EAST THETFORD — Healthy pizza may sound like an oxymoron but youngsters who attended a Cedar Circle Farm and Education Center cooking class would argue differently.
Not only can pizza be made with healthy ingredients — it can also taste pretty good — they would add.
Gathered around a large table after a morning cooking class, parents, grandparents and young chefs ate pizzas and salads they had just made during a January class inside the Sunny Fields House at Cedar Circle.
“We made it with pesto, tomato sauce, fresh basil, butternut squash and mozzarella,” said Noah Kobylarz, 11, said as he finished his third slice while seated next to his mother, Amy Gubbins. “I choose those things because I like them. It came out really good.”
Lyme residents Gubbins, her husband, Erik Kobylarz and their sons Noah and Zacky Kobylarz, 9, were among the families at the two-hour cooking class. Instructor Dr. Auden McLure, a pediatrician who trained as a chef in France before going to medical school and then joining Dartmouth Health in the early 2000s, taught the children how to choose ingredients and make a meal.
The class took place in the Sunny Fields House, a newly restored farmhouse and sits about a half mile along Pavilion Road from the main farm buildings, said Kelsey Head, Education Program Manager at the farm. The farm, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, owns about 20 acres and leases another 20. Vegetables grown include onions, beets, carrots and squash, which were on the table at the cooking class. The farm also grows apples and plums and uses a lot of their production to make soups, salads and sandwiches in a commercial kitchen on the property, Head said.
The class, and others like it at Cedar Circle, are tailored to not only focus on healthy eating but also show how the connection between food and family can foster good nutritional habits in children.
McLure prepared the kitchen at Sunny Fields House ahead of time with cutting boards, rolling pins, knives and other items set out on a center island. Nearby, before a large window with a view of a sunlit, snow-covered field was a table with an array of fresh vegetables and fruits. Eight children, six parents and two grandparents signed up to attend the class.
McLure had everyone first grab a “pizza ball” — pre-made dough for the crust — and roll it out on the cutting boards to roughly 10 inches in diameter. Tomato sauce, also pre-made to save time, was then spooned on to the dough and spread around in a circular motion Recipes for both the dough and sauce were provided to participants so they can replicate the pizzas they made at home.
After they finished those two steps, it was time to choose the toppings, which included roasted squash and caramelized onions — both grown and prepared at the farm — cherry tomatoes and fresh basil.
“It’s an orange pizza,” Paisley Beckett, 9, of Norwich, said to her dad Rob Beckett as she looked at the squash and cherry tomatoes she chose for toppings.
McLure, who is employed at the Weight Management Clinic and Culinary Medicine Program at Dartmouth Health, said much of her work involves good nutrition.
“We do a lot around helping kids to eat healthy and be healthy,” she said.
Teaching healthy eating habits for children and avoiding reliance on fast food or ultra-processed foods is pretty straightforward, McLure said.
“Some of it is just moving back to whole foods. We have a place like Cedar Circle so kids can see the carrots that come from the fields (that) we are cutting up to make salad and pizza,” McLure said, while the children sliced vegetables and apples to put with their greens. “Getting back to whole ingredients, that is key to healthy eating and eliminating sweet beverages and processed foods.”
Children will be more inclined to develop healthy eating habits if they are invited to be part of shopping, preparing and cooking a meal, McLure said.
“Making recipes as a family will help children carry that later in their life,” she said
The family dynamic was in evidence all around the island, as moms, dads and grandparents chatted with the children. Together, they added pizza toppings, cut up vegetables and fruit for their salads and made a vinaigrette dressing.
Heather Campbell, of Norwich, helped her daughter, Clara Gerecht, 9, with their pizza. Each group made one pizza.
“Pesto, tomatoes, cheese, basil, onion, tomato sauce and squash,” said Clara, who rolled her dough out in the shape of a heart. “I like all of these and I like vegetables.”
Including her children in meals decisions at home and having them help prepare dishes results in fewer disagreements at the dinner table, Campbell said.
“I have found that my kids will eat a lot more once they have prepared it,” she said.
Her older daughter took a middle school cooking class at Cedar Circle recently on foods from around the world and brought home a recipe for perogies that the family made. Her younger daughter also learns about new foods at her preschool and wants her mom to buy them when she spots them in the grocery store.
Once the pizzas were cooking in the kitchen’s four ovens, McLure brought out a yogurt-based dip. The children seasoned it with onion powder, garlic powder, chives, parsley and salt and pepper.
“It uses a low-fat yogurt, has a lot of protein and taste like ranch (dressing),” McLure told the group.
When it was time to make the salads, McLure demonstrated cutting techniques for cucumbers, apples and carrots. She also demonstrated how to slice open an avocado by removing the pit and scooping out the flesh. Then, she taught the children an easy recipe for vinaigrette dressing that they made and whisked together in bowls.
Allie Cole-Henry, 9, and her sister, Ana, 7½, attended the class with their grandparents, David Cole and Karen Henry, all of Lyme.
“I really like making salad,” Allie said. “And I like cutting up stuff so that is probably the most fun for me. I choose apples, cucumbers, carrots, peppers and lettuce.”
McClure’s message to families hoping to provide healthy fare for their children is simple.
“Get back to enjoying healthy, whole foods,” she said. “You can make it fun, and good.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.