Thursday, April 25, 2013

Senior and Parents' Menu: Spinach Lasagna, Balsamic Vinagrette Salad & Strawberry, Balsamic, Ricotta Crostini Dessert

Our parent and senior class had a great time this week preparing our Italian recipes. We talked about lowering the fat content in lasagna by substituting spinach for the typical meat filling. We also talked about other things you could add to the lasagna like sliced squash and zucchini.

We also made our own balsamic vinaigrette dressing and talked about the health benefits versus the creamy dressings like ranch dressing. We looked at the cost of making your own vinaigrette versus store bought and talked about the endlessly different combinations of vinaigrette dressing you can make as long as you remember the ratio- 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar/acid. We prepared our food in "stations" like restaurants do and discussed the different stations in a restaurant kitchen like the grill station, appetizer station, etc..
While the lasagna was cooking, we continued to look at food labels and focused on serving sizes and how sometimes the same food from two different companies can have two vastly different serving sizes and the reasons behind those different serving sizes. We also talked about comparing similar products by doing some math when looking at serving size so that you can compare similar products based on the same serving size which can be tricky.










Friday, April 12, 2013

Kids Class = Good Times!

We had our inaugural session of Rosemont Cooks for kids and had a great turnout with lots of kids having fun, learning and eating what they made. For our first class, we made banana bread and fruit smoothies. Through this, the kids started to learn basic baking techniques that ranged from the proper way to measure flour, to how to check if a cake is done by using a toothpick or, just as useful, a piece of spaghetti.
We also made fruit smoothies, and I was successful in sneaking in some baby spinach into the smoothies and surprised many of the kids when I told them how healthy it is for them, and I think they were surprised that it was good in a shake. They also put together their own smoothies with bananas, frozen mixed fruit, plain yogurt, orange and apple juice and of course the spinach and ice. We had so much fun that I forgot to take pictures of the finished product! But, yes, we really did make banana bread and smoothies.









Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Rosemont Cooks With Seniors

We had our inaugural session of the Rosemont Cooks with seniors and what we lacked in size we made up for in enthusiasm and great discussion.  We learned how to make a pizza and save money by making our own pizza sauce and using dough from the grocery store which we learned how to handle and make into pizza. We discussed healthy toppings like turkey pepperoni instead of real pepperoni and emphasized how vegetables as toppings are a tastier and healthier way to have pizza. Based on a great class question, we talked about why we should make our own pizza versus buying the frozen stuff at the grocery store. Answer, because we can recognize all the ingredients that go into our pizza versus the laundry list of additives that go into a frozen pizza.








We Got a Grant!

Rosemont Cooks is proud to announce a partnership with the City of Charleston and a grant award by Charleston Promise for $4,500 to fund our healthy cooking program. This grant will allow Rosemont Cooks to fund approximately 2 1/2 months of a free, healthy and hands-on cooking program in the Rosemont community in Charleston. This program, through weekly classes, explores eating options that are both healthy and affordable with individual classes focusing on three main groups in the community- children, parents and seniors.

Rosemont Cooks would like to thank the City of Charleston and Charleston Promise for their support in this endeavor.  If you would like to learn more about our program or volunteer, fund or send healthy recipes my way, I would appreciate any and all input. The goal for Rosemont Cooks is to expand and become a year-round cooking program and with your help, we can make that happen!

Thanks again...

Tim Holloran
Program Director
Tholloran@Hotmail.com