When kids are immersed in enjoyable activities, they absorb and retain information more effectively. For example, the more children have fun cooking with fresh fruits and vegetables, the more likely they are to appreciate these healthier ingredients. This is a shared value between Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and The Creative Kitchen. The Creative Kitchen fosters this philosophy and expands upon it in their hands-on children’s cooking classes, events and activities. The Kids Food Festival, presented by The Creative Kitchen, is an important event that brings the philosophy of learning through fun to a wide family audience. The Kids Food Festival is once again returning to NYC’s Bryant Park for a weekend full of family-friendly events on March 5th and March 6th! Families will cook, dance, laugh, and taste their way to making balanced food choices!

At the Kids Food Festival, kids engage all five senses through hands-on, food-related activities. The magic of the festival is rooted in the fact that kids are having so much fun participating in flavorful activities, they don’t even realize how much they are learning! Enthusiastic eaters and little epicures alike can attend hands-on cooking classes at the James Beard Foundation Future Foodies Pavilion, where renowned chefs pass on their recipes, skills, and love for all things culinary to a new generation of learners. The Balanced Plate Scavenger Hunt (based on USDA ChooseMyPlate.gov guidelines) is the core educational component of the Festival. To complete the hunt, kids bounce between exhibitors and activities to sample tasty, wholesome snacks while learning the importance of achieving balance in their food choices. Families will enjoy live musical performances, a disco dance party, fitness workshops, and more, with each of the activities relaying special messages about healthful eating!

Cricket Azima, founder of the Kids Food Festival and Big Cheese of The Creative Kitchen, has a passion for cooking with kids. In fact, The Creative Kitchen teaches kids about healthful eating in her hands-on cooking classes in New York City throughout the year. Recently, their cooking curricula, Everybody Can Cook was published in effort to allow both general and special education instructors to bring hands-on cooking classes to children of all abilities, ages 2 and up, in their own classrooms. Training workshops by The Creative Kitchen are offered in addition to Everybody Can

Cook in order to teach and empower instructors to teach fun hands-on cooking classes to children of all ages and abilities. Both the training sessions and Everybody Can Cook are designed to create a positive relationship between children and food. All the recipes and lesson plans feature colorful fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Everybody Can Cook emphasizes the philosophy that the more comfortable kids are with their foods, the more likely they are to eat it and enjoy it!

Kids and their families will definitely enjoy the Kids Food Festival on March 5th and March 6th at NYC’s Bryant Park. General admission to the event is free, and tickets to the hands-on cooking classes in the James Beard Foundation Future Foodies Pavilion can be purchased here.

Visit http://www.kidsfoodfestival.com, or the Kids Food Festival Facebook page, and on Twitter at @KidsFoodFestFun!

Are you taking part in Food Revolution Day this Friday, May 15th? Over 830,000 people have joined Jamie Oliver in his fight for food education, and we want YOU to get involved too!

Jamie’s Vision 

“My wish is to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

Food Revolution Day is a global day of action to put food education back on the school curriculum. By educating children about food in a fun and engaging way, we can equip them with the basic skills they need to lead healthier, happier lives, for themselves, and their future families. In short, by fighting for every child’s right to food education, we can help to reverse the rise in obesity levels and diet-related disease.

The Global Obesity Problem

* By 2030, it’s predicted that 41% of the world population will be overweight or obese.

* Worldwide, there are more than 42 million children under the age of five who are either overweight or obese.

* Diet-related diseases, which include heart failure and stroke, are among the world’s biggest killers.

* For the first time in human history, the world has more people that are overweight than underweight.

Take Action!

* Sign and Share the petition. change.org/jamieoliver Jamie’s launched a global petition to get practical compulsory food education in schools across 20 countries. Jamie believes that the only way to reverse the alarming rise in obesity-related disease is to teach every child about food, how to cook it and how it affects their bodies.

* Get involved. There are plenty of ways you can get involved, from whipping up delicious recipes with your kids, hosting a foodie event in your community or challenging your workmates to a cook-off to sharing your photos and the #FoodRevolutionDay via social media.

* Tell your local school. Get your local school involved in Jamie’s online classroom lesson! Teachers can download brilliant free teaching materials, watch a lesson plan video, and make a recipe on Friday, May 15 in the classroom watching Jamie online. Go to foodrevolutionday.com/schools

Cant Take Part on Friday? No Worries!

Jamie’s lesson will remain available on the Food Revolution Day website after the day, so if you aren’t able to participate this week you can still sign your school up and do the lesson after the event!

Go to foodrevolutionday.com for petition information, ideas on how you can get involved, resources, exclusive Jamie videos and lots of new recipes.

Sign it. Share it. Support @JamieOliver on #FoodRevolutionDay change.org/jamieoliver

The Creative Kitchen™, LLC, teaches children about food and how to cook in a fun, safe, and educational manner. Targeting families with children ages two to teen, the company focuses on teaching, writing creative content and curriculum, special events, recipe development, spokesperson work, webisode production and consulting to present educational and entertaining content through food-related activities. The founder, Cricket Azima, is an expert in cooking for and with children. She inspires kids to express themselves creatively through food and cooking, while complementing lessons with traditional educational material such as social studies, math, arts, science, and more. Visit www.thecreativekitchen.com for more information.

Family Cooking on the Fourth of July

Story by Cricket Azima from our friends at Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution 

Celebrate with Refreshing Star-Spangled Summer Snacks

For many Americans, in addition to celebrating the country’s independence, The Fourth of July is all about spending time with family and friends outdoors, watching the fireworks, participating in local parades, and the most important aspect: the food, of course! One of my clearest memories as a child is of my mom making themed foods for most holidays. She made sure all of the food consumed on the Fourth of July was red, white and blue. Some foods were a bit more organic than others. I remember the delicious sweet strawberry shortcake with fresh blueberries sprinkled on top, and I also remember the mashed potatoes that my mother colored red, white, and blue and pasted together in the design of the national flag.

Creating An Outdoor Feast With Family and Friends

The Fourth of July is a wonderful time to break out the grill or picnic blanket and create an outdoor feast with family and friends. Independence Day happens to fall directly in the warmth of summer when the sun is shining, the kids are out of school and most adults are on holiday. With everyone free (pardon the pun!), what better way to spend the day then bonding with the family? A very rewarding and fun way to celebrate is through cooking and eating a delicious meal together. 

Cooking is a great team activity in which everyone, young and old alike, can participate, come together to make a delectable masterpiece, and create memories that will live long past the last devoured crumb.

Creating A Celebratory Meal As A Family

Pick a simple recipe that everyone will enjoy making AND eating! Identify a role for each member of the family, based on their strengths and abilities. For example, toddlers can wash the produce and tear the herbs; elementary-aged children with parent supervision can chop the fruits and vegetables using plastic knives; older kids can help with other age- and skill-appropriate tasks, while also leading the gang to following the recipe’s directions; and parents, of course, do what they know best and supervise, but also empower the little ones by acting as their sous-chefs. Next, it’s time to get cooking as a family! 

Remember that creating memories and bonding is about the experience and not necessarily about the quality of the finished product. Don’t fret if the dice is not a perfect square or the herbs have part of the stem still intact – it’s the spirit of the activity that which makes the foods made taste so wonderful! So grab the gang, prepare your celebratory meal, pack up the food, spread the picnic blanket and enjoy the day with delicious family fun. 

Check out our Patriotic Pattern Parfait recipe below from the Creative Kitchen – a scrumptious and refreshing star-spangled snack that’s perfect to make and enjoy with family and friends during 4th of July meals. Layered with the red, white and blue colors of the American flag, it’s a perfect addition to your summer celebration – and best of all it’s perfect for little hands to help prepare! 



Patriotic Pattern Parfait

Yield: 4 servings

Total prep time: 15 minutes



Ingredients



8 to 12 Graham crackers

4 cups vanilla yogurt

2 cups raspberries

2 cups strawberries

2 cups blueberries

¼ cup fresh mint, as garnish

Method



1. Place 3 to 4 Graham crackers in separate plastic zipper sandwich bags and carefully seal, with all air removed. Crush crackers into crumbs by having the children hop on top of bags or pound on bags with their fists.

2. Slice hulled strawberries and place aside.

3. Separate mint leaves from stems and chop or tear leaves into tiny pieces. Set aside to use as garnish.

4. In four tall clear cups, create layers of each ingredient (except mint) to make a red, white and blue pattern in the following order: Graham cracker crumbs, raspberries, vanilla yogurt, Graham cracker crumbs, strawberries, vanilla yogurt, Graham cracker crumbs, blueberries, vanilla yogurt.

5. Repeat the pattern until cups are full, and then garnish with mint leaves. 

Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Enjoy together!

Tips for Making this Recipe with Kids:


• With adult supervision, have children slice fruit, using a kid-friendly, plastic knife.

• For a dairy-free, gluten-free dessert use soy yogurt and granola or gluten-free cookie crumbles

• Have children prepare recipe during the festivities as a fun activity

• Play Simon-Says or Follow the Leader while kids have fun crushing the crackers by jumping on or pounding on the bags.

• Talk about what a “pattern” is and identify and count the colors and layers within the parfait.

About the author:

Cricket Azima is the Founder and Big Cheese of The Creative Kitchen™ – a company that teaches children about food and how to cook in a fun, safe, and educational manner. Cricket is also the Founder of the Kids Food Festival, the author of children’s cookbook Everybody Eats Lunch and also created Everybody Can Cook a curriculum for special needs children of all abilities. Cricket works with a variety of food companies offering a range of services including spokesperson, recipe development and testing, writing, teaching, family outreach, blogging, creating webisodes, and consulting. 

Connect with Cricket on twitter and facebook and watch the Creative Kitchen videos on youtube.

May 17^th: Food Revolution Day with Jamie Oliver!

If you’ve been friends of The Creative Kitchen for a while you’ve heard us sing Jamie Oliver’s praises over and over! As an acclaimed chef, author, and television personality, Jamie has devoted his career to educating the world about making better food choices and has lobbied for healthier food in schools through his various charities including: The Better Food Foundation (UK), The Jamie Oliver Food Foundation (US), and The Good Foundation (AUS).

This month, we can all join Jamie and crew in “taking a stand for good food and essential cooking skills” by joining in the Food Revolution Day activities happening in your area. Individuals, school groups, community centers and more will come together on May 17^th to share cooking skills, knowledge, and most importantly, delicious food! To find out where Food Revolution Day activities are taking place in your community or to take charge and organize your own event, visit the Food Revolution Website.

Need some ideas for your own Food Revolution Day festivities? Get inspired by some of our favorite examples from the Food Revolution Community:

• Show community farmers some love and create your own  “Hug a Farmer Day”. The public school community in Toronto Canada is celebrating by gathering kids and parents to meet, greet, appreciate, and yes…HUG Toronto area farmers!
• Take a tip from Scoop Nutrition blog in Melbourne, Australia and host a “Jamie Oliver Cook-Off”! Kids can choose their favorite recipe from Jamie’s archive, source local ingredients, and share with family and friends on May 17^th!
• Make it a party like Disco Salad in Vienna, Austria and host children’s cooking classes using fresh, local ingredients while grooving to disco music! Funky and fun!
• Download the printable stickers, flyers, and coloring pages on the Food Revolution Day website to help spread the word!

The Creative Kitchen™, LLC, teaches children about food and how to cook in a fun, safe, and educational manner.  Targeting families with children ages two to teen, the company focuses on teaching, writing creative content and curriculum, special events, recipe development, spokesperson work, webisode production and consulting to present educational and entertaining content through food-related activities. The founder, Cricket Azima, is an expert in cooking for and with children.  She inspires kids to express themselves creatively through food and cooking, while complementing lessons with traditional educational material such as social studies, math, arts, science, and more. Visit www.thecreativekitchen.com for more information.