Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Salad Day and School's Out!










































The last couple of weeks of school were a flurry of activity as we rushed to prepare the gardens for summer vacation, held end-of-the-year parties and BBQs, and said goodbye to our friends and teachers.

Of course, we couldn't end the year without one last garden bash. At MLK MS and Excelsior MS we held our annual Salad Day events. We harvested huge amounts of lettuce and veggies, made homemade ranch dressing, collected flowers for decorations, and created advertisement posters. Then, we setup a table in the cafeteria at lunchtime and served fresh salad to the whole school.

The salad was a huge hit -- one student told me she ate eight small plates of salad! Many students have told me that they don't like school lunches, so... I think everyday should be Salad Day, don't you?

Here is our recipe for delicious homemade ranch dressing - it goes great on everything, from salad to chicken strips. You can also find it in the Urban Sprouts cookbook, which you can get by sending an e-mail to: abby AT urbansprouts dot org.

Ranch Dressing

Ingredients:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream/buttermilk
1/2 cup buttermilk (or less, adjust for desired thickness)
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon dried/fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried/fresh dill weed
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper


In a large bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk, chives, parsley, dill, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Adjust seasonings to taste. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi nice post, it is really informative to have a site about schooling,some or other part of the globe..they say it's really interesting.nice blog.

Anonymous said...

Do you happen to know what % of the calories in this dressing come from fat? Is any of that saturated fat?

Abby RJ said...

A good source for nutrition facts on specific foods and ingredients is www.calorie-count.com

We also like to follow the guidance of the NextCourse chefs and Michael Pollan, who say the best guideline of all is to eat "real" foods rather than chemically processed foods. That's why we like this ranch dressing recipe so much!

Lisa C said...

I have to agree with Abby. I often tell students that certain foods are "once in a while foods" - telling them to cut out all the candy and fast food cold turkey will never work. What's great about this salad dressing is that it gets almost anyone to give eating salad a second thought.

I also like how Pollan emphasizes a culture in which we slow down and savor home-cooked and traditional meals, rather than being totally glued to the nutrition fact box.