Raw Innocence.

We had been given prior warning from a friend that Miranda's teacher was very big on parent class participation. So it came as no surprise to find myself in front of 22 wide eyed, toothy cute kids this morning. My job was to teach the kids how to make an apple crisp as Wednesday is bake day and this is apple week. "First thing we do is sanitize" explained Mrs Barnett, "I want to see surgeon's arms in the air". I took my spot at the semi circle table and proceeded to layout my ingredients, I looked up and all the kids were staring at me with their arms raised like a surgeon ready to perform a triple bypass, they were not allowed to drop these arms or touch any classmates for fear of contamination.

Back to my ingredients from the Betty Crocker box mix provided for me,

1 bag of crumb mix-check.

1 can of apples-check.

1 bottle of water-check.

Yes, that is all it takes to make these kids Oooo and Ahhhh endlessly. First I hit them up with some apple facts. After all this still had to be educational, right? Their little imaginations were running amok and everyone did their best to stay with the subject of the day though I did hear how one girl had a chipped nail and how an other's mom stirred way faster than me, the quote of the day for me though came when another teacher helper came into the class and Mrs Barnett asked the class to thank Mrs Chee Chee for dropping of some popsicles, "That's my dog's name" cried one little girl innocently speaking of the lady's unique name. Ten of the kids had been given front row baker's seats for providing outstanding behaviour that morning, the other twelve had to make do with standing and looking over their shoulders missing out on a chance to help stir with the golden spatula. It pays to be good. Twenty minutes later the apple crisp was done and ready for the oven. It was a whole lot of fun and I go back in tomorrow for some more apple trivia.

I remember when we received our mommy meals when Quinn was born. This was the greatest thing ever, no cooking for weeks and hot food being delivered free to your house, score!! All the meals were fantastic and greatly appreciated. One meal did introduce me to something new though and it was a raw meal made by the amazingly talented Laura Gallagher http://www.crookedmoonmama.com/ . I really enjoyed the dinner and swore I had to eat more raw food. This is harder than it sounds though because to buy it from the store costs an arm and a leg and to make the majority of the recipes one needs a dehydrator, which can also cost the same arm and leg. Today I was determined to find some non-dehydrator recipe and after subscribing to another blog http://thesunnyrawkitchen.blogspot.com/ I was on my way to creating tonight's dinner. I was impressed by the flavors and even more impressed by Miranda asking for seconds of the spinach soup and telling me "Man this is good" when she tried the lemon bar.

The blog has lots of easy recipes and I cant wait to try another, food tastes completely different when eaten in this form, Thanks Laura this one's for you!

Cream Of Spinach Soup

½ head spinach leaves, washed

½ cucumber, peeled

1 tomato, in wedges

¼ cup water

1 avocado

1 clove garlic

2 tablespoons nama shoyu or soy sauce

½ teaspoon sea salt

dash cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

Blend all ingredients until smooth

Lemon Bars

1 cup almonds

1 1/2 cups pitted dates (Medjool, khadrawhi, or other semi-soft date)

Seeds of 1 vanilla bean

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup dried shredded coconut

In your food processor, chop almonds into small pieces. Use some of this nut powder to “flour” the bottom of a 9 inch square baking pan.Add remaining ingredients and process some more until well mixed.Press into baking pan.To serve, chill for a couple hours until firm. Then cut into squares

From this.

To this.

To this.