Play With Your Food


We know that parents say over and over, ""Don't play with your food!", but we are saying just the opposite. By "playing" with your food you can create many new and interesting ways of presenting food so that people will want to eat it. You can make a beautiful eatable centerpiece like the one above, a traditional garnish such as created in many Oriental cuisines, or something as simple and 'ants on a log'... and I hope someone will make those so everyone can see what they are. Send a photo and a short description of how to create it.
	I made a Cornbread mouse. The head is cornbread, the eyes are carrots, the nose is a piece of cereal, and the ears are mini snickers bars. Micah, Julian Middle School
	Here how to create the Ultimate-gingerbread-Christmas-ice cream-treat: First, take out a bowl and scoop three scoops of Breyer's Gingerbread Ice Cream into the bowl. Then, you must lightly cover it in sno-cones and sprinkles. Last, apply three candy cane sticks to the ends of each ice-cream scoop. Enjoy! Connor, Julian Middle School
	I made this gingerbread house with my friend. First we had to make the gingerbread, but my friends mom helped us with that. Then we set out the decorations and started decorating. I have a snowman in my yard and he has a fez (A red cylinder hat that is from Turkey). I also have a Christmas tree with a yellow star on top. I have a walk up to the front door and a walk to the back door. I also have a garden in my yard. My house has a chimney on top. Sarah, Julian School
	Christmas eve dinner is made special not only with favorite foods, but also by arranging them in a tasty manner. The addition of lighted candles and the good china, adds to the festive occasion. Matgorzata Miernecka, SPOT language school, Piaseczno, Poland
	I used many things to make an omlette look very tasty. I added cheese, bacon bits, and other secret ingredients. To finish the effect of having breakfast I put toast on the plate. The sausages didn't hurt either. As a decorative touch I added broccoli on the plate and the lime wedge on the juice glass, but as a decoration not to eat. Nichelle, Julian Middle School
	This meal is called a pot roast, the cool thing about this meal is it has many different foods. First we have an English muffin with butter on it. Then in front of the English muffin is your beef. In front of your beef is your veggies. The veggies are carrots, potatos, sweet potatos, and last but not least the onoins. For your side dish you have a salad, and to drink you have a glass of milk. Graham, Julian Middle School
	Awesome Smoothie. I made a fresh fruit smoothie. They are really good for mornings where you have very little time for breakfast because fresh fruit smoothies are easy to make and easy to eat. All you need is a blender and your imagination. Basically you put in some kind of liquid and lots of fruit. If you don’t have any fresh fruit, you can use frozen fruit and ice cream. These fresh fruit (or not) smoothies are a great treat for all occasions. Hannah B.P., Julian Middle school
	I made tacos and quesadillas for my project. It was a Mexican dish. The tacos contained ground beef, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, and some also had lettuce on them. The ingredients were all stuffed in a hard tortilla. The quesadillas are made will Monterey Jack cheese and soft tortillas. They are fried on a pan, just like a pancake. The cheese melts and the two tortillas stay together. On the side I made Spanish rice and different kinds of salsa. I carefully arranged everything so that it would look appetizing. Kara, Julian Middle School
	The thing I made for this project is a small cake. The first thing you have to do is to toast 3 pieces of bread.Then you get some icing and you put it all over the bread. A few candy sprinkles add to the look and the enjoyment. Any age can do this if they can use the toaster and cut the bread. Robert, Julian Middle School
	My picture is of 8 banana slices, each one spread with peanut butter. Half of them are topped with marshmallows and half with chocolate chips. To divide the slices I used chocolate sauce and I also crushed up Oreos and sprinkled them around. Finally, I put rasberries in the middle. Dan, Julian Middle School
	The Food Pyramid is a great way to get lots of nutrients, AND enjoy your meal. 1. On the bottom, put carbohydrates like pasta and delicious bread. 2. On the top-right part of the carbohydrates section, put fruits like oranges and apples- these have lots of vitamins and calcium, and are like little balls of energy. 3. To the left of the fruits, put vegetables like peppers, lettuce, and cucumbers. 4. On top of the vegetables, put some slices of chicken or ham. 5. On top of the fruits, put proteins like milks and soybeans. 6. On top of both of these, put a LITTLE bit of candy. You can use this pyramid to feed you for one whole day- AND you can make different things with this pyramid. For example, you could cut up the bread, and put the vegetables and meat on it, and have a delicious sandwich. Or for dinner, you could cut up the vegetables, put them with the nuts in a bowl, and make a sandwich! Ariel, Julian Middle School
	My food is a stirfry with beef, vegetables, and rice. The vegetables are carrots, green beans, potatoes, and onions. It is a very yummy dish. I had a ton of fun making it. It has 3 of the food groups. It took about 45 minutes. I think that it is a pretty easy dish to make. Spencer, Julian Middle School
	For my creation I took a basic smore and added orange covered pecans. I also took a plain rice cake and added some hershy kiss minis. Then we put it in the microwave on regular for about 45 seconds. Since I used some stale items I don't think it taste as good as it would have. Even if some items like the graham crackers weren't stale I don't think it would have tasted much better. Eric, Julian Middle School
	My very top secret holiday cookies require expert mixing and baking. Using ingredients like oatmeal, almonds, walnuts, pecans, white chocolate, dark chocolate, and M&M's, I create these cookies using my superior baking skills. After all the main ingredients are added, I add heaping amounts of butter and fatty oils to help the cookies taste as rich as possible. Then, after preparing them, I pop them into the oven and pull them out when they are a light crispy brown. After they cool off, my siblings flock to the table and eat them up as fast as they can. I however, have never tasted my own cookies out of concern for my health. Chris, Julian Middle School
	I have decided to use a number of different breakfast foods into one. This delicious tray is going to resemble a normal face. The tray will begin with a pancake resembling a head. Then will come the eyes which will be sunny-side-up eggs. A small chunk of butter will be the nose, and a lot of chocolaate sprinkes will resemble the mouth. This tray sure sounds good! Cullen M., Julian Middle School
	My treat is Strawberry ice cream. It is made with sugar, water, strawberry yogurt and frozen strawberries. I put all these things in a bowl and mixed them up. After that I put them in the Ice Cream maker and made ice cream from that. It tastes delicious. Alex, Julian Middle School
	My play with my food project is a bannana with peanut butter chips and chocolate chips stuck in it. There are peanut butter chips running parallel on the bottom from top to bottom. If you have a little brother, you can tell him it's a snake! Rachel, Julian Middle School
	Traditionaly, I make green ice cream jello for the holidays. Although this year I felt lazy and decided not to. Normally, my jello consists of ice cream, and green jello. Although these ingreedents don't sound complex, it can be hard work for a kid who only makes popcorn. That is my holiday food tradition. Brad, Julian Middle School
	This is a plate of ham, cranberry, and apple sauce, that was my christmas dinner. The ham had a spice that was ut into it, the cranberry was mushed, and the apple sauce we added onto it. Brittany, Julian Middle School
	This is a cheese banana! This delightfully food item thing is made from a cup of cheese with two tablespoons of flour mixed in with an eighth of a cup of milk. You sculpt whatever you want out of it and decorate it with food coloring and chocolate. I like cheese and I don't like bananas so I came up with a way to make them more appetizing and that was how I got this idea. You can make any food sculpture... and eat it too. Maggie K., Julian Middle School
	Making this Challah and Fruit arrangement is very simple: 1. Take two Challah breads and lay them out on a tray or table. 2. Arrange apples, oranges and kiwis in the crevices of the Challah, or lying around it. 3. Lay dried roses on top and around the challah. 4. Enjoy! Zettie, Julian Middle School
	This is a picture of the best ham & mac and chesse ever. The chesse is melted to a point of softness past soft, and the ham is so juicy with the fat is so good. Darien M-B, Julian Middle School
	My wonderful and fabulous creation contains very different groups of food. First, it has watermelon and cantelope slid through to the middle of a knife. Then it has the same fruit slid to the middle of a fork and the fork is stuck into the fruit on the knife. Then on top of the fruit on the knife I stuck toothpicks and stuck french fries on each one. Some higher than others and some lower. I also had two fries on each side of the creation. Finally, I slid two fries down through the top part of the fork and since the were soft limp fries they sort of hung over. Wali M., Julian Middle School
	Brandons amazingly awesome nachos They're pretty simple to make. All you need is: a bag of Nacho chips, a bag of mexican cheese, Tostitos brand salsa medium or mild (or another if you have a favorite). Take one large plate, pour a bunch of chips on the plate, then you pour the salsa into the middle or you can spread it around, finally spread a lot of cheese all over the plate. Now you can microwave it all together. Let the dish cool and dig in. Brandon W., Julian Middle School
	I made a fajita. To make a Fajita first you must marinade the steak and grill it. Then I cut red bell peppers and onions and put them in a pan that has oil on the bottom. Then you can put refried beans in a pan on the stove and I also made some rice. To make rice you boil some water and then add the rice packet. When everything is finished cooking you can put some tortillas in the oven to heat them up and then put some lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, and salsa in dishes. Kyle H., Julian Middle School
	My Great-Grandma Waters’ (Mormormor’s) Swedish Meatballs This is a family favorite of mine that comes from my great-grandma, whose parents emigrated to America from Sweden around 1900. It’s been a family favorite for three generations. You start by beating 1 egg and then you add 3 tablespoons milk and 2 slices of cut up bread, without crusts. Let sit a few minutes until bread softens, then beat smooth with egg beater. Add 1 pound ground chuck, 3 tablespoons chopped onion, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Mix all ingredients with washed hands. Next form into balls, roughly 1 inch around, and put in skillet with melted butter in it. Let cook, adding salt and pepper. This is normally served with a vegetable or other side dish, and tastes really good with BBQ sauce. Peter H, Julian Middle School, Oak Park, IL, USA
	This food is an omlette, that is made with cheese and and a little bit of peppers, and has basil, for that extra taste and three mouth watering perfectly cut slices, of juicy oranges. Stefan S., Julian Middle School
	My eatible treat is called ''Apple Whips.'' This treat is actually very delicious, my sister and I both took part in making it. It is a wonderful little snack for almost any occasion. It is also very easy to make. All you do is take a bowl or plate and cut up as many apples as you like so that they are in a triangle shape. then take whip cream and pour it on top of the cut up apples, then take some cinnamon and sprinkle it on top thus finishing the creation of ''Apple Whips.'' Warren, Julian Middle School
	My creative food would be a peanut butter and frosted flake (cereal) sandwich. I think this would be good because it is crunchy and smooth all in the same sandwich. Kris M., Julian Middle School
	Chocolate Caramel Mountain By: Carson C. Ingredients: 1 pack of Nestle Hot Chocolate mix with mini marshmellows 2 teaspoons of cinnamon 1 Reddi-Whip whipped cream bottle 1 cup of water Instructions- 1- Microwave water for 30 seconds 2- Add Hot Chocolate mix and stir until white 3- Add whipped cream 4- Put cinnamon on whipped cream 5- Add caramel and enjoy!
	The food I've created is pepperoni soup. You cut the pepperoni thinly and place it over some tomato soup. You can also sprinkle some pepper or other topping to give it some spice. Nick C., Julian Middle School
	I made a smiley face with muffins for eyes and chocolate chips for pupils and ketchup for a smile. The nose was a baby carrot. Mikey, Julian Middle School
	The first item was a frozen pepperoni pizza, then I took Twistlers candy and used them as a topping for the pizza. After that I stuck the pizza topped with candy in the microwave for 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Then I ate it. It was delicious. Devante M, Julian Middle School
	The food here is rice barbeque sauce. This is a really appetizing meal. The type of rice is brown rice. This also includes beans with its sauce. I would call rice n' bq.. Josiah, Julian Middle School
	In order to eat my delightful dessert, you need one bowl, an ice cream scoop, one scoop of vanilla ice cream, red, orange, and yellow sprinkles, 1 clementine, and 2-3 strawberries. 1.) Make one round ball using an ice cream scoop and place it in a bowl. 2.) Put random variations of sprinkles on the ice cream untl it is completely covered. 3.) cut up a clementine, and slice it into 6 different slices and lay them around the ball of ice cream. 4.) Now cut the strawberries into slices and lay them around the clementines. 5.) And last but not least, marvel your artwork before eating it. Yum! Connor D., Julian Middle School
	The food I put on is very simple and great for the summertime, paticullarily when you go to the beach. What I did to make it is the same way as any bolagna sandwich except, as you've noticed, cut the cheese into the shape of a sailboat. Tristan, Julian Middle School
	Andrew, Julian Middle School
	For my food that I am going to put my own spin on it. I'm going to make a cheese burger with tomatoes as the eye balls, some pickles as the pupil. Then ketchup and mustard as the nose, and last but not least have bacon for the mouth and this is my great creation. Justin Cousin, Julian Middle School