Vegan Cooking with Beverly Lynn Bennett

Beverly Lynn Bennett is a vegan chef who recently completed her first electronic vegan cookbook, Eat Your Veggies. She's been working in the restaurant industry since she was 12. Please visit VeganChef.com to get some great vegan recipes and to learn more about her.

Question:

I have been vegan for about a year. This summer I will be a teacher for 3rd and 4th graders. I am required to have in-class cooking projects and I feel strongly against cooking food that I don't believe in eating. Do you have any ideas for a couple of very simple but yummy cooking projects for that age group? Thank you!

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Answer:

Nice to hear from you. I'm not sure how helpful I can be regarding your question because all of my cooking demos have been geared toward a mostly adult audience. I'm also not sure what cooking equipment you will have available to you. I do, however, have a few suggestions.

I suggest that you ask the students to write down some of their food likes and dislikes and work from there. In general, kids seem to enjoy foods even more if they have been involved in the preparation of them. As far as simple cooking project suggestions, you could show them how to:

take an apple and make it into apple juice, applesauce, or apple butter
make smoothies out of fruit, juices, and soy
how to make granola
dehydrate fruit and make fruit leathers
make nut butters for fillings of sandwiches or vegetables
make and bake bread, cookies or other baked goods
make individual pizzas by making your own sauce, on pitas or homemade crusts and adding veggies (and non-dairy cheese, if desired) instead of the fattening traditional meat toppings.

I did an installment of recipes on my website at http://www.veganchef.com regarding healthy school lunch ideas last fall that may also offer some additional suggestions, you will find it under Sept. 20, 2000 in the Recipe Archive sorted by date/theme.

Also, I think that you could include some nutritional info in your projects, such as explaining the many health benefits of a plant-based diet- no cholesterol, high fiber, low fat, high carbohydrates, and more efficient sources of protein, calcium, and other important nutrients, etc.

May I suggest checking out, Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine and The Vegetarian Resource Group for more information regarding the nutritional benefits of a vegan diet and suggestions for raising children this way. I believe that they also offer some informational packets for use in schools.

Well, those are my suggestions and hopefully they will inspire you to come up with a few of your own. Good luck with it and take care.

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