I’ve planned a different healthy dip to make each day. All will be encouraged to try the dip and to share their impressions. I’ll share the recipes as we taste them. As adults, we get to rely on peer pressure as our children are far more willing to try and enjoy food made at school by their friends than they are to do the same at home. Let’s ride these coattails!

In a promising vein, some of the children found a ripe eggplant in the garden and one of them said, “I have a recipe for eggplant!” Now, I need to be honest. I love basically every single vegetable on the planet. This may be a bit of hyperbole as I’m not fond of green beans unless they’re from a can, but I really do not like eggplant. My internal debate was along the lines of, “Jeez, do I really start them off with trying new, healthy foods on eggplant of all things?” But, they had grown it and were excited about it… We cut it into French fry sized pieces, dredged it in eggs, coated it in bread crumbs (which we didn’t have so we crushed up Saltine crackers instead)/parmesan/garlic powder, black pepper mixture, and then roasted it at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Along with the chefs, I tried a piece right out of the oven. To my surprise, it wasn’t too bad! In fact, I honestly think I’ll try making it at home and I have hopes that my daughter who likes fried zucchini dipped in ranch might like this as well! I was excited!

So, while the eggplant was cooling off, I read aloud and then most of us tasted it. Cold. Super different experience. I figured I’d ruined any chance I had at the majority of them tasting new foods. Who in the world would like cold eggplant? Well, it turns out that far more than half the class though it was great. I couldn’t have been more surprised. So, I am looking very forward to this week because all I have to do is compete with cold eggplant. There have been bigger challenges in life!