Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

For me it's all about food smells: a neighbor's BBQ, a juicy tomoato sliced on the counter, the smell of fresh dirt at the farmer's market, or the sweet, warm smell of an ice cream shop as you walk in the door.

Oh how fun! I remember making chocolate cherry brownies and fresh bread with my grandma growing up. I miss those days!

My guess is that the best way to get a 13 year odl girl interested in cooking is to make simple, easy, delicious versions of the meals she sees all the time- make pizza from scratch with any toppings she likes, try mac n' cheese with REAL cheese, show her how simple it is to make a burger in your very own kitchen!

If you'd rather stick with baking, a cool thing to do is lay out "the basics" (flour, sugar, eggs, butter, etc.) and make 3-4 completely different recipes that use them all. chocolate brownies, bread, peaunut butter cookies, cake, and pies-- all from the same plain old ingredients! WOW!

Most importantly document these sacred days-- make a scrapbook/recipe collection she can hang on to forever. I still have the hand written recipe card for my grandma's brownies and it makes me smile everytime I see it- I only wish I had pictures to go along with it!

Here's another thought: Just bring a big ol' bottle of Tequila, take a swig and slur: "Mexican enough for ya?"

Wow. Raise your hand if you think I need to go to anger management classes... :)

What do you call a cow with three legs?
Lean Beef.

What do you call a cow with NO legs?
Ground Beef.

What do you call a seagull flying over a bay?
A Bagle.

HA!

I just wing it! Lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, oil, and sugar are the ingredients I go for. Start with about 3 tablespoons of EVOO and whisk in the rest until you like the taste. It's a great way to lighten up grains and goes really well on greens, too!

Corn on the cob! Remove the silk and peel back the husk (like a banana). Rub the corn with butter, lime, sea salt, pepper, garlic, any sort of rub, or any combination of the above. Then pull the husk back around the corn and grill husk-on. It is quite possibly the best thing in the world.
*Note- some people suggest dunking the corn in a water bath after replacing the husk and before grilling, but I've never found it necessary. As long as you use enough butter, things seem to work out just fine ;)

Blend them with ice, coffee, and milk (or ice cream!) for a homemade frappe or just sprinkle the powder over ice cream sundaes.

Or, if you want to get REALLY creative, try substituting the cocoa powder for some of the sugar in your favorite cookie or brownie recipe and see what you come up with! I wonder if you could even find a way to make hot cocoa frosting for a cupcake?

Also, you could brew your own chai with spices and boiling water, let it cool, and combine half chai and have chocolate milk (from your cocoa) for a iced chocolate chai treat! I used to do this at a coffee shop I worked at and it was delicious!

Any sort of gazpacho would be easy to make ahead. If soup is too tricky to serve at a grad party, I'd stick with pasta or bean-based salads (white beans, garbanzos, and black beans all make bases for filling, colorful, cheap salads). For dessert, a favorite of mine is making cookie dough the night before, preheating the oven while the guests are arriving, and popping them in when the crowd looks hungry. In less than 15 minutes you have warm, gooey cookies and a delicious smell throughout the house without having to slave in the kitchen during the whole party!

This was posted on SE a few weeks ago:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/chi-0429-health-blogsapr29,0,4064625.story?track=rss

All of the blogs featured there have some great information and recipes!

Oh, man. Don't even get me started on post-run trips to Whole Foods! Last summer I was training for a marathon with a running club that conveniently met one block from a Whole Foods. After a long run, I would bolt through the grocery store Super Market Sweep style (remember that show?) collecting every cereal, tortilla chip, and cheese sample I could get my sweaty hands on and end up at the bakery case to snatch up 2 (or 3!) bran muffins... oooooh those bran muffins!
I know they aren't cereal, but its the same dilemma- a seemingly healthy fat free bran muffin certainly doesn't mean calorie-free. And double fisting them certainly doesn't help the issue...
@cycorider, I have no advice to offer, but I definitely feel your pain! Run hard!

Thanks, everyone! I've been googling your suggestions all morning and drooling all over my keyboard. :) Sounds like it will be a real struggle to spend money on books, not food. Wish me luck!

There was a lot of fake cheese in my childhood.
Elementary school provided the "sack lunch" option, which contained a the classic plastic wrapped PB&J... but with a Kraft single plastered to the top (why? why? why??), a pickle on the side, and a room temperature carton of strawberry milk. Blech! I can still picture the "dump bin" where kids would empty their leftovers before returning their trays. It was a chunky pink mess.

Then high school came and we upgraded to fancy "a la carte" options and the regular hot lunch line became totally uncool. The most popular meal among kids was a plain or cinnamon raisin bagel (frozen, not fresh) dunked in a styrofoam cup of --- are you ready for this?
NACHO CHEESE.
Then you'd wash it down with Tahitian Treat, have an oatmeal cream pie for dessert, and call it a day.