Munch On Colour

What a feast for the eye! ❤️❤️❤️

Biodiversidade do milho peruano mantido pelos descendentes dos incas.

Look at those happy, buzzing, munching bees!!!!

This is why I love sunflowers in my veggie garden...

And borage
And comfrey
And snapdragons
And poppies
And....

An amazing project!!

Calling all families and staff in the Greater Victoria School District! We are going to be distributing FREE vegetable seedlings from May 25 - June 11 with Farm To School BC!

LEARN MORE AT: https://lifecyclesproject.ca/get-growing/

Come out and pick up some plants for your home garden. Many of these plants can also be grown in containers on your patio!

Note: This program is meant to serve the SD61 school community. If you are not part of SD61, visit this City of Victoria's website to learn about the Get Growing, Victoria! program: https://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/residents/parks/growing-in-the-city.html

Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable Victoria Compost Education Centre Vic West Food Security Collective Island Health The Victoria Foundation TD Friends of the Environment Foundation TELUS Friendly Future Foundation City of Victoria - Local Government Mason Street City Farm Haliburton Community Organic Farm Reynolds Secondary School Central Middle School PAC Lansdowne Middle School Esquimalt High School Quadra Elementary Victoria High School Food Eco District - FED Growing Young Farmers Society

Great tips

How to Cook… with Kids! | Growing Chefs! When I think of cooking with kids, I automatically envision making a cake with my kiddo when she was a toddler (flour everywhere, sticky hands, big smiles, big mess). Anyone who has cooked with kids knows it can be an adventure. If cooking with kids is on your “want-to-do list” in the coming wee...

Munch On Colour Easter Series

Playing with Chocolate Part 1 : Chocolate Nests, a recipe for little hands…

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Although sugar is not an ingredient that we usually cheer for, we believe in the importance of guilt-free, shame-free relationship with food.

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So here is a simple recipe that you can make with even the littlest hands and celebrate Spring and Easter cooking together.

You’ll need the following ingredient to make 12 chocolate nests:

1 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cups rolled oats
1 cups coconut flakes
36 mini chocolate eggs

And just follow these simple steps:

Melt together chocolate chips and peanut butter in microwave, running 30 seconds at a time.
Stir in oats and coconut flakes until combined.
Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto wax paper lined baking sheets. Immediately press 3 mini eggs into the centre.
Let cool completely either on the counter or in the refrigerator.

Then enjoy…

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If I would have ever been asked to describe kids, food and kitchen with just ONE word, that word would be “magical”

Kitchen is magical for kids; cooking, kitchen tools, recipes…
Shapes, colours, smell, touch… magical….
How the bread rises in the oven, or cookies smell when cooked… magical…
To be hands-on with parents, grandparents and with friends… magical….

And when the kids are surrounded with magic they thrive: They built confidence… They feel connected… They nurture their ability to be in moment.

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Colours and shapes of fruits and vegetables are magical! So are the smell of chocolate, the colours of rainbow sprinkles and the shape of a chocolate nest…

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Have fun in the kitchen while keeping the food guilt and shame out…

Munch On Colour Easter Series

Decorating Easter eggs with the help of Nature Part 2

Flowers, leaves, grass and herbs…

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I love the idea of foraging in the garden in order to find materials to make arts. Well, and my fridge for the same manner.

How about now we decorate some Easter eggs with flowers, leaves, grasses and some herbs from your fridge.

All you need is21

Flowers, flower petals
Tender leaves
A handful of grass
Carrot tops, parsley, chives, dill etc
Red onion skin
Mod Podge
Paint brush(es)

How to make

1. Brush a thin layer of mod podge on shell where you want to put the piece of nature.
2. Place the piece and brush it all over with mod podge. Let it dry
3. Voila!!!

I leave the rest to your imagination.

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Have fun!

Munch On Colour Easter Series:

Decorating Easter eggs with the help of Nature Part 1:

Natural Food Colourings....
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The ways to use natural colours of food in our lives are quite many and each and everyone of them would be an interesting topic to work with.

Lets start with decorating eggs for Easter..
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You will need

1 cups shredded red cabbage for BLUE
1/2 cup blueberries for DARKER BLUE
2 Tbsp of ground turmeric for YELLOW
1 medium red beet, shredded for REDISH BROWN
1 cup red onion peels for ORANGISH RED
1 cup brewed coffee for BROWN
1 bunch of greens, chopped (parsley, kale, spinach etc) for GREEN

Jars that can fit 2-3 eggs for every colour

White Vinegar
Tap water
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How to:

1. Hard boil the eggs that you'd like to colour. Choose both white and brown egg, so that you can also observe how the colours change with the colours of the shells.

2.Boil each ingredient separately with 2 cups of tap water in a pan. Turn down the heat and simmer for extra 2 minutes. Turn off the heat. Then Add 1 Tbsp white vinegar to the pot.

3. Strain the liquid with a fine strainer and cool it down. Then put into the jars that are assigned for.

4. Add 2-3 eggs in the jar and keep overnight (min 12 hours), or longer for darker and more definitive colours.
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If you want to turn this into a science activity then you focus on some interesting QUESTIONs...

⚗️What is it inside veggies, fruits, spices and beans that give them the colour?
⚗️Do different colours in veggie and fruits have different nutritional values and/or health benefits?

⚗️How else can I use natural colours in the kitchen?

⚗️What happens if I add baking soda instead of vinegar into the liquid

⚗️How can I get brighter colours if I use store-bought food colourings (if you give a try with one) How are store-bought food colouring (artificial colourings) are made?
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Have fun!

"Munch On Colour At Home"

It is not a surprise that Munch On Colour on-sight workshops that we offer at schools are also cancelled for some time.

However this does NOT mean that we cannot have fun exploring the magic of food, fruits and vegetables through play, sensory games, arts and science.
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Through these days that we learn physical distancing and expand our knowledge of being social through other means, we would’d like to share some activities with you all that can be done at home with kids of all ages…

A good cure for the sighs of “I am bored”….

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Most of these activities will also offer the opportunity to talk about sustainability, science of food, food waste, edible gardens, growing food and importance of being a community!

The ease of adding subject of maths, biology, chemistry and even physics to all these activities, we believe is the icing on the cake…

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Let’s enjoy munching on colour together….

This is the perfect time for us to support our kids more in their life skills education.

Cooking, being involved with food and creating a value for the family is a very rewarding activity for the kids.

Every small steps adds to the big journey.

So here is an easy and tasty snack option from Project CHEF Education Society