My Plate

Hello world,

This week has been great so far for all of our classes. In our Cooking Matters for kids class, we prepared Chinese veggies with Brown Rice and did a taste test of Jicama, Radishes and Fennel. The kids really seemed to like the Jicama but weren't so keen on the Fennel. They also really liked how colorful and tasty the stir fry was- see, vegetables can be fun and delicious! In class tonight, we will be making the Tex Mex skillet and a dip for vegetables using plain yogurt (!) and spices. The yogurt dip is super fast and healthy but the best part is that you can make it to your own tastes, who knows what we will put in ours tonight. We have some grocery store tours being held and a breakfast lesson. It's fun to have all the class series be in different points in the series so that it's never boring.

Something exciting happened last week. The USDA came out with a new food guide called My Plate. It's great because it gives a good idea of your plate should be divided up by the different food groups. I like that it's so much easier to teach! A plate really makes sense to people and I think it's a really great model for how we should eat- especially with half of our plate filled with fruits and veggies. You can learn more here: www.choosemyplate.gov. It's a fun website to poke around and learn about the different food groups and the nutrients they provide. There are also some resources for estimating how many calories a person needs and how many calories are in certain foods. So check it out and have fun!

Janna