This week was all about fall ingredients and Halloween. We read the book Bone Soup by Cambria Evans and made our own version of bone soup.

Bone (Lentil) Soup

Ingredients:

• 16 oz. of dried lentils

• 4 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 cup of onions, chopped

• 2 stalks of celery, chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/2 lb. of ham

• 4 chicken or veggie broth

Directions:

1. Sort and rinse lentils.

2. In a cook pot, wok or saucepan heat oil.

3. Add onions, celery and garlic and cook until soft but not browned.

4. Add the ham, broth and salt and pepper to taste.

5. Heat to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook until lentils are tender and soup is thick, about 15-20 minutes.

Lentil Soup may be a fun way for kids to eat healthy, if they dare. As a sweet reward for eating or tasting the soup, they got to make a witch's broom to eat or take home.

They also listened to

The Witch's Broom

by

Chris Van Allsburg.

We concluded the class with a roasted pumpkin seed tasting. They got instructions on how to toast the seeds after carving their Jack-o-lanterns.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:

Dried pumpkin seeds

Cooking spray

Salt

Options - sugar, cinnamon, lemon salt, garlic salt, oregano, sweet paprika or ...

Directions:

1. After carving a pumpkin, instead of throwing the insides away, rinse all the seeds from the pulp and leave the seeds to dry on a flat, dry surface.

2. Every once in a while, stir the seeds to help the drying process.

3. When the seeds are completely dry, put them on a cookie sheet and lightly coat the seeds with a cooking spray and salt to taste. The adventurous SproutChef may want to experiment with extra herbs and spices such as garlic salt, paprika, cinnamon, lemon pepper. The possibilities are endless.

4. Lightly toast the seeds under the broiler for 3-6 minutes. Watch carefully because they can burn very quickly.