So many different organizations are crafting incredible recipe resources to utilize as you begin your farm to school and scratch cooking journey. This document contains links to nine different websites with extensive recipe catalogs, all specifically designed for school cooking. You can also quickly see what kinds of features each of these catalogs has such as automatic recipe scaling calculators, crediting information, video instructions, and other helpful details as you test new school meals.

This document also provides links to several Nourish recipe resources, including a document with tips on how to read recipes, and a resource to help with scaling recipes up or down to suit your school needs.

You can also visit USDA’s Team Nutrition site for links to their recipe resources, which include catalogs of recipes for different age groups and documents on guidelines surrounding recipe standardization.

Food Production Resources

We created a series of videos in partnership with our CO Department of Public Health and Environment for a grant they received from the CDC. These videos were designed for the Early Care audience, however the concepts cross all kitchens when it comes to safely and efficiently preparing food. These videos are designed to be interactive with quizzes throughout and are available in English and Spanish! They cover topics such as Food Safety, Recipe Reading, and Time Management in quick, digestible bites. Enjoy!

  • https://www.verse.com/video/59210-quick-bites/intro/
  • Recipe Reading Tips
    • This simple handout gives you a breakdown on the parts of a recipe, and 4 core steps to properly reading a recipe
  • Recipe Conversion Tips
    • Do you ever need to scale a recipe down (for example, from 200 servings to 100 servings) or scale a recipe up (for example, from 50 servings to 400 servings)? Do you not have access to software to do this for you? Are you looking for a quick trick to scale recipes so you don’t have to always remember the formula? If so – this handout is for you! It details our Recipe Conversion Factor and how to easily use it for scaling recipes up or down.
  • Using Spices and Herbs to enhance your meals
    • We are big fans of those two handouts above and the different flavor combinations shared. You can easily take one vegetable and create multiple different flavor profiles by using different combinations of spices and herbs. No reason to keep serving raw broccoli every day – change it up and have fun!
  • Food Buying Guide
    • When creating new recipes, this website is the place to go to ensure you are ordering enough and have enough in your recipe to credit based on the meal pattern requirements. We highly recommend downloading their app as well. Between the web version and their app, you can create an account, save your recipes, and even create an ordering guide!
  • Basics at a Glance and others from the Institute of Child Nutrition
    • This resource is one of our favorites! And they have it available in Spanish and English. You can print these and have them posted in your kitchens for your cooks to reference.
  • Institute of Child Nutrition
    • This website is chock full of resources, recipes, and trainings! And many of their resources and trainings are available in Spanish!
  • Colorado Department of Education – School Nutrition Unit – Training Videos and Webinars
    • Our School Nutrition Unit has a wealth of training videos and webinars available for you. Check out their Moodle platform for a way to access their online training and receive professional standards credit.
  • Training and Hiring Requirements
    • Our School Meal Operators are required to have a certain number of professional development hours every single year. The link above takes you directly to CDE’s site where you can learn more about the training requirements and find tools for tracking your progress.

Related Resources