Day 22 -- Baked Chocolate Pudding, Take 2

Cookbook - Jamie's Kitchen and Jamie Oliver Online

Jared, yet again, is not here. He's at a lake house with his friend named Drew. So I was on my own, yet again. I do not mind being on my own with cooking. My mom was with me. And we didn't have butter, but my dad went to the gas station, Johnny Joe's, to get butter for me.

So my school is an International Baccalaureate school. That means we follow attitudes and profiles which help us shape who we are and what we want to be.

We have this thing called Exhibition. It's sort of like a science fair project, only you have groups, and you get to choose a subject that you really, really like. It doesn't have to be science related. It could be for hurricanes, obesity, child abuse, animals, or basically anything you want.

Today I was thinking I can use this Kid's Cooking Challenge as my project. I can hopefully get 20, or even more, kids to follow our site and cook the things we're cooking. I'm going to do this because my mom is writing an article and was looking up websites and we found out that 16-33% of children are now obese.

And I want to change that. I'm going to hand out fliers and cook samples of food and healthy desserts. I'm going to do this at my school at our world festival. This will be the launch for my project.

I'm really excited about this, so I hope it works. I hope kids at my school can learn that they can change their ways of eating and their habits.

So today I decided to make another version of the baked chocolate pudding (still no flour...it uses rice flour, which is so cool!).

Buttering the dishes.

We didn't do it right the first time (though it was delicious and it is maybe our new favorite dessert), and we still didn't do it right this time because we still didn't have all the right kind of chocolate.

This is the coffee and chocolate filling that you freeze first.

But we made it work and this time we're going to use a drizzle sauce.

Putting it all together.

My brother, Sam, and his friend, Trey, were the official testers today.

That's a Darth Vader helmet on Trey's head.

They LOVED it. "Thank you," Trey said. Sam said, "This is so good, it's awesome."

Trey was holding the plate and he started walking away, stealing it from Sam.

Around and around they went!

My dad said, "If you're a chocolate lover you must make this. It's an $8.00 dessert at a fancy restaurant."

My mom said, "It's a piece of chocolate heaven."

I say, "Oh, my gosh. This is awesome." It is way better that the last time. It's not as sweet, but it's very rich.

2 THUMBS UP. 3. 4. 5. However many I can.

Day 21 -- Easy Flavored Water

Recipe from Jamie's Food Revolution Cookbook

Day 21 and I did something easy. Easy Flavored Water.

Very refreshing!

Today me and my mom and my brother Caleb were at the supermarket and I saw about 15 obese people. I saw them loading their carts with mini powdered donuts, and fake brownies, and Twinkies and all that junk. A bunch of ice cream and only a little produce, like a couple of bananas and some apples.

And I felt very sad for them because they're stuck in a life where they're not cooking and are loading up with food that is so bad for them. I want to help people change. Maybe there's something GF Kids Cooking Challenge can do to help. I hope other kids, and people, can see that it's easy to cook, and it's actually really enjoyable. You don't have to fill up on all that junk. Have you seen those little motor carts at the supermarket? Some people use them because they are too obese to walk. I think that's sad, and that's why we think the Food Revolution is so important.

That's what I, a 10 year old girl, think anyway.

Now back to the cooking. The flavored water was super easy. It was really hot today, so I thought why don't I make something really quick and easy. What I did was got water with ice in it. You can use lemon or lime, but I used lime. You can add a little bit of sugar, but I didn't.

You squeeze the lime into the water with ice and then you drink and enjoy.

It was easy!

It was really refreshing! I accidentally put in too much lime so it was really sour, but if you like sour, you'll be good. I will do this again on a hot day.

1 1/2 THUMBS UP, because I needed a little sugar :)

Day 20 -- Roasted Chicken Breast with Lemony Potatoes

Recipe -- Jamie Oliver Online

Hello my fellow foodies! Today is day 20 and we made a good chicken meal. It was Roasted Chicken Breasts with Lemony Potatoes. Today's recipe was a last minuto decision. The choices were fish, flounder to be exact, but we weren't in the mood for fish, shrimp, but we didn't have enough, or chicken kebobs but it called for a lot of avocado and we didn't have any.

So we (Jared and me together) used chicken recipe that we found at Jamie Oliver's website and that didn't call for avocados, which, phew, then we were able to make.

What we did to prepare it was to cut potatoes, red bell pepper, coriander (which we used powder and we threw in some cilantro), powdered cumin, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sliced ginger. We tossed that with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

We put into a baking dish then get your chicken and season it with the extra salt and pepper. Lay that on top of the potatoes and stuff and bake it for about 30 minutes.

We flipped the chicken at 20 minute mark because it wasn't ready.

I didn't like this potatoes all that much because I don't like cumin. So next time I would leave that out. You don't have to if you're cumin lovers. But I'm not a big a fan, so next time I will take it out.

I thought the chicken was really good. It didn't have cumin on it so it didn't have that strong flavor. Most of this dish was pretty good.

My parents, on the other hand, loved it (2 THUMBS UP FROM THEM).

I give this 1 THUMB UP (1 1/2 from Jared)

This was another day from the GF Kids Cooking Challenge!

~ Sophie

BTW: We just saw that Jamie Oliver commented on yesterday's blog! He was here and checked out our blog! Very, very cool.

Day 19 - Bruchette

Recipe from Jamie Oliver Online

Blog by both Jared and Sophie, plus Peyton, Sophie's friend

Peyton, Jared, & Sophie

Day 19

Jared: Hello my fellow food-eaters. Today we made something delicious. But before we get into that, we must tell you something truly spiffing (yes, that's a word... it's in Harry Potter, the third book).

Sophie: Jamie Oliver's assistant emailed us and said that we're going to be in his newsletter!

Jared: And that is super-duper awesome 'cause maybe we'll get 5000 followers.

Sophie: I think this is awesome because not many kids get to experience getting noticed by Jamie Oliver.

Jared: Not many kids take on a challenge like this and get a response from Jamie Oliver and in 19 days. And on another note, I'm going to do this 4-H thing that has a cooking program and is like a mini iron chef (except that you don't make 5 dishes and you're not in Kitchen Stadium and we only can use 5 ingredients and we're not Iron Chefs---but I'm a Steel Chef, btw). This is going to give me a chance to experience what it will be like to be an Iron Chef.

basil from the garden

Sophie: I'm really liking doing this challenge because I'm learning new recipes, and you get to have a chance to taste foods you thought you wouldn't like and I can be open-minded. I learned from Jamie Oliver that there are jumbo coffins as big as a king a size bed, or bigger. That made me feel really scared and I realized that it can be really bad to be that overweight. I've seen people at airports and hospitals and just at everyday places who are overweight and obese and they don't know how to stop it. They are addicted to food.

Peyton: It's their happy place.

Sophie: And I think it's really sad. I want other people to live their lives for as long as they can...

Peyton: And appreciate what they've accomplished and live a healthy life. The food that we're cooking is really good and it's not too big a portion and it's healthier than a fast food restaurant.

Sophie: And fast food is disgusting. I hope people will get that they can change how they cook and eat.

Jared: They can change their whole lifestyle practically. I'm getting out of this new ways to cook. I've learned that simple things that are unhealthy, like chicken nuggets, can be healthy and if you make them they even taste better. I've never liked pasta. But I tried it tonight to be a risk-taker (quinoa pasta) and it actually tasted good because the sauce was homemade and wasn't so heavy. And if you see one tomato and a little basil and garlic, it's a lighter, not as heavy tomato sauce in one little bite.

quinoa pasta with classic tomato sauce

Peyton: I think it's a good way to be creative and a good way to take action. Jared and Sophie are trying to live healthier lives.

Jared: The bruchette was delicious. It had olive oil, which took the place of butter, and was super yummy. I cut basil, tomatoes, and parmesan cheese and I put it on the grill pan (though all the good stuff stuck to the pan).

gluten free bruchetta

Sophie: It's one of my favorite Italian foods. If you haven't had bruchetta and haven't liked it, you haven't had good bruchetta and you need to see a doctor.

Jared: The meatballs were the best things in the world. They were half pork, half beef, parmesan, romano, basil, and bread crumbs (next time we'll use oats). It was meaty heaven. My padre helped make these (if you wonder why I'm using the Spanish words, it's because I'm Latino... the politically correct term).

delicious pasta with meatballs!

Peyton: A kid's cooking challenge can be a lifesaver. I've learned that you don't always have to go to fast food restaurants. Instead you can cook with your family and have a good time.

2 THUMBS UP

Day 18 - Pan Fried Glazed Pork

Cookbook - Jamie's Food Revolution

Today is Tuesday, if you didn't notice, and I believe we made the most super yummy delicious thing ever. Let the record show that this is only the second time in my memory that I've had pork, aside from sausage and bacon. Pork tenderloins and pork chops are not part of our usual diet.

It was very, very fast and easy to make. You just get some pork chops, put them in a bowl with some olive oil and salt and mix it up. And then you cook it in a pan. After it's cooked you put some maple syrup or honey or apple sauce (or chutney, which we did not have available because it is also not part of our usual diet). We used honey for some and maple syrup for other. Then we squeezed lemon juice on them.

Lovely dark reddy-golden color

Jamie says in his cookbook, and I quote, "Have the confidence to cook them until almost a dark reddy-golden color." First I took it off too early and it didn't have the color or the glaze. So I put it back on and cooked it a little more.

Lovely presentation, right?

The verdict is a lot of thumbs up by me, my brother Alex, Sophie... by everyone. Sophie says, "It was supercalifragalisticexpeialidocious."

A little blurry, but still lovely, right?

We had it with white rice, which was good. 2 THUMBS UP

Until next time...

Jared

Day 17 - Fried Egg

Cookbook - Jamie's Food Revolution

Fried eggs intrigue me, Jared, very, very much. I'd never had a fried egg before. It's way different than cooking anything I've done before. It was fairly easy, except it's kind of hard to know when to take it off because we took it off a couple times too early and the yolk was way too runny.

It's different than an over easy egg because we didn't flip it.

It was kind of a quick thing because we need to do quick things all this week because my mom is doing a writing camp where we get to write a mystery story. It has to be good since this will go in our permanent record.

Ha! Not really.

So the fried egg was pretty easy and fun and I enjoyed making it. The only difference between the poached egg and the fried egg was that it wasn't wrapped up in the whites like a poached egg, but it pretty much tastes the same.

Sophie put cheese on her egg and she said that was good also.

I especially liked it with the toast (gluten free, of course) because it gave it had the flavor of the egg with the crunchiness of the toast.

It was quite delicious so I will give this 2 THUMBS UP

Day 16 - Sweet and Sour Pork

Cookbook - Jamie's Food Revolution

Today we, Sophie and I worked together, made some sweet and sour pork. It was quite yummy. I quite enjoyed the experience.

This is Sophie holding our finished dish.

Although I do think I added just a wee bit too much Chinese 5 Spice powder.

I liked the sauce. It was definitely not your regular sweet and sour pork. It's not like the sweet and sour pork with the red sauce. There was a medium dark brown sauce instead. I didn't like the taste the first time it touched my tongue, but then after I took the whole spoonful, it was very yummy. It had a great aftertaste, if I may say so myself. I had 2 helpings.

It was quite easy, like everything has been so far. You cut up all your veggies like onion, bell pepper, cilantro, and ginger.

All our chopped stuff

You cut the meat into bite sized pieces. Then you cook the pork in a wok with oil and the Chinese 5 Spice. After it's browned, you put the pork into a bowl then cook the veggies into the wok, add soy sauce (we used gluten free), balsamic vinegar (sophie says not too much of this), corn starch, and pineapple, the pork and let it simmer down for a few minutes.

We're learning to have all our stuff ready to add

Oh, I forgot to mention that you need to make rice. We already had some from yesterday so we didn't make fresh today, but you should, if you know what I mean.

Put some rice and lettuce on a place, 1/2 of it rice, 1/2 of it lettuce, scoop your pork into the middle--or on the rice or on the lettuce--and sprinkle on some cilantro leaves and sesame seeds and bon apetit, por favor.

The finished Sweet and Sour Pork

DOS (2) THUMBS UP

Thank you for reading our cooking site!

Until next time...