A Great Time in Cooking Matters Cooking Class

After spending a long weekend at the Food Nutrition Conference and Expo in Philadelphia, our nutrition team hit the road Tuesday afternoon to get back to DC in time for our second cooking class. I was happy to see new faces in the kitchen, eager to be a part of our class. Returning clients from last week were excited to talk about their experiences of making the turkey chili and cornbread recipes at home in addition to explaining what we learned last week. Kia stated, “We learned about everything in moderation and portion control from MyPlate.” A perfect transition into this week’s recipes – roasted Brussels sprouts, Portobello pizza, quinoa tabbouleh….and chocolate cake!                          

Ricardo (left) topping a Portobello mushroom with
diced tomatoes, feta cheese and fresh herbs.

Although we started off with mixing up the chocolate cake recipe for purposes of timing, we let participants know it was not to be used as an example to start meals off with dessert. We moved from the sweets into our grain and vegetable recipes, with clients demonstrating their improved knife skills in chopping the fresh parsley, mint, tomatoes, scallions, Brussels sprouts and onions. The quinoa tabbouleh got participants’ wheels turning as to how they could modify this recipe at home. Videra and Kia came up with the idea of giving the quinoa recipe a Mexican flare: “This would be great with salsa instead of tomatoes! And you could add black beans and cheese with it!”

Participants created their own pizza by topping the Portobello mushroom with feta and mozzarella cheese, freshly diced tomatoes and desired seasoning. They were very excited to use fresh herbs in the recipe this week. One client even stated “This is so great, I love using fresh herbs. I’m thinking of growing my own in little pots.”

As I walked clients out of the Food & Friends kitchen door, Ricardo turned to me and said, "I had a great time tonight, I always do!” What a rewarding ending to the second class and a warm welcome back home.

Brittany Lawrance RD, LDN, Community Dietitian

Brittany is a registered dietitian and has been with Food & Friends since October 2012. Her previous experience was working as a clinical dietitian on the pediatric hematology and oncology unit at Children’s National Medical Center. Brittany completed her dietetic internship in Baltimore, Maryland through Sodexo-Mid Atlantic and is a graduate of Bluffton University in Ohio. She enjoys traveling, playing tennis and softball, making crafts, and has a new found love for leading cooking class. Learn more about Food & Friends' nutrition services.