Senior and Parents' Menu: Spinach Lasagna, Balsamic Vinagrette Salad & Strawberry, Balsamic, Ricotta Crostini Dessert

Our parent and senior class had a great time this week preparing our Italian recipes. We talked about lowering the fat content in lasagna by substituting spinach for the typical meat filling. We also talked about other things you could add to the lasagna like sliced squash and zucchini.

We also made our own balsamic vinaigrette dressing and talked about the health benefits versus the creamy dressings like ranch dressing. We looked at the cost of making your own vinaigrette versus store bought and talked about the endlessly different combinations of vinaigrette dressing you can make as long as you remember the ratio- 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar/acid. We prepared our food in "stations" like restaurants do and discussed the different stations in a restaurant kitchen like the grill station, appetizer station, etc..
While the lasagna was cooking, we continued to look at food labels and focused on serving sizes and how sometimes the same food from two different companies can have two vastly different serving sizes and the reasons behind those different serving sizes. We also talked about comparing similar products by doing some math when looking at serving size so that you can compare similar products based on the same serving size which can be tricky.