by Matt Gustafson

One of the most popular New Year’s resolutions every year is to make healthier choices, whether it’s to eat healthier, lose weight or exercise more. But by this time of year, many who make resolutions like these will have given up.

CookShop can help! As the Food Bank’s core nutrition education program, we work to empower children, teens and adults with the knowledge and skills to make healthy food choices that can last a lifetime. To give a little boost to those who have already abandoned their New Year’s resolutions, CookShop offers these helpful tips to stay on track — and enjoy it!

Change one thing. Most people start fast and hard, eating super-healthily for a week or two — and then fizzle out. Try following the lead of the teenagers in EATWISE (CookShop for Teens) and just Change One Thing! Instead of trying to overhaul all your habits right away, begin with a small, specific step. Substitute water for soda, or eat an apple instead of that bag of chips. A small choice can make a big difference and lay the groundwork for future change.

Keep realistic goals. If your schedule makes it hard for you to cook at home every night, ask yourself what your schedule does permit. Try doing what we recommend to participants in CookShop for Families: make large portions of simple, healthy recipes when you have time, and store them for lunch or dinner on a busier day. You can also pre-slice fruit and vegetables into munchable sizes and bag them for grab-and-go snacks all week long.

Focus on the Positive. Resolving to make healthier food choices doesn’t mean giving up great-tasting food. Healthy food can be delicious — just ask the students in CookShop, who enjoy making and eating nutritious treats like Apple Dippers (apple slices with yogurt dip) and Lettuce Wraps. Here’s the recipe, below, to help you get started. And remember, change is ongoing. Starting with small, realistic goals and keeping a positive attitude can help change your life for the better.

Lettuce Wraps
Makes 20-25 snack-sized wraps.

Ingredients:

Wraps:
2 heads green leaf lettuce                
2 heads romaine lettuce                    
1 bunch spinach    
3 McIntosh apples                   
2 large or 4 small carrots                                   
1 red bell pepper                    
1 cucumber

Dipping Sauce:
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar                 
2 teaspoons deli mustard                          
½ cup olive oil                                   
2 teaspoons honey                                     
2 lemons                                   
½ teaspoon salt                                         
¼ teaspoon black pepper                       

Instructions:

1. Carefully remove lettuce leaves from heads.
2. Wash all vegetables and apples. Pat lettuce and spinach leaves dry with paper towels.
3. Peel carrots.
4. Remove ends from carrots and cucumber, and cut into small pieces.
5. Cut red bell pepper in half and remove stem and seeds, then cut into small pieces.
6. Use apple corer to remove seeds and cut apples into 8 pieces. Cut apple wedges into small pieces.
7. Place cut apples and vegetables in a large mixing bowl.
8. Tear spinach into bite-sized pieces and add to fruit and vegetable mixture.
9. Squeeze juice from lemons into a small mixing bowl.
10. Measure and add apple red wine vinegar, deli mustard, olive oil, honey, salt and black pepper to lemon juice. Whisk together thoroughly.
11. Place a few pieces of apple and vegetable mixture into the center of a lettuce leaf.
12. Wrap lettuce leaf like a burrito.
13. Dip lettuce rolls into sauce and eat immediately. Enjoy!

Matt Gustafson is a CookShop Site Monitor at the Food Bank.

by Justin Crum

A few months ago, just before Thanksgiving, we put our CookShop for Teens (EATWISE) participants to work in the kitchen. The teens did an excellent job preparing tasty and healthy recipes their families could try for the holiday, including Pumpkin Coconut Soup, Applesauce, Mashed Sweet Potatoes and a traditional Midwestern Jell-O Mold.

When the winter holidays approached, my colleagues and I cooked up some special snacks for the students to enjoy. After a healthy feast of Sweet Potato Hash, Spiced Nuts, an orange, fennel and spinach salad, macaroons and a variety of dips and spreads, we all sat down to discuss holiday traditions.

Needless to say, not all of our traditional holiday foods are super healthy (some aren’t even sort of healthy), but it was great to see the teens’ eyes light up as they spoke about the time spent with their families. Some celebrated over helpings of manicotti, pernil or roast beef, while others celebrated with special cakes and sweets. They were all excited to be in the kitchen with their parents, grandparents, friends and extended families, cooking food to nourish their loved ones.

In EATWISE, we always focus on having a healthy relationship with food, emphasizing balance and moderation. A great place for participants to start is in the kitchen, making the foods they love with the people they love.

Sweet Potato Hash

Ingredients:

2 large yams or sweet potatoes, cut in ½ inch pieces
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
dash of Worcestershire sauce (optional)
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1.       Boil yams (or sweet potatoes) in salted boiling water until just tender.
2.       Heat olive oil over medium heat in large sauté pan.
3.       Add onion and garlic and sauté until slightly brown.
4.       Add yams (or sweet potatoes), spices and Worcestershire (optional) and sauté until brown and crisp.
5.       Salt and pepper to taste.

Makes four side servings.
 

by Niesha Alexander

As a site monitor, I visit our citywide CookShop classrooms to evaluate the effectiveness of our curriculum and provide support to staff implementing the program. I relish witnessing the impact of the CookShop program in action.  Every visit is memorable, but one in particular left a lasting impression.

Wall displays created in CookShop Classroom at the Owen Dolen Recreation Center in the Bronx

During a visit to the Owen Dolen Recreation Center in the Bronx, I evaluated a CookShop Classroom for After-School workshop on the effects of sugar on our bodies. Students learned about the differences between natural and added sugars, discussed alternatives to high-sugar beverages and made Fruit Fizzies, a CookShop recipe for a healthy drink made of seltzer water and 100% fruit juice.

When I entered the classroom, I was blinded by smiles shining out from across the room. Before I could speak, my attention was directed toward the wall on the right side of the room, where a beautiful display was mounted in honor of CookShop: vibrant colors, pictures of students and personal testimonies about how our program has changed their lives.

Two brothers told me all about the mural. They loved learning new things through CookShop and absolutely loved cooking! They went on to detail how their eating habits have changed and why it’s important to drink water every day. They said their family was not only drinking more water, they were also making a conscious effort to make healthier choices while grocery shopping by comparing the nutrition labels. I was so excited and grateful that CookShop could change the lives of not just these two students, but also their family.

Midway through the lesson, the instructor asked the students to showcase what they had learned in CookShop. In no time 25 students were giving us reasons why we should eat healthy. The instructor was so moved that she pulled a bottle of soda from her bag and poured it down the sink! She vowed to stop drinking sugary beverages as long as she had her students’ support. That’s the Change One Thing spirit!

This vow inspired the program director to propose a campus-wide event: “Who can drink the most water by the end of the week?” Instantly, the energy level soared. The students decided to substitute water for their regular sugary drinks. The site director and school staff agreed to participate. Everyone, including me, was inspired. Even now, months later, I drink far fewer sugary beverages, choosing water instead. Or, if you’re craving something sweeter, try our Fruit Fizzies!
 

Fruit Fizzies

by Justin Crum

In August, the Food Bank welcomed 18 teens for a weeklong kickoff to CookShop for Teens (EATWISE), which trains high school students from all five boroughs to become peer nutrition educators.

From top: EATWISE participant Patrycja D. explains her group’s salad to one of the judges, Food Bank Personnel Manager Melody Smith; A portion of the spread of ingredients available to the competitors

Throughout the week we covered a wide range of topics including cooking skills, media literacy and how to read nutrition labels. But the highlight came on the final day, with a Top Chef-style cooking competition. Separated into four teams, the students were challenged to create and plate a delicious salad in just 20 minutes time, with one important catch — each plate had to include a full serving of fruit, vegetables and protein.

First we provided the ingredients: fruits like oranges and strawberries, vegetables such as onions and broccoli and proteins like black beans and hummus. Then the timer buzzed — and they were off! After a flurry of brainstorming and mixing and chopping (demonstrating proper knife skills, of course), the teens created a wide array of salads, all of which were nutritious, colorful, and — most important — tasty.

Staff from a variety of Food Bank departments judged the students on their knife skills as well as the presentation, healthfulness and taste of their dishes. The winning group ended up presenting two salads: an apple salad with nonfat vanilla yogurt dressing, and a beautiful salad “flower” perched atop a miniature whole wheat pita. Both were delicious and interesting takes on an everyday salad, and the best part was that it was made, and enjoyed, by our EATWISE teens.

Congratulations to all of our students for the completion of the week-long orientation! We look forward to many more exciting challenges in the year ahead.
 

Salad Flowers on Pita
(Serves 4)

by Sasha Ginnetti

Mozzarella. Sarsaparilla. Matelote. Ingredients for CookShop’s weirdest new recipe? Think consonants, not comestibles — these food words and many more were on the menu for some of America’s brightest youth at the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee this year.

Eater.com picked their favorite word from the Spelling Bee list, and we’d have to agree: Borborygmus, "the gurgling, rumbling or growling noise from the abdomen caused by the muscular contractions of peristalsis, the process that moves the contents of the stomach and intestines downward," a.k.a. tummy grumbling. To battle the borby… blorbo… borgyb… the tummy grumbles, why not whip up one of the delicious and easy-to-prepare snack recipes, like Apple Dippers, that students learn in CookShop, our nutrition education program?

Students in CookShop don’t just learn new recipes for healthy, affordable foods — they also learn things like the science behind what makes certain foods healthy, the math that goes into measuring out a recipe and a whole host of new vocabulary words to describe their food experiences.

You can learn new food words too! Check out the official Scripps list of food words from this year’s National Spelling Bee. Oh, and let us know if that Mozzarella Sarsaparilla Matelote soufflé is easier to make than it is to spell.

 

Apple Dippers

by Sasha Ginnetti

During the hot summer, cooking over a hot stove may not seem appealing. Many people may be tempted to stay out of the kitchen altogether and turn to easy alternatives, like pizza, fast food or ice cream.

But there’s a better way to beat the heat and still eat a healthy, satisfying, affordable meal or snack: just be prepared with an inventory of healthy, cold food options. Through CookShop, the Food Bank’s nutrition education program for public elementary school students, parents and caregivers, and teens, participants learn to prepare a whole host of heat-free recipes that are nutritious and delicious, like this Rainbow Salsa. Enjoy!

Rainbow Salsa
(Serves 8 to 10 people)

p.s. Rainbow Salsa and Broccoli & Cauliflower Quesadillas are just the first of many recipes that the Food Bank will post on Bank on It! Check out the new Recipe category in the Archives menu to your right — and subscribe to our blog today to make sure you don’t miss any great recipes!