A Not So Cheesy Lesson About Calcium!

Hello!  My name is Rebecca Holmes.I am a senior in Nutrition Science at NCSU, and the class manager for the Operation Frontline class at Loaves and Fishes.  This week we finished up our fifth class, and time has flown by. If you haven't been keeping up with this class, you can still read Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 and Week 4! As we get to know each other and the youth, each class only improves.  I can’t believe that this group will be graduating next week!  I wish we could continue on for the rest of the year, but I honestly believe the youth are ready to be master chefs of their home kitchens.  We started off in the kitchen this week with chef Susan to cook a meal inspired by the dairy food group.  Then, Megan (our nutrition instructor) gave the youth a lesson on calcium to complete their tour of the food pyramid. In the kitchen we prepared stovetop macaroni and cheese, followed by chocolate pudding for dessert.  Susan gave a lesson on the importance of dairy safety.  She explained how important refrigeration and sanitation are in the world of milk and cheese.  That means no drinking out of the carton!  Since the beginning, the youth definitely seem more confident and comfortable in the kitchen.  While the pudding was thickening, and the mac-n-cheese was simmering Megan began the nutrition lesson.  She explained to the youth how important calcium is for bone and teeth formation and strength.  Also, she explained that Vitamin D helps us absorb the calcium we get from dairy products.  She followed up with an activity using teaspoons of sugar to help the youth visualize the amount of calcium we can get from different dairy products.

The biggest surprise for the youth this week was the addition of broccoli to mac-n-cheese.  In fact, one of the first comments of the evening was “where are we putting that broccoli?”  But, when we were eating together the broccoli didn’t seem to stop them from cleaning their plates!  The funny thing is, I was watching Rachel Ray Show the very next morning and she made whole-wheat mac-n-cheese with broccoli (I think she somehow must have heard about our wonderful meal).

Stovetop Mac-N-Cheese

makes 4 servings

• 2 cups dry macaroni (whole grain recommended)
• 1/3 cup low-fat milk
• 3 ounces of cream cheese
• 2/3 cup shredded cheese (cheddar, Colby, Monterey, jack, brick, or chilhuahua)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Optional extras: 2 cups of steamed broccoli, 2 cups of cooked peas, 1 can of tuna (packed in water, drained)

Directions:

1. Boil water with a pinch of salt in a big pot
2. Add macaroni; boil until tender (about 8 minutes), and drain.
3. Combine the milk and cream cheese in a pan over medium heat, and stir until smooth.
4. Stir in the macaroni and the shredded cheese.
5. Stir on medium heat until the cheese is melted.
6. Add desired options, especially vegetables.
7. Season with salt and pepper.

Chocolate Pudding,

makes 4 servings

• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• ½ cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups 1% low-fat milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Mix cornstarch, sugar, cocoa, and salt together in a bowl.
2. Pour milk into a pot over medium heat.  Add cocoa mixture and stir constantly until cocoa mixture is well blended and the pudding begins to bowl.
3. Lower heat to a simmer and stir pudding continuously until thick.  Remove from the heat.  Add vanilla.
4. Pour into four dishes.  Chill.
5. Optional:  Tow with low-fat whipped cream before serving.

Come out and enjoy the weather!

                     Inter-Faith Food Shuttle Farm and Garden

                    Crew-Call  

Spring has finally arrived and we know you want to be outside!  Bring your neighbor, friend, or family and join us this week.  Logan’s PAR kickoff is Saturday and we will be sending interested people over to Mayview to join in the fun.  We’d love to have as many volunteers there as possible to show others what a great Saturday activity volunteering with IFFS can be. 

 VOLUNTEER TIME & EVENTS:

• Mayview Work Day , Saturday 10am-2pm!
  • Come out and help in the beautiful weather.  We will be leveling the ground between beds and filling the ditches inside the garden space as well as harvesting greens and planting a new crop of spring goodness.
  • The Mayview garden site is located down the grassy hill behind the duplex at 2136 Mayview Drive (backing up to the Jaycee field).

PAR (Plant a Row) Kickoff at Logan’s Trading Company

• • Logan’s is helping us kick off the PAR season with workshops, activities, and a press conference with Mayor Meeker.  We have enough volunteers but would love to see you at Logan’s on Saturday! Click here for details.
  • The IFFS PAR program encourages people to grow extra and/or donate excess produce to people in need through IFFS.  We will have weekly PAR produce drop-off sites at locations around our 7 county service area, including at Logan’s on Saturday mornings.

• Community Garden Work times:
  • Neighbor to Neighbor      Wenesday       2:00-5:00pm
  • Mayview                                Fridays              3:30-5:00pm
  • In both gardens we will be working with community members and youth to harvest greens and prep new beds for spring planting!  Please email Amanda (NutritionCoord@foodshuttle.org) if you are planning on coming.

LOCAVORE LUNCH - This week’s topic:  Seedlings!

Every Wednesday at noon we are holding local agricultural discussion groups at Farmhouse Pizza, 3011 Hillsborough St. in Raleigh. We will be serving a pizza made using some (hopefully soon to be all) local ingredients from NCSU's Farmers' Market. Please RSVP to Steve (steven.p.horton@gmail.com) so he knows many pizzas to have made.  If you can contribute, he is asking for a $5 donation... if you can't afford the cost we’ll gladly cover you in return for good conversation!   A portion of the proceeds will go to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.  This week's topic will be seedlings. How do we get those tiny plants to survive to maturity? 

FARMS & GARDEN BLOG

Keep up with what’s going on with our Farms & Gardens and PAR programs through the IFFS blog farmsandgardens.wordpress.com.  Use the blog to check out weekly ripe recipes, find yourself in photos of weekly crew calls, hear from other volunteers, and stay up to date with activities at IFFS.  Let us know if you’re interested in contributing to the blog!

GARDEN SUPPLIES:

We are still in need of hand-tool donations.  We gladly accept new and/or lightly used equipment. Thanks to all who have responded.

New Volunteer?

If you have not filled out a volunteer form or have a friend who is interested in helping out please email Janet at RGSJRS@aol.com.

Hope to see you all this week and weekend!

Katherine, Sun, Amanda, & Steve

Eat Healthier While Saving Time and Money: Plan Ahead!

The following is a blog from NCSU student Holly Starks. It is the fourth (read the 1st week, 2nd week, and 3rd week recaps) in a series of 5 Blogs she will be writing chronicling her experience as a Nutrition Instructor for a OFL Class she is Teaching. Holly 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.

The Side by Side class at the Crosby Head Start Center met once more before their graduation. This was the last time that the instructors would be teaching the participants about nutrition, gardening, and cooking. Our focus for the last material was to cover tips and strategies about saving time and money while eating healthy. We also wanted the participants to learn about the different parts of a plant and understand what parts they eat as food. The recipes for this week were:

• white bean and basil chicken chili and
• apple crisp, both of which reinforced our topics of saving and time and money when making recipes.

At the beginning of the class we started with the cooking preparation for the chili so that it would be cooking while the other lessons were being taught.

The parents helped cut the vegetables, chicken, and apples while the kids helped squeeze the limes and mix together the ingredients for the apple crisptopping. During this part of the class the families discussed ways to save time such as keeping the pantry stocked and organized with basic essentials so that foods will be on hand for quick recipes. The class also discussed utilizing the freezer to save extra food for a later time and safe practices for thawing food.

While the soup simmered on the stove and the apple crisp baked in the oven, the parents learned about the benefits of menu planning with the family. Menu planning can help save time and money at the grocery store by allowing one to buy foods that can be used in several recipes throughout the week. It can also ensure that healthy foods will be on hand for recipes instead of putting together a recipe last-minute that might include unhealthy options. While learning to plan menus, the class also discussed recipe frameworks that demonstrate the base of recipes such as soups, casseroles, salads, and wraps. By knowing the base of each, families are able to personalize their recipes based on what is available, what is in season, or what their preferences are.

Along with planning menus, we emphasized the importance of planning breakfast and making sure that the whole family is able to eat a healthy meal in the morning that includes at least three food groups.

After the nutrition and gardening lesson finished, the chili and apple crisp were ready to eat. The class enjoyed the recipes, as the kids especially liked the apple crisp. The chili was a great way to show how to use recipe frameworks and making healthier substitutions. Soups like the chili we made can also be frozen and eaten for a later meal. The apple crisp is a great recipe to make with kids as they can help mix the delicious topping. You can save money on this recipe by buying apples that are on sale, or buy other fruits that might be in season or on sale. You can substitute with fruits such as pears, peaches, or berries; have fun by personalizing your recipes. I’ve listed below some nutrition tips to remember, but please join us next week to hear about the graduation and celebration for the families!

Nutrition Tips from this week’s lesson:

• Plan meals ahead of time with the family, this will get everyone excited about the meal and will help you to make sure that your family is eating healthy
• Plan to have at least three food groups per meal and two food groups per snack

  

• When planning, include when the food will be prepared and who willhelp with each task, having food planned and prepared ahead of time will help save time when cooking
• Keep in mind that recipes do not have to be exact, if food is not available or your family doesn’t like certain ingredients, you can make substitutions - It is also important to try to make substitutions that will make a recipe healthier, for instance using chickeninstead of beef or using low-fat cheese instead of regular cheese
• Make sure that your family is eating a meal in the morning that includes at least three food groups - having a good start to the day provides necessary energy, helps to maintain metabolism, helps your kids think in school, and also reduces over-eating
• Breakfast doesn’t have to be eaten right after you wake up, but should be eaten within the first few hours of your day

We would like to give a special thanks to Andy Beal for taking all the great photographs at this week's lesson!

Lesson Four "The Power of Planning"

The following is a blog from NCSU student Kate Towery. It is the fourth (read Kate's recap from Week 3, Week 2, and Week 1) in a series of 5 blogs she will be writing chronicling her experience as a Nutrition Instructor for a OFL Class she is teaching. Kate 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. This week in our Operation Frontline class, “Side by Side,” we wrapped up the class series talking about:

• menu planning and
• breakfast trios

We made Orange Oatmeal Pancakes and fruit smoothies, which included plenty of steps for the kids, such as measuring and mixing. Watching the pancakes bubble was fun too. Will, our Chef, gave some tips on stocking our pantries and using recipe frameworks to incorporate one food item into multiple meals.

We had a lot of fun activities during class. For one we asked the parents and kids to plan a meal together keeping in mind the lessons we have learned the past weeks. The parents wrote down the foods and strategized when to make certain dishes and how the kids could help while the children colored these foods on a plate to demonstrate food group variety and colorful meals. They also colored food pyramids during our cooking lesson and we hung these up on the wall.

Another fun activity involved turning empty milk jugs into watering cans for the pea plants the kids planted last week. Participants decorated their jugs and the parents poked holes in the side so water can sprinkle out. Cadi, our gardener, also discussed in further detail seasonal produce and had some great information on local farmers markets! During the nutrition portion I asked the parents if they ever took their kids shopping with them. We discussed ways to utilize this time with the kids and reviewed using Nutrition Fact Labels to compare products. Nour gave me a great example of having her kids help keep track of ingredients by writing the shopping list for her and calling out items as they passed them on the isle. Eating a small, healthy snack before shopping and talking with your kids about colors, shapes, and sizes of produce are some other great tips for making shopping with kids easier. Letting kids pick out produce is also a great way to get them excited about what they will be eating that week and to educate them on how to tell if food is ripe or not. The children are very excited to graduate from class next week but we are going to miss working with this fun group!

One dad jokingly said he wanted to be a fifth year senior, alluding to the fact that he didn’t want the class to be over! Hope that everyone has enjoyed the blogs and I’ll see you back next time for the second class series!

Plant A Row for the Hungry Kick-Off!

Plant A Row Kick-off at Logan's Trading Co.!

March 13 from 9:00am-5:30pm

You won't want to miss the kick-off this year at Logan's! Donating your extra produce from your garden to the PAR program allows the Food Shuttle to deliver fresh local produce to people in need. The kickoff will be filled with all sorts of fun activities such as watermelon planting for the kids, a culinary demo by our very own Chef Terri Hutter, garden demos from Logan's, and an appearance from Mayor Meeker! Plus, the IFFS Farms and Gardens crew will be on site at Mayview Community Garden for anyone who wants to see the garden or volunteer that day.

Thanks to our wonderful friends at Logan's who are committed to fighting hunger by PARtnering with us again this year! Because of folks like YOU, we were able to deliver thousands of  pounds of fresh produce through PAR last year! Let's make PAR even better this year and SQUASH hunger in the Greater Triangle. To become a PAR member, email katherine@foodshuttle.org.

Watch office workout tips with Amanda and Matt

Are you trying to lose weight for the Pound For Pound Challenge, but finding it hard to fit a workout in during your busy schedule? Check out this great 10-minute exercise routine that you can do while in your office! Amanda, one of our nutrition interns, is the Food Shuttle’s Pound For Pound Team Captain. This video is one of many things that she has done to get the community involved and further the Challenge’s efforts!

Watch as Amanda shows Matt how to do a quick and easy workout that only requires your office space! Stay tuned for a couple more videos to come to keep you motivated now that we’re halfway through the Challenge!

And don't forget that it’s never to late to take the pledge if you haven’t already at pfpchallenge.com!

This week's Crew Call!

                                                            Inter-Faith Food Shuttle Farm and Garden  Crew-Call

We have an exciting and diverse group of garden and local food opportunities this week.  Please see below for all of the fun options!

VOLUNTEER TIME & EVENTS:

• Neighborhood Canvassing
  • Help recruit for a new IFFS Hands on Health/Community Garden program at Alliance Medical Ministries!  We are hosting a community forum and need help getting the word out to the surrounding community.  We will canvass in teams, knocking on doors and inviting residents to the community forum on Saturday.  They will have their first organizational meeting this Saturday, March 6th.  If you can  hand out fliers and help engage community members we will meet in Alliance's parking lot (corner of New Bern and Donald Ross) on
  • Thursday, March 4 at 3 and 4:30pm
  • Friday, March 5 at 4:00 pm. 

• PAR (Plant a Row) Kickoff at Logan’s Trading Company
  • Logan’s is helping us kick off the PAR season with workshops, activities, and a press conference with Mayor Meeker.  We are looking for volunteers who can be at Logan’s to help lead the watermelon planting activity with kids from 9:30-1pm on March 13th.  If you can help out for any portion of this time please email Katherine (Katherine@foodshuttle.org).  We will also be encouraging people to visit Mayview and having a crew call in the Mayview garden that afternoon; more to come next week.
  • The IFFS PAR program encourages people to grow extra and/or donate excess produce to people in need through IFFS.  We will have weekly PAR produce drop-off sites at locations around our 7 county service area, including at Logan’s on Saturday mornings.

• Community Garden Work times:
  • Neighbor to Neighbor      Thursdays        3:30-5:00pm
  • Mayview         Fridays         3:30-5:00pm
  • In both gardens we will be working with community members and youth to prep new beds for spring planting and get rid of all the water!  Please email Amanda (NutritionCoord@foodshuttle.org) if you are planning on coming.

**WINTER WEATHER PLAN**

Please note that with the winter weather we might have to cancel crew calls and volunteer times at the last minute.  Often the ground is too wet or frozen from previous weather, even if it is nice outside at the time of the crew call.  If you are interested in coming to an event and note bad weather please call the Food Shuttle (919.250.0043) an hour before the scheduled time to confirm that we are still going out if you have not heard from us at that point.

LOCAVORE LUNCH - This week’s topic:  Sustainable and Local Farming

Every Wednesday at noon we are holding local agricultural discussion groups at Farmhouse Pizza, 3011 Hillsborough St. in Raleigh. We will be serving a pizza made using some (hopefully soon to be all) local ingredients from NCSU's Farmers' Market. Please RSVP to Steve (steven.p.horton@gmail.com) so he knows many pizzas to have made.  If you can contribute, he is asking for a $5 donation... if you can't afford the cost we’ll gladly cover you in return for good conversation!   A portion of the proceeds will go to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.  This week's topic will be allies of sustainable and local farming. Who backs the movement, but may not be on a farm and how do we network with them?

FARMS & GARDEN BLOG

Keep up with what’s going on with our Farms & Gardens and PAR programs through the IFFS blog farmsandgardens.wordpress.com.  Use the blog to check out weekly ripe recipes, find yourself in photos of weekly crew calls, hear from other volunteers, and stay up to date with activities at IFFS.  Let us know if you’re interested in contributing to the blog!

GARDEN SUPPLIES:

We are still in need of hand-tool donations.  We gladly accept new and/or lightly used equipment. Thanks to all who have responded.

New Volunteer?

If you have not filled out a volunteer form or have a friend who is interested in helping out please email Janet at RGSJRS@aol.com.

Hope to see you all on Thursday and Friday!

Katherine, Sun, Amanda, & Steve

Serve up a breakfast of yogurt partfaits with homemade granola

The following blog post is written by Madelaine Frye. It is the fourth (be sure to catch up on week 1 , week 2 and week 3 if you haven’t already!) in a series of 5 blogs she will be writing chronicling her experience as a Nutrition Instructor. 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! My name is Madelaine Frye and I am a senior Nutrition student at NC State. 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.

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 make a breakfast that can be heated up and taken on the go. Bananas, toast, and milk cartons are easy items to carry with you in the car or on the bus.

Our class gardener, Byron Green, also taught everyone the parts of the plant this week. He stretched his body out as if he were a big X and explained to everyone how your body can look like all of the parts of the plant too! His head was the flower which holds the seeds, his hands the leaves which take in the sunlight, his stomach the stem which gives the plant support, and his feet the roots which take in water. If you act like a plant can you name all of the parts of the flower and what they do?

For our fourth class we cooked both yogurt parfaits with homemade granola and broccoli soup. Yogurt parfait is a quick and easy snack that can be great for breakfast each morning. Broccoli soup contains tons of foods that represent each part of the plant; Carrots and potatoes are roots, celery is a stem, and broccoli is a flower. Try these yummy foods at home with your family and you’ll love them too!  

Yogurt Parfait with Homemade Granola

serves 6

 Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• Non-stick cooking spray
• ¼ cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, apricots, dates, or prunes)
• 4 cups medium strawberries
• 3 cups fat-free vanilla yogurt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Measure and whisk together the honey, canola oil, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3. Measure and add the oats and almonds, and stir until coated thoroughly with the honey mixture.
4. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
5. Spread oat mixture evenly onto the baking sheet.
6. Bake for 10-20 minutes until lightly browned, stirring every 5 minutes to cook granola evenly.
7. Remove from oven and cool completely, before placing in a bowl.
8. Measure and stir dried fruit into cooled granola.
9. Rinse and cut leafy tops off of strawberries. Cut strawberries into ¼-inch thick slices, should yield about 3 cups.
10. Layer ¼-cup yogurt into each of six parfait cups or bowls, followed by ¼-cup sliced strawberries, and 2 tablespoons granola.
11. Repeat layers one more time, ending with a layer of granola.
12. Top with optional sliced almonds if desired.

Chef’s Notes:

1. • Assemble parfait layers just before serving, so granola stays crunchy.
   • Substitute any high-fiber cereal you like for the granola.
   • Substitute any diced or sliced fruit for the strawberries.
   • The parfait looks best when served in a clear cup or bowl.
   • Try topping with rinsed and chopped fresh mint leaves for extra flavor and color.
   • The granola can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container for up to three weeks in the refrigerator or at room temperature.

Broccoli Soup

serves 8

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion
• 1 medium potato
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 stalk celery
• 3 broccoli crowns
• 1 ½ teaspoons canola oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cups nonfat milk
• 1 (14 ½ ounce) can low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Peel and rinse onion, potato, and carrot. Rinse celery and broccoli.
2. Slice potato and carrot into thin, ¼-inch slices. Dice celery and onion into ½-inch thick pieces.
3. Cut the florets of the broccoli away from the stem. Peel thick skin away from stems and cut into thin slices.
4. Heat a large pot over medium-high heat, and add canola oil. Add celery and onion and cook until soft, about 4 minutes.
5. Add potato, carrot, broccoli stems, bay leaf, milk, and broth.
6. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
7. Remove and discard the bay leaf.
8. If desired, puree part or all of soup in a blender for a smoother textured soup. Return blended soup to pot.
9. Add broccoli florets, and measure and add salt and pepper to pot.
10. Simmer until broccoli is just tender, about 5-7 minutes.

Chef’s Notes:

• Try cauliflower instead of broccoli.
• Serve over rice or pasta if you like.
• Top with shredded low-fat cheddar cheese or low-fat sour cream, if desired.
• Blend hot soup carefully! Only fill the blender half full and blend in batches. If your blender lid has a removable cap, remove the small cap and then cover the lid completely with a kitchen towel for safer blending. This will allow hot steam to escape.

Healthy Substitutions, Snacks and More

The following is a blog from NCSU student Holly Starks. It is the third (read the first week and second week) in a series of 5 Blogs she will be writing chronicling her experience as a Nutrition Instructor for a OFL Class she is Teaching. Holly 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.

It's the third week of the Side by Side class at the Crosby Headstart Center! We are always happy to see families having fun while learning in the class. One of the mothers, Kianna, expressed her excitement about the class. Kianna said that the class has been beneficial because of the new ideas that she is able to learn about and try at home. Kianna, who is a nurse, said that she might already know about most of the nutrition information but it has been helpful to see how other families try different methods of eating healthy and keeping the family involved. Kianna said, “I love learning, and there is always something new to learn in this class.” Kianna and he daughter Nasia enjoyed the planting activity that we had in our gardening lesson today. Kianna added, “giving her the opportunity to plant her own food helps her to see where food comes from and that it doesn’t come from the grocery store.” Kianna, who also has three other children, expressed that the class has helped her be able to get everyone involved at home when it comes to cooking and eating healthy.

In class, participants learned about making healthier choices in recipes, snacks, and even when eating out. Some of these choices included making healthier snacks at home that can be prepared ahead of time or using a nutrition facts label to determine if a packaged snack is healthy. When eating out, the participants also learned about different options like substituting healthier side dishes, sharing plates, and making low-fat choices. Families also learned about engaging the whole family in exercise by playing games and sports together or making tournaments and contests. The gardening lesson helped families learn how to start a garden by allowing them to plant their own tomatoes in class. The kids also had fun as they had the opportunity to make their own trail mix and smoothies. Our recipe this week for turkey tacos was also a great way to show different substitutions for recipes such as using low-fat cheese instead of regular cheese, ground turkey instead of beef, or whole-wheat tortillas instead of corn tortillas.

As Kianna said, there is always something new to learn, so join us next week to see what more the class has learned and to get some helpful nutrition tips.