Mixing Bowl Academy- Meatballs and Marinara!

We thoroughly enjoyed our last cooking class with Sandie Sanchez at the Mixing Bowl Academy.  Those strawberry smoothies were the best!  So when she invited us back for another class, of course we agreed!  Our second session was a Jr Chefs class, which means that it is geared for children ages 8 and up.  Sandie assured me that we could still do the class, I just needed to plan to do most of it with them.

We started our class with a little chit-chat between the kids, as they all got to know a bit about each other.  Then we went right into the cooking.  We started with the marinara sauce, and I have to be honest here- I had never made homemade marinara before.  It was fun, and we all learned a lot!  Bop got a lot of practice cutting and chopping veggies, and I even let her stand up on a chair at the stove to stir it while it simmered.

After we added all the veggies to the sauce, it was time to mix up the meat.  I had warned the kids ahead of time that they would have to get their hands in the meat and mix it so they were all right with that.  It took a little convincing before they realized that it is okay to touch raw meat, as long as you wash up well afterwards.  :)  After we added all the ingredients and got it mixed up, we got to the fun part!  Time to squish up those balls.  Sandie had a really good idea for the formation of the meat balls.  She used an ice cream scoop, which works great!

Mixing up the meat and rolling balls.

I really liked several things about the class.  When Sandie (or, rather, her daughter) shows the kids how to do something, they really SHOW them.  It's not just "chop the onion", it's "here is HOW to chop the onion."  And she at the end of each step she asked the kids if they were ready to move on, so no one got behind.

I also really like how Sandie's kids are the ones doing the cooking.  She instructs them and they are the ones in front for the camera demonstrating.  That really helped my kids have the confidence to do it themselves.

If you are planning to have your kids take a class with the Mixing Bowl Academy, I would recommend generally sticking to her age recommendations.  While we enjoyed the class and I think they learned a lot, the older kids would get a lot more out of it.  This class is much longer and more complicated then the Little Chefs class we took last week.  Hailey's comment at the end is pretty descriptive.  "It was a lot of fun, but it made me really tired!"

The best part?  

We had a wonderful supper! 

You can visit Mixing Bowl Academy to see all she offers, and you can join her Facebook page for updates. You can also go to CurrClick Live to learn more about their live classes.

I received a free live class from Mixing Bowl Academy for the purpose of this review. I am always honest and fair in my reviews.