Earth day kids' food
Earth Day messages are starting to come home from school, and one of the best ways to connect kids with this annual celebration of our environment is through food.
Otherwise, sometimes it's a hard concept to get. My first-grader is in a great Environmental Club at school, run by very creative and caring parent volunteers. "I love the environment," he said once. "Mom -- what's the environment, again?"
For Dinner Together day, here are some recipe resources to help you explain:
--Earth Day recipes from Kaboose.
--Easy green guacamole from Mollie Katzen.
--If all else fails, make sweet "dirt"!
And here's a great chicken recipe with spring greens from our recipe archives that I tried a few years ago:
Chicken With Greens and Spring Onions
Publication date: 05/21/2008
Serves 4
1 small chicken (2 1/2 to 3 pounds), whole or cut into parts
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (divided use)
2 cups coarsely chopped spring onions (green and white parts)
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups firmly packed, coarsely chopped greens, such as tatsoi, mizuna, arugula or spinach
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill
2 teaspoons salt, plus extra for seasoning
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning
3 tablespoons herbes de Provence
Rinse the chicken under cold water, pat dry and set aside in the refrigerator in a baking dish. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a medium skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat, add the onions and garlic, and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the greens and dill and toss well.
Reduce the heat, cover and cook for about 3 minutes, or until greens are wilted. Remove from the heat. With a slotted spoon, transfer the greens to a bowl to cool, seasoning well with salt and pepper. Reserve any juices. Pull the skin back from the chicken and stuff the cooked greens under the skin.
In a small bowl, combine the herbes de Provence, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Rub the mixture over the chicken.
Place the chicken in a roasting pan and add the reserved juices from the greens. Roast in the oven until a thermometer inserted in the thigh joint registers 175 degrees, about 15 to 20 minutes per pound for a whole chicken and a total of 45 minutes to 1 hour for a cut-up chicken.
Let the chicken stand for 15 minutes before serving. Skim off the fat from the pan juices and pour the juices over the chicken as a sauce.
Per serving: 475 calories, 37 grams protein, 34 grams fat, 7 grams saturated fat, 6 grams carbohydrate, 2 grams fiber, 112 milligrams cholesterol, 1,287 milligrams sodium. Analysis by registered dietitian Jodie Shield.
From "Simply Organic" by Jesse Ziff Cool
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