The following post is written by NCSU student, Madelaine Frye. It is the 2nd in a series of blogs she will be writing chronicling her experience as Nutrition Instructor in her second section of spring OFL classes. Read Week 1 , Week 2, and Week 3 here. Madelaine is teaching OFL as part of a Service Learning Class that has teamed up North Carolina State Students with the Inter Faith Food Shuttle’s OFL/Nutrition Program. Through this partnership the IFFS and NCSU hope to engage students in service learning and community nutrition while expanding the reach of its OFL program. Hello again! I have been reporting to you all on how our Side By Side classes at the Knightdale Head Start location have been progressing through our six-week healthy lifestyle adventure. Week four in the OFL Side by Side class sure was full of exciting activities, along with lots of cooking!
This week, we discussed the importance of making a grocery list prior to leaving your house for the store. Family menu planning gets everyone excited about meals and allows families to share in the responsibilities and fun. Advance planning can make sure that we always have healthy foods on hand and allow us to use recipe frameworks. Recipe frameworks help us to manage our food resources because we can plan to use up ingredients we have at home, using items over several meals, and to take advantage of sales we see at the store. Items such as rice and chicken are good examples of framework items, because they can be cooked in advance and used with several different dishes throughout the week, such as in sandwiches, casseroles, and soups.
Breakfast was also a topic of discussion this week. Did you know that eating breakfast can help prevent you from over eating later on and gives you the energy you need to do your best all day? If you have minimal time in the mornings, try waking up 15 minutes earlier, preparing ingredients the night before, or making a breakfast that can be heated up and taken on the go. Fruit, toasted grain items, and milk cartons are easy items to carry with you in the car or on the bus. Always try to eat at least three food groups at each meal!
For our fourth class we cooked both yogurt parfait with homemade granola and chicken soup. Yogurt parfait is a quick and easy snack that can be great for breakfast each morning. Chicken soup contains tons of foods that represent each part of the plant; Carrots are a root and celery is a stem. Try these yummy foods at home with your family and you’ll love them too!
