GOLETA - Giving thanks for the s'Cool Food Initiative!
Schools in the Goleta School District are celebrating scratch cooking this holiday. They now serve real, whole food and they are seeing real success.
How would you like to cook for three thousand?
Food service workers in Goleta are cooking one thousand pounds of potatoes and 80 gallons of gravy. They'll feed a healthy Thanksgiving meal to students and parents at 9 schools.
It wasn't always this way. Three years ago the s'Cool Food Initiative was invited into the kitchen. The initiative brought new equipment, recipe conversions and a chef to help orchestrate the transformation.
The program is making healthy food and the department is more profitable! More students are buying lunch. In a time of school budget cuts, the Goleta School District was able to hire an extra person.
Served by the principal, and parents at La Patera school, it's a Thanksgiving tradition of bringing students and their families together to celebrate the healthy changes.
The s'Cool Food Initiative has now changed the lunch tray in 15 school districts... from Goleta to Guadalupe.
More than 66 thousand students are eating better, 300 food service workers have gone through culinary training to sharpen skills in scratch cooking and it helped grow almost 30 school gardens.
S'Cool Yummy YammyBerry Muffins
Don't toss the leftovers… toss them into muffins! Make it the meal that keeps giving!
Use any sweet potato recipe made with butter, maple syrup, and marshmallows.
Any type of cranberry sauce will work beautifully.
Makes 12
1 Cup leftover mashed sweet potatoes or yams
2 Large Eggs
½ Cup Sugar
¼ Cup Canola Oil
¼ Cup Water
1 Teaspoon finely grated orange zest or to taste
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
½ Cup white flour
1 ½ Cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 ½ Teaspoons kosher salt
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1/4 Baking soda
1 Cup leftover cranberry sauce
Heat oven to 350 Degrees and grease a 12 cup muffin pan. In a large bowl, mix together potatoes, eggs, sugar, oil, water, zest, and vanilla. In another bowl, whisk together flours, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the sweet potato mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Gently stir in the cranberry sauce. Spoon batter into the muffin cups and bake until the muffins are browned and the tops spring back when you press them lightly with your fingertip, about 30 minutes.
They are sweet! Sweet potatoes are a good source of Vitamin C which has anti-inflammatory properties. Studies have shown that young children
