Keep it Cool--Raw Food for Kids

Don't let summer's heat keep you from eating wonderfully tasty meals-just go raw! These meal and snack ideas are so easy, even the littlest kitchen helper can jump right in-and they'll be glad to do so.

HAMMY FARM

Need a great, quick appetizer or snack for a crowd? Try the 'hammy farm!' All you need is a package of sliced sandwich ham (not the super thin stuff, you'll see why in a minute), cubes or chunks of your favorite cheese or cheeses-think cheddar, mozzerella, monterrey jack, and various fruits and vegetables-apple, strawberry, mango, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, etc, diced or cut into chunks or large slices. Roll four ham slices into logs, securing each with five toothpicks spaced evenly down the log. Push each toothpick all the way through so that a tiny bit of the toothpick shows through on the other side-this will be important later. On each toothpick, layer chunks of cheese, veggies, or fruit. In keeping with the 'farm' theme, you could 'plant' rows of each item on a platter. Before serving, cut ham between toothpicks to make individual 'plants.' Make sure you've pushed all items all the way down on the toothpick-this will help keep your plants upright and give snackers a 'handle' to pick up the 'plants.' You may want to offer guests 'water' for the plants in the form of ranch or Italian salad dressing.

HOW FAIR THOU ART, JULLIENNE

When I think raw food, my first thought is salad. It's simple, sure, but it can be quite tasty. My favorite salads are what I call 'uniformed salads,' or salads in which all the components (well, except for the dressing) are all the same size and/or shape. I think it makes for a fantastic visual-and the surprise of the differing textures and flavors despite the apparent uniformity of the parts makes it even more fun. One of my favorites is the julienned salad-anything that can stand up to being cut this way is fair game. Try a combination of peppers-red, orange, yellow, and green bells-finely diced red onions (free pass on this one, as they're not quite the right shape to be julienned), some jícama (if you haven't tried it, really, do-it's also great in slaw), carrots, and zuchinni. Dressed simply with a simple olive oil and cider vinegarette and a bit of salt and pepper-and it's lunch. Or dinner. Whichever.

FRUIT--SANDWICHED

Sandwiches are almost synonymous with lunch in my house-so it's not surprising that a sandwich made it into this list. For this, you'll need sweet apples-think Corland, not Granny Smith. Slice halved, cored apples, preferably with a mandolin-the goal here is thin, even slices. Lemons or oranges are needed to rub down the slices-to keep the apples from turning brown and turning to mush-just rub quartered citrus on both sides of each slice. You'll also need cream cheese, either softened block cream cheese or the whipped variety. You could even use the flavored variety if you have it on hand. I add a touch of honey and a little orange flavoring, but you can leave it plain if you like. Now, at this point, you have options. You could use pineapple slices, finely diced marachino cherries or grapes, thinly sliced bananas, mangoes, pears, etc. There's really no wrong answers-and this is not a test. Think of the apples as your 'bread' and everything else as your sandwich filling. Simply spread each apple slice with cream cheese and add your fruit of choice. You could top each slice with another cream cheesed apple slice, but I usually serve this 'sandwich' open faced so that everyone can choose their own layers.