Blueberry Pizza

Yesterday, the children and I sat together at a large table ..and made blueberry pizza. You might ask -- why blueberry pizza? The truth is we were low on ingredients and ideas for toppings. I wanted something healthy for them, so I wasn't going to add pepperoni and other tasty but high sodium, high fat, meats. I then thought about veggies...hmm...but then realized immediately that something different and a little boring may not go over well for the first try. So - we went with different and irresistable - blueberry toppings. (I chose blueberries over the other fruit in our cubby (watermelon) and so blueberry pizza became our choice!)

The children loved it! They participated fully in the preparation of the pizza, of course. They loved basting the crusts with a little bit of canola oil. They loved pouring a small pitcher full of pizza sauce onto the crust and spreading it around with a wooden spatula. They loved sprinkling the cheese on. Four children took turns placing each blueberry onto the two cheese covered crusts.

Food preparation is a popular work choice in the Infant Community. The children learn about food and what it looks like in its raw state, they get to feel the texture of the skins and later taste the inside flesh of say, a cucumber or an avocado. I observed a bit of tasting going on while 'working.' With a couple of children, I noticed...it was like, a pinch of cheese for the crust and a pinch of cheese for my mouth!' And it is all good this way however I simply remind the children to save their tasting for our snack time. "Now we are preparing the snack! We will eat in just a bit!"

And eat we did! Some children preferred the plain cheese so I was glad that some of the children had placed blueberries in large clusters and had chosen to not spread them out as you or I might have chosen to do.

I don't know if this was everyone's first time making and eating blueberry pizza. All in all, yesterday's snack turned out very well. I hope the children will remember their blueberry pizza and be open to trying new foods. I think next time we will be ready for a fun veggie!