Recipe Renovation

I had a new idea this past week. It came while I was skimming through my latest copy of Redbook magazine. I love it when they share those "recipes on the go". The yummy recipes you can make in 30 minutes and are healthy and tasty. It got me thinking about my students and their cooking repertoire. 
     Most of my students' recipes are the usual teenager food choices. A lot of my students also eat unhealthy and easy to eat foods like chicken fingers or cheeseburgers (because they won't have to cut their food---grrr!!). I try to change that up at a lot of our programs so that they get exposed to different kinds of cooking. But it can be a challenge--what will a teenager eat?? Plus, a lot of the recipes that our kids learn are teenager food. It's not necessarily a bad thing because they learn to cook for themselves but what about foods that the whole family can enjoy? 
     So here's the first of my new blog posts for cooking. It's called Recipe Renovation! The idea is that I am going to find recipes that are easy to make, cover some good kitchen skills, have some nutritional value and are teenager and family friendly. The idea is that these are recipes our youth can make for family dinner. I'll also continue to share basic recipes but I feel like we have access to a lot of those. I'm also going to poll my teenage students and get their opinions (and I won't edit if they hate it!).

The first ever Recipe Renovation recipe, rush-hour ravioli:

You can download to see directions up close but as you can see from the picture, it's pretty simple. The only tweak I will suggest is offer the student several veggies to cut up for this like red & green peppers, mushrooms and onions. Have them saute them quickly then add to the marinara sauce. Now you have covered a bit more stove cooking and more cutting skills as well!

Here's my version before getting into the oven:

It literally took me no time at all. I made this in a snap for my family. I boiled the raviolis for 2-3 minutes (as instructed by the recipe), layered the spinach, ravioli, marinara sauce & cheese twice and put it in the oven. Easy peasy! Yummy, too!!


This is also a dish that my kids helped me with so this is younger kid friendly as well. 


Do it at home: Make the recipe! Include your child on the grocery shopping if possible. Have them do the prep work, the cooking (with your supervision) and the clean up! It's a complete lesson that's edible, too :)