I recently started teaching an afterschool cooking class to kindergarteners at the Academy for Global Citizenship on Chicago’s Southwest Side.  First of all, if you haven’t heard of this charter elementary school, please check it out. It is a truly amazing learning space that combines academics with life lessons to promote knowledge and personal wellness in the children who attend.  Also, for a food-conscious person like myself, it’s totally sweet.  The kids tend to their own garden, they raise chickens and are lucky enough to eat organic, nutritious, and tasty meals from the school’s chef, Stephen Menyhart.  

Teaching a bunch of five- to six-year-olds how to cook may seem like a silly and chaotic task to some, but it fits right in at this school and I’m so excited to do it each week!  With the help of a few parents, the kids and I make one dish each class and pack it up to take home and enjoy.  The theme for this session is “Getting Greens on the Table.”  Since it is spring, a lot of tasty green vegetables are coming into season, so I wanted to feature them in the dishes we make.

The dishes I do with them are simple, for obvious reasons, but really tasty and nutritious.  Last week we started off with a dish that I like to call “Sarah’s go-to dinner.”  But for them, I called it Organic Whole Wheat Pasta with Spinach, Soy Sausage and Chickpeas. This dish is my “go-to” method of mixing whole wheat pasta with sausage (mostly chicken) and a seasonal vegetables. It was also my dinner in college for probably 4 out of the 7 nights of the week.

This new recipe is great because it’s fast, cheap, and very kid-friendly.  The kids in class were very ...