White House chef shares healthy salad and pie recipes

Video: Lean, green recipes from the White House

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   >>> this morning in "today"'s kich chen, veggie and fruit meals, featured in "better homes and garden" magazine. the first time in decades a figure has appeared on the cover. chris, good morning. nice to see you.

   >> good morning.

   >> you've got a pressure packed job at the white house between state dinners and huge luncheons but you had a really pressure packed assignment recently. you had to throw a picnic for fifth graders and everything had to be healthy. how did you do that?actually inspiring experience for us because for chefs, kids are the hardest ones to please. they're very blunt and honest. they will tell you if the food doesn't taste good. for us, that was our hardest audience ever.

   >> this was part of the first lady's idea that families need to think differently about how they're feeding their children breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

   >> yes. we want people having healthy choices but we want to give tell the tools and the know how. how do you really work from this vegetable around make it just palapable for kids.

   >> this is a chopped green salad , herb dressing. what vegetables do you like for this? ?

   >> everything in here. chopped green salad . it's really very simple. just, you know, you've got your spinach, you've got your romaine.

   >> broccoli and string beans ?

   >> put them right here.

   >> do you blanche those first?

   >> you blanche them.

   >> shock them in cold water .

   >> shock them in cold water . green color. kids are very visual. so when they see a fruit looks good, it's easier to let them try it.

   >> okay. so cucumbers. you've got beans and grapes there to add a little sweetness to it.

   >> a little sweetness. and then edamame is great for protein.

   >> tell me about the dressing.

   >> sure. orange herb vinaigrette. the easier part of this is it all gets mixed in the mason jar . a cup of orange juice , half a cup of --

   >> if you don't use all this at once you can store it in the mason jar and store it in the fridge?

   >> yes. keep it there for two weeks.

   >> pepper in here pr, vinegar. herbs, of course, depends on what you want. thyme, parsley. basically you shake it in the jar. some of this right there. and it's very, very simple.

   >> that just goes over the salad. self-explanatory.

   >> let's move on. fascinatin fascinating. parents are going to love this one. pocket fruit pies. how do you pick them?

   >> simple. you get a piece of a whole grain white bread . and prefer xwli yably you want to use whole grain because it has better nutritional value. this is a homemade smashed apple sauce . if you do not have the smashed apple sauce you can certainly use an apple butter , store bought. we want to make it easy for home cooks and moms who are so busy at home.

   >> couple of raspberrieraspberries.

   >> put one on top. cut around it. and then the good thing with the soft bread is you don't need any egg wash to brush it. using the tiniest little fork you can kind of like really make it seal around the edges. and what's happening --

   >> brush that with oil afterwards?

   >> just a little bit with canola oil or vegetable oil and it goes into the oven for 18 minutes, 350 degrees, in a dusting of cinnamon sugar .

   >> were these over here made recently? can i try one?

   >> you can try one.

   >> sometimes you have to be careful around here.

   >> yes.

   >> those are great. those are really good.

   >> it's a take on whatever kids are used to already. like the simple pop tart in the oven kind of thing but this is homemade. you have this in your pantry. anyone can do it.

   >> a couple of other things. we don't have time to make but you can show. sweet potato fries.

   >> sweet potato fries but they're not fried at all. feel how crunchy that is. this is basically breaded in whole wheat flour , parmesan and bread crumb .

   >> fresh made tomato ketchup.

   >> dell me about the lemonade.

   >> this is the hit of that picnic. kids are, again, very visual. it's made with carrot puree. we added some pineapple juice as a sweetener, just a hint of lemon, a little carbonated water or plain water, if you like.

   >> very good. very creative. you have the folks in washington for us. we appreciate it.

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