Category: The Culinary Room

Plant Based Proteins Part I: Beans & Legumes

by K.Graybill • March 1, 2019 • 1 Comment

I am a big fan of Michael Pollan’s work! I especially like what he has to say about food in his documentary “In Defense of Food”. Even if I don’t have time to show my students the documentary in its entirety, I do like to focus on certain parts of it. One in particular are his 7 words that he uses to sum up healthy eating: “Eat foods–Not Too Much–Mostly Plants”. It’s a great way to introduce students to different plant based foods! Read on to learn more about how those 7 words equate to a lesson about beans and legumes.

The Basics of Soup!

by K.Graybill • January 4, 2019 • 2 Comments

Did you know that January is National Soup Month? Soup is the perfect comfort food for a typically cold, winter month or any other day for that matter! To celebrate this meal which has so much to offer in the way of health benefits, versatility in its types, and cultural ties, I’ve created a Hyper-Slide of activities to help students learn more about soup. Read on to see how you can add a mini soup unit and lab to your repertoire!

The Basics of Cake!

by K.Graybill • December 14, 2018 • 2 Comments

Students always want to bake cakes! Maybe it’s because the cakes they get at home are typically prepackaged or out of a mix! Don’t get me wrong…those are great once in awhile and have saved me on more than one occasion, when time was at a premium! However, when talking to students, I get the impression that most only get scratch baked cakes in rare instances or on very special celebratory days! I guess I was lucky growing up because my family baked cakes often, as desserts were a delicious way to end the evening meal! Because of this, I was fortunate to be exposed to a variety of different cakes. The funny thing is that while growing up, I thought there were tons of different types of cakes, but in reality there are only a couple! This lesson focuses on a cake overview of history, types, solving cake problems and includes some labs, focusing on the two basic types of cakes!

Exploring Pasta

by K.Graybill • January 5, 2018 • 4 Comments

Pasta is one of my all time favorite units to teach in my Foods unit! Pasta is so easy, versatile, and economical that I feel every student should know how to prepare before they leave high school! I always tell my students that they will never go hungry if they know how to cook pasta. Use the provided slide to navigate through a variety of resources to learn more about pasta as your students complete this assignment and work their way into the lab.

Cheese Balls Pantry Raid Lab

by K.Graybill • December 8, 2017 • 0 Comments

Cheese balls are often associated with parties, holidays and potlucks! But why limit them to just those events? I get to a point in the year when I have “a little of this and a little of that” leftover from other labs and taste tests. So I decided to have a pantry raid lab and have students make “cheese balls”. All I had to do was buy a block of cream cheese for each group and provide some parameters for the challenge. See below for more details.

Knife Skills: A Hands-On Lesson & Lab

by K.Graybill • May 12, 2017 • 3 Comments

This hands-on lesson plan, shared by Marlee Barton of Kentucky, includes knife skill activities using Play-doh and graduating to real vegetables. A soup lab follows Sounds like a fun and delicious way to learn about knives!

Spin a Stir-Fry Lesson & Lab

by K.Graybill • April 28, 2017 • 2 Comments

Need quick cooking recipes for your foods labs or dinner at home on a busy night? I know I do! That’s why I teach about stir-fry cooking! Not only is stir-fry cooking quick and easy, but it’s nutritious, colorful and fairly easy to clean up. So, after students investigate some basics of stir-fry cookery, they get to spin themselves a unique recipe for the class to sample. Try spinning yourself a stir-fry. Who knows, you might just find a new favorite, easy-to-go-to dinner!

Crostini Appetizers: Mini-Lesson & Lab

by K.Graybill • January 27, 2017 • 0 Comments

You never know when you’re going to need a relatively quick and simple appetizer for entertaining that looks like you’ve spent hours preparing! Crostini to the rescue! I like to teach students that party foods don’t have to be super difficult, expensive or time consuming to pull together. The self-directed mini-lesson provides some background information about crostini and how to make them and then students get to pretend they have to pull together a few crostini appetizers for entertaining, using ingredients they have on hand. The creative possibilities are endless! As a tasty finale, students prepare and sample some hot and cold crostini in the lab! Yum!

Quick Breads: Lesson & Labs

by K.Graybill • January 6, 2017 • 1 Comment

I have had some requests to share ideas for teaching about quick breads…so, here you go! One thing about teaching quick breads is that there are a plethora of ideas for labs so you can mix it up from one year to the next and secondly, the labs are pretty inexpensive to make so they won’t break your budget! Another thing I like about teaching quick breads is that it’s easy to include math and science concepts into your lessons and labs. Take a look below to see some things I’ve used over the years as well as some links to previous lessons and activities on the website about the topic.

Let’s Teach About Eggs

by K.Graybill • January 2, 2016 • 0 Comments

There’s a lot of information out there about eggs; often referred to as the perfect food! So, if you are in need of some ideas for teaching a unit or just a few lessons or labs about eggs, here are a variety of ideas and resources to choose from.

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