20 elementary school students from Poe Mill Achievement Center joined our culinary team at Furman University along with Healthy Kids educator Carrie Cullen for an afternoon of healthy cooking with a spooky twist. Class began with a lesson on making healthy food choices and when Carrie asked “what can we eat a bit of on Halloween, but shouldn’t eat every day?” she was met with 20 eager cries of “CANDY!” The group tested their newfound nutrition skills with a game: kids danced to the tune of Thriller when shown a photo of a healthy food, walked like a zombie for sort-of healthy foods, and froze with a look of terror when presented with an unhealthy food.
After working up an appetite dancing, the kids watched in fascination as Director of Operations Don Westcott carved a special chef-o-lantern and passed around roasted pumpkin seeds for everyone to try. The group concluded the roasted pumpkin seeds to be a fun and healthy snack.
With the mood sufficiently spooky, the group was ready to cook up a haunted healthy meal. Up first on the menu were mummy pizzas. After everyone loaded their half-baguette with sauce and cheese, General Manager Derek Morgan taught the group how to safely peel zucchini ribbons for their yummy mummy’s bandaging and stick eyeballs (halved olives) on. As the 20 mummies ventured to the kitchen for baking, Derek taught the group to make banana ghost pops and tangerine pumpkins for a healthy dessert. The kids practiced knife skills halving bananas and celery for the “pumpkin” stems and, with a little creativity and imagination, the young chefs brought their fruity desserts to life.
As they sat down to enjoy their healthy Halloween picnic, several students were trying zucchini for the first time on their pizzas and a few young chefs made plans to recreate the recipes at home!