and freaking out the audience, I was preparing to freak out the senses of some hungry teens.

Monstrous Meal

The Freaky plan started simply with Monster Donuts.  I purchased a glazed dozen donuts, a package of multi-colored vampire teeth, and a bunch of bloodshot sugar eyes. A Time for Seasons summed up this project quite simply.  Shove the teeth into the donut hole, push the eyes into the dough and Voila!  Adding more than 2 eyes makes them freakier.

Three Eyed Purple People Eater

We needed something to wash down the monsters and found Zombie Juice might do the trick.  This recipe comes from Ebay, which is weird!  Teens wondered if we could auction off the concoction for profit after we made it.  Turns out it was too toxic for their tastes!

"Like Toxic Root Beer Floats!"

This recipe included three main ingredients, orange sherbet, vanilla ice cream and orange soda.  I made the mistake of buying DIET SODA and everyone lost interest!  I admit I can't get behind diet soda and actually detest most soda, but teens usually don't care.  This was a shock to find they hated this recipe.  "It looks like toxic root beer floats" exclaimed a freaked out chef who seriously tried to appreciate this drink.

Too toxic to taste

It turns out this drink was way too sweet for teen taste buds.  They appreciated the gummies, but disliked the sugary eye balls.  

Overall, this was a flop recipe destined for the graveyard.

How do you boil water?

The last recipe in this Tate of Teen Cooking Club experience was Toxic Waste Mac and Cheese.  We began the program attempting to boil water and get this recipe done first, but the electric coil burner we used was slower than molasses.  As we waited for the water to boil, I asked what seemed like a simple question--How do you boil water?  I recently borrowed The Useful Book:  201 Life Skills They Used to Teach in Home Ec and Shop, which covers all of these simple life tricks that we take for granted.  The answers flew fast, but it was funny to hear how many steps were missing from this process when each student tried to relay the order to me.  

Add the Mac

Luckily we had other projects to keep us busy and not watch a pot boil water.  Once the bubbles were rolling, we added a box of small shell pasta.  Then we set the timer for 10 minutes to cook the pasta al dente.

Minty Toxicity

When the pasta was done, we drained the water and started the roux sauce.  I talked about the base of most sauces starting with a roux, which uses an oil mixed with flour to a paste or play dough consistency, depending upon preference. Milk is then added to the roux slowly to make a white sauce or bechamel.  Bechamel is the mother many sauces in culinary arts.

After making the white sauce, we added a package of shredded cheese, Italian herbs and several drops of green food coloring.  The spinach was forgotten in the aisles of Wegmans, but no one missed that scary vegetable anyway!

Speaking of vegetables.....stop by in November to see what we make for Vegan Ventures, the cooking class where we skip all of the animal products!

Thanks for visiting this Freaky Eats Teen Cooking Club.

Happy Halloween!
xo,
The Jersey Devil