Dear Adults,
Let your kids cook! I propped mine up on a step stool at age 3, and he's still the best egg cracker I know. As a culinary arts educator for elementary-middle school students, the biggest complaints I hear from children are ..."My parents won't let me cook, they tell me to get out of the kitchen, they don't trust me to cook, or they say I'm not old enough." Kids are definitely cooking capable, but you have to allow them a chance to stir things up.  All I'm saying is...give kids a chance. 

Face it, most of us have been raised in the "Pop Tart" generation, where the art of cooking has been replaced by driveby dining, minute-microwaving, and ordering in/out. 28% of Americans can't cook -- that's nearly a third! As a result, we are losing family traditional dishes, bonding times and more importantly, health.  So ask yourself, "Am I equipping my child to take on the world without the ability to feed themselves?" Cooking is a vital part of being self-sufficient.  It use to be a right of passage. Now is the time to unplug and connect the kids to the kitchen. The best part is, you get uninterrupted quality family time and a freshly prepared meal that will be eagerly eaten.

My tenacious second grader (pictured below) said one of his New Year's Resolutions was to cook more and help me in the kitchen. Awesome.  Right? So we pulled out his kid-friendly cookbooks and a stack of Post Its, and I let him mark what he wanted to cook. Aleko is dedicated to cooking one or two meals a week, and we're giving him the opportunity.  It's a delicious payoff for the entire family as we convene in the kitchen while sharing our day over a simmering sauce.

Where to begin? You start by tackling tools and hitting the books! You would't send your child to school without supplies because they are the tools that aide success. Same line of thinking, take a quick inventory of utensils in your kitchen and then add a few from the "Tackle Tools" list. Have a family date night at a bookstore or neighborhood/school library, and search for colorful kid-friendly cookbooks -- ones kids can navigate without much input from you are key.

All hands on deck with Post Its, highlighters, and pencils in hand. Tab those cookbooks, open those online bookmarked recipes on the computer, and designate cooking days with a specific meal. Make it simple.  Don't forget some quick sides like a good loaf of bread or dinner rolls, green leafy salad (boxed lettuce and a good bottled salad dressing is fine), applesauce sprinkled with cinnamon, or fresh cut fruit. 

Make a grocery list and have the kids write down the ingredients they need for their dish. Scavenger hunt your refrigerator and pantry to make sure you don't double up on ingredients you may already have. There are some great apps and FREE online menu/grocery planners you 
                                                                              can use. My favorite, a pen and a notebook (old school).
Get to cooking!
Take a deep breath, don an apron and get yourself, the rug rats, and big kids in the kitchen. Ease on into it. Commit to two meals a week, and once you and your kitchen crew gain confidence, add another day. Before you know it, you'll be whipping up meals four to five days a week. Leave one or two days for field trips to new neighborhood restaurants or leftover night. Embarking on a culinary family adventure will set your kids up for a healthy lifestyle for years to come.  

Deliciously yours,
Kellie Karavias

"Who you spend time with is who you will become." Tony Robbins, Life Strategist  

The words wafted from the flat screen and stopped me mid stride deviating my lazy winter break meandering, to turn up the tube, and take note. Billionaire Warren Buffet, Life strategist Tony Robinson, San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, and Spanx founder Sara Blakely, seated at a table with Matt Lauer, on the Today Show, offering sage advice for the New Year.  But it was Tony's quick nugget that made me take stock.  He restated that proximity to greatness makes you better, and as a society we tend to group disenfranchised people  together, and then wonder why they don't fair well. This is nothing new, a simple concept forged daily in the kitchen when honing a knife, "Steel sharpens steel," or to quote a biblical throwback..."Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens a friend's character," Proverbs 21:17. Running after excellence should be a lifelong goal, one that I have been pursuing relentlessly my whole life.

You see that's me, Kellie Karavias, the one with the toothy grin, pictured above with my heroine, Alice Waters. 13 years ago as a fledgling teacher,  I had a dream of teaching kids how to grow and cook their food in public school. I had never heard of a public school doing anything remotely of what I had brewing in my head, but that doesn't mean it didn't exist somewhere. Having no idea where to begin, my mother presented me with a dogeared article in her O magazine on Ms. Waters and told me," this is where you start, by studying the best with like passions." I devoured the article and kept it in a journal of clippings on Alice Waters and her "delicious revolution," which included school lunch reform. I promised myself one day I would make a pilgrimage to Berkeley, CA, seek best practices at her Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King Middle school, dine on a perfectly dressed salad at Chez Panisse, stroll the Saturday Farmer's market and somehow Alice would find me. Instantaneously connecting as kindred spirits, over tea we would talk of small changes like gardens and culinary classes in every public school in America, and I would have arrived. What can I say? You gotta dream it to achieve it. 

A decision had to be made early. If I wanted to grow a profession and make a significant difference, I must plant myself in the midst of the best.  I had to learn, grow and sow. Fast forward to 2013 and 12 years of implementing school gardening and culinary programs in Houston public schools, my path is peppered with people whom I consider heroes, each of which has helped sharpen my skills and honed me as an individual. None have been as pivotal to me as Alice Waters, so I was asked to have my culinary kids cook for her when she was visiting Houston as a guest speaker for the Progressive Forum. I was thrilled beyond words; no, I was blessed. My kids made her a "Kickin' It Quiche" from our school garden, and as a result, I was invited to hang with my ultimate hero this past summer. 

Below are snapshots from our cooking adventure for Ms. Waters, of my indescribable summer in Berkeley, California, where I could glean from the best at the Edible Schoolyard Academy and Alice Water's famed Chez Panisse, one of the top 50 best restaurants in the world! Learning never stops, and you should always position yourself in the midst of greatness.