Volunteer Spotlight: Ann Barnum

Ann began volunteering with Cooking Matters last fall and has already become a rock-star volunteer.  She is what I like to call a “go-to-gal”; whenever we desperately need a volunteer for an event I turn to Ann.  She is currently volunteering as the culinary instructor for her second class at St. Louis Temple.  We are glad to spotlight Ann this month.  Be sure to check her tips on how to roast vegetables!

Ann and her daughter, Morgan, after their first 5K walk in Forest Park.

Have you always been interested in cooking? How did your interest develop?  I am a complete foodie! My dad was the cook in the family during my early childhood but he died during my high school years. My mom gave my brother and I the choice to do the cooking or have her get back into it. We quickly chose to share in the cooking.  Sorry, Mom!

How did you first become interested in Cooking Matters?   My husband, Mel and I owned a cooking school for children in the metro east area. When the economy went south, paying for cooking lessons for children was a just a luxury item that got cut from most family’s budget. We truly loved the school and after closing it, I didn’t want to lose the experience of cooking with children.  Through volunteermatch.org, I entered my strengths and skills and it matched me to Cooking Matters!

Why does cooking matter to you? My favorite memories of my father are of him in the kitchen making huge one pot meals like spaghetti and soups or grilling in the summer time. He loved to cook and would feed his family and friends making it a huge party surrounded by food and laughter.  We just threw my mom a surprise 80th birthday party and hopefully I did my dad proud by creating the same type of memory,

One other reason why cooking matters to me is that when I opened the cooking school, I was 100 pounds heavier than I am right now. I just couldn’t look the young chefs in the face while talking about healthy eating/cooking. I completely changed the way I cook for myself and my family and it has helped all of us become more healthy.

When you are not busy working or volunteering what do you like to do in your
free time?   I enjoy walking in 5k events(A year ago, I would have laughed if anyone would have ever told me that I would type this!), reading a good mystery book, going to the movies, cooking and appreciating a good meal at locally owned restaurants.

What is your favorite memory or story from your first course at Don Bosco’s? Just the thrill of cooking with kids again and how impressed I was with the curriculum of Cooking Matters. I can now truthfully share how I eat/cook more healthy and how it can improve your entire life!

Any advice for new volunteers? Don’t be afraid to let the the kids safely cut with the green knives!
Can you share one of your favorite healthy, budget friendly recipes?  

My children love roasted vegetables  – that caramelizing just gives the veggies such an intense flavor. My favorite roasted vegetable other than potatoes is cauliflower. Follow these tips and you should end up with a fantastic side dish!

• Uniform size: Make sure you cut all your vegetables the same size unless you want your vegetables to be unevenly cooked!
• Watch the Fat! Toss the cut vegetables in just enough oil to lightly coat them. I like to measure my oil by the tsp. Just pouring directly on the vegetables from the oil bottle will result in extra calories!
• Seasoning: Salt and pepper is ok but I like to experiment with different seasonings for added flavor. For cauliflower, I like to use cumin, coriander, and chili flakes.
• Single layer: Spread the seasoned vegetables on a single layer on a lightly sprayed olive oil sprayed pan.  Bunching them together will produce steamed and not yummy roasted vegetables.
• Hot oven: Set the oven to 400F and make sure it is preheated before you pop the sheets in the oven.
• Check: Every 15 minutes, flip the vegetables to ensure even cooking.

Depending on the size of your cut, the vegetables will be ready when you can pierce easily with a fork. Start checking at 30 minutes. Hard vegetables could take up to 60 minutes.

Thanks Ann for the work you do in the St. Louis community to ensure families know how to prepare healthy meals! 

Shake your Booty!

This past week, we finished up our first round of classes at the Jefferson Barracks Medical Center.  This course was composed of a group of 14 veterans and their spouses; it was a unique class, as the majority of our participants were middle to upper aged men.  With the media coverage in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and 100% class graduation it was truly a great experience for participants and instructors alike.

One activity that was new to this class was incorporating physical activity into our routine before starting every week. While physical activities and games are built into the Cooking Matters for Kid’s curriculum, there is no such designated activity for our adult classes.  At the beginning of every class our volunteer class assistant, Reshaunda, (who also happens to be a personal trainer) led the class in some light exercises and stretches.  They consisted of movements that targeted different areas of the body and were simple enough that the veterans could do on their own at home.  The reason for doing these stretches every week was primarily to show the participants how quick and simple physical activity can be.  We wanted to provide them with some stretches that are easy to remember and practical even for individuals with limited mobility.

Regular exercise and physical activity paired with nutritious eating is essential in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  As most of us are aware, it is a key player in reduction of many chronic diseases such as: coronary heart disease, hypertension, colon cancer, and diabetes.  Not only does it help our muscles, bones and joints but it plays an important role in the improvement of our mental health!

A lot of our class participants often express the concern or frustration of not having enough time to work out or get in physical exercise everyday.  Something appropriate to encourage would be to get in 10 minute chunks of activity when time allows.  The 30-60 minute of activity can be spread throughout the day and will have the same benefits as doing it all at one time.

Something to make note of when teaching Cooking Matters classes is the “Get Active” tips on the first participant handout for every lesson.  This would be a good tip to incorporate into your lesson every week because they are short, informative and helpful. Making sure to remind participants of the importance of being active will help them make it more of a habit in their everyday lives.

Let’s get active and get fit…now!

-Kayla

Think Team!

Volunteering for a Cooking Matters class means that you will be working as part of a dedicated team.  Every volunteer has a unique role within each class from the nutrition instructor to the chef instructor to the class assistant.  Our goal is make our classes as cohesive as possible.  One of our gold standards is to “team teach,’ or work collaboratively with your co-instructor to guide discussion.”  How can we do this?

First, each instructor can make sure they are referring back to what their co-instructor has said or taught in pervious lessons.  It’s also a good idea to make sure you know what you co-instructor will be talking about in the future.  This requires making sure that when you review your lesson plans in your instructor book, that you also review your co-instructors lesson plan.  This may require more preparation time, but it will allow you to give the participants a class that has a better flow.

As a culinary instructor, you can relate the recipes of the day to what the nutrition instructor taught during the lesson.  For instance if the nutrition instructor taught about consuming a wide range of colorful fruits and veggies, you can relate that topic to the recipes you are making and have a participant share all the colors that are in the meal.  Perhaps you are using a whole grain ingredient in one of the recipes that you are making and the nutrition instructor had discussed how to identify whole grain ingredients the previous week; you could ask the participants how they know if a product is whole grain to reinforce what the nutrition instructor taught the previous week.

Secondly, ask a co-instructor to contribute to discussions that they are highly knowledgeable in or an expert at.  Let’s say you are leading the nutrition portion and get a question about all the different ways that you can prepare vegetables.  What would you say?  Even if you know all the ways, refer the question to the chef instructor.  Referring questions to the appropriate instructor is a great way to ensure solid team cohesion and the participants are getting the best information possible.  Remember the class is ultimately about the participants!

In addition, you can also invite your co-instructor to share in the elaboration of specific concepts or ideas.  We create a learner-centered environment in our classes where the participants and instructor are engaged in an active discussion.  This is particularly important in our Adults and Families classes.  If you are leading the nutrition portion, then have the culinary instructor join the conversation and contribute to the discussion; this allows participants to get another perspective which can help them determine how they can incorporate what they learned into their life.  The nutrition instructor should also contribute to the culinary portion.

Class can go by quickly, and it is easy to get distracted doing dishes, setting activities up, or chatting with other volunteers and site staff; however, it is important to make sure you are taking the time to join the conversation lead by your co-instructor.  Remember, to get to class 30-mintues before to make sure you have ample time to set up any activities or go over any lessons.   In addition, we have 30 minutes to clean-up after each course so your main priority should be on the participants during class and not worrying about clean-up.

A great video about the importance of team teaching and how you can implement it in every Cooking Matters class you teach.

8 Steps to Team Teaching

8.  Review all portions of the curriculum before class, not just your sections.
7.  Refer to concepts that have already been discussed in class by the other instructor.
6.  Refer questions to the appropriate instructor who is an expert in that area.
5.  Join the discussion of your co-instructor and contribute to the discussion when necessary.
4.  Don’t be afraid to jump in on conversation if you have valuable information.
3.  Take the time to get to know your co-instructor(s) before or after class or even over a cup of coffee.  The more comfortable you are around your co-instructor, the greater bond that you will form and this will carry over into the class.
2.  Remember, it’s about the participants! Class is not about what an awesome chef you are or your extensive knowledge of nutrition, it is about teaching our participants how to prepare healthy nutritious meals on their own.
1. THINK TEAM.  Rely on your co-instructor to support you and vice versa.

Shaking the Salt Habit

In January 2011, the United States Department of Agriculture released the most recent version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.  The Dietary Guidelines contain 23 key recommendations for consumers including one recommendation all about sodium reduction.  The dietary guidelines specifically recommend that most Americans should consume 2,300 mg of sodium per day or less; those who are over the age of 50, African American, and/or have diabetes, high blood pressure, or chronic kidney disease should consume less than 1,500mg of sodium per day.  To provide you with some reference for just how much sodium that is 1 teaspoon of table salt contains 2,300mg of sodium.  The average American consumes about 3,400mg of sodium per day (or about 1 ½ tsp of table salt).

In general the best way to reduce the amount of sodium in ones diet is to increase consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and to eliminate processed foods, like canned goods, deli meats, and boxed and frozen meals.  For many of our Cooking Matters participants, it may be unrealistic for them to completely eliminate canned goods since they may not be able to afford buying only fresh fruits and vegetables.  So what advice should we provide our Cooking Matters participants that will allow them to reduce the amount of sodium in their diet, but also fit within their budget parameters

Increase Fruits and Vegetables in your diet.  Fruits and Vegetables are naturally low in sodium.  Fresh fruits and vegetables can be more expensive than their canned or frozen counterparts, so we always recommend that people select seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables, only buy what they can realistically consume, and purchase some vegetables, like potatoes and onions, which are generally cheaper than many other fresh vegetables.  In addition, frozen fruits and vegetables are a great alternative to fresh. They are often cheaper, and many frozen fruits and vegetables are frozen in their raw, natural state without any added sodium.  Just be sure to tell participants to buy plain-old frozen fruits and veggies without any sauces.   Canned vegetables maybe cheaper than fresh and frozen vegetables, but they do contain A LOT of sodium.  However, as with any food nothing is off limits and we use canned vegetables in our classes.  If participants are using canned vegetables at home, please encourage them to look for “no salt added” varieties (sometimes these varieties may be more expensive, but not always so remind them to cost compare) and to always drain and rinse their canned vegetables unless directed otherwise by the recipe for a particular reason.   A recent study showed that simply draining and rinsing canned vegetables reduced the sodium in the product by 36%.                                                                       

Eliminate canned goods, frozen and boxed meals.  It is unrealistic to assume that our Cooking Matters Participants will be able to entirely eliminate canned products from their diet, especially if they are relying on emergency food assistance from a food pantry to fill their cupboards.  But just as we mentioned above, when they have a choice, they should look for canned products that say “reduced sodium”, “no salt added”, “low sodium”, etc.  They also need to check the Nutrition Facts Label and compare the amount of sodium in the canned good and choose the lowest sodium canned good for the lowest price.   Also if participants are buying canned, frozen or boxed meal products, like canned chilies and soups, by taking our class they will see that they can make their own tasty chilies and soups from scratch with less sodium, but for about the same cost (or at least not significantly higher cost).

Eliminate Deli Meats.  Participants need to make sure that they are comparing deli meats and choosing deli meats that are lowest in sodium for the lowest cost.  Besides deli meat, participants also need to watch out for chicken and pork products which are often injected (or as the industry says “enhanced”) with a salt water brine solution.  This salt water solution can greatly increase the amount of sodium found in these otherwise low sodium products.  We should direct participants to look for the words “enhanced” or the phrase “contains up to X% of chicken broth” on chicken and pork products.  We need to make sure that participants know where they can find sodium on the Nutrition Facts Label and also understand that a % Daily Value number of 20 or greater is considered a high sodium food.

In general if participants choose to buy or receive high sodium foods, we want them to be aware that they should consume that food with moderation in mind and follow the suggested serving size suggested on the Nutrition Facts Label.

In addition to the advice given above, we can also provide our participants with some education on how to reduce their dependency on salt for seasoning foods and instead use herbs and spices to season foods.

See this link for some common food and herb/seasoning pairings.

http://kowalskis.com/at-home-with-kowalskis/good-foods-for-good-health/great-herb-and-spice-pairings-for-foods.html

-Leslie

Ingredient Substitutions

As Cooking Matters volunteers and staff, our goal is to share with class participants recipes that are delicious and nutritious as well as easy and inexpensive to prepare. To make this task easier, Share Our Strength has not only assembled a variety of well tested recipes in each curriculum, but they also have developed recipe guidelines that are provided in each book. These guidelines are provided so that volunteers have the opportunity to contribute their own recipes as long as they adhere to those guidelines. The guidelines are located in the introduction pages of each curriculum and contain a variety of key requirements:

• Recipe must be low cost
• Ingredients should be accessible to participants
• Recipes should be tasty and nutritious.
• Try to use nonperishable food items.
• Use raw ingredients instead of preprocessed foods.
• Limit the use of special equipment.
• Recipes should be simple and explained clearly.

And for classes involving the younger set: Cooking Matters for Kids, Cooking Matters for Teens and Cooking Matters for Families:

• Clearly mark kid-friendly recipe steps.

If you have an instructor guide, please look over the guidelines, not only if you are interested in contributing your favorite, healthy recipe, but also so you can get a better understanding of why certain recipes were selected for the book, and how the Cooking Matters staff selects other, additional recipes that are used in class.

Each one of us has our own personal guidelines we use when purchasing food. Perhaps you’re a sale shopper and stock up on commonly used items when they go on sale; maybe you’re a bulk buyer and shop at Costco or Sam’s Club; maybe you’re a local or organic shopper and hit the farmer’s market for the most locally grown, organic, and in season foods; or maybe you just buy what looks good.  Whatever your shopping style is, it is undoubtedly dictated to some degree by budget and/or health.  Whether you are trying to eat healthier or just save a few bucks, getting to know some common ingredient substitutions can help.

To lower the fat in recipes:

Melted butter (1 Tbs.)	¾ Tbs. canola oil
Buttermilk (1 cup)	1 Tbs. lemon juice or vinegar, plus enough low-fat or fat-free milk to make 1 cup
Egg (1)	2 egg whites
Heavy cream (1 cup)	1 cup evaporated skim milk or ½ cup low-fat yogurt and ½ cup pureed low-fat unsalted cottage cheese
Mayonnaise (1 cup)	1 cup low-fat or non-fat sour cream or 1 cup plain low-fat or non-fat yogurt or 1 cup low-fat mayonnaise
Oils or shortening	Nonstick cooking spray for stir frying or sautéingApplesauce or prune puree for ½ of the called-for amount of oil in baking
Sour cream	Low-fat or fat-free plain yogurt or fat-free sour cream

With these substitutions, let’s compare a summertime barbecue favorite, potato salad, made with standard ingredients to a healthier version utilizing a lower fat ingredient substitution.

Ina Garten’s Potato Salad Recipe (courtesy www.foodnetwork.com) 

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients

3 pounds small white potatoes

Kosher salt

1 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard

1/2 cup chopped fresh dill

Freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped red onion

Calories	Fat	Cholesterol	Sodium	Carbohydrates	Protein
205	10 g (16%)	8 mg (3%)	317 mg (13%)	28 mg (9%)	3 g

Updated Potato Salad (courtesy Vegetarian Times July/August 2011)

Makes 8 servings

2 pounds small yellow potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces

½ cup plain low-fat yogurt

¼ cup Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 small red bell pepper, diced (1 cup)

3 celery stalks, diced (1 cup)

½ small red onion, sliced (1/2 cup)

1.)    Place potatoes in large saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, and cook 5 to 6 minutes, or until potatoes are tender, but not soft.

2.)    Meanwhile, whisk together yogurt, mustard and olive oil in large bowl. Stir in red bell pepper, celery and onion.

3.)    Drain potatoes, rinse under cold water and drain again. Add potatoes to yogurt mixture, stirring to coat. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Calories	Fat	Cholesterol	Sodium	Carbohydrates	Protein
86	2 g (3%)	1 mg (0%)	115 mg (5%)	17 g (6%)	3 g

By simply swapping out low-fat yogurt for mayonnaise and buttermilk and adding extra vegetables, the calories and sodium were cut in half and the fat was lowered by a quarter!  Try these substitution tips on your favorite recipe and see the changes you can make.

MyPlate

This month we will be focusing on USDA’s new MyPlate.  At OFS we are steadily beginning to use the plate as our teaching guide and phasing out MyPyramid.  Our curricula will be updated by the end of the year with the new changes.  MyPlate is a big switch from the various pyramid illustrations we have come to know for two decades.  MyPlate is void of the “hidden messages” associated with MyPyramid such as the narrowing of the pyramid representing moderation; therefore it may be a bit more challenging to explain some of the key concepts (balance, moderation, and variety) to building a healthy diet. Continue reading for our tips on how you can use My Plate as a teaching guide to explain how to build a healthy plate in order to consume a healthy diet.

Balance: A healthy diet is one that includes balance.  MyPlate still provides a great picture of all of the basic food groups that one needs to include in their diet: Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, Dairy, and Protein.  (Please note that the Meat and Beans group name has been changed to simply Protein, to provide a clearer picture of all the food that belongs in this group.  Be sure to explain what foods belong in the Protein group: meat, beans, nuts and seeds.)  In addition to providing a clear picture of all the food groups, MyPlate also very clearly illustrates the idea that a healthy diet is composed mainly of the plant based food groups, namely Grains, Vegetables, and Fruit- roughly; 2/3 of the plate is dedicated to these three food groups.  When teaching the concept of balance to participants, we want to explain that a healthy plate should consist of mainly Grains, Vegetables, and some fruit with smaller amounts of Protein rich foods and Dairy foods.

In addition, we want to balance our food intake with the calories we expend.  Although physical activity is not represented on MyPlate it is still an important part of balancing our calories.  Talking about balance on MyPlate is one way to incorporate physical activity into the discussion.

Ask participants why are the sections of the plate different sizes?  (The different sizes tell us how much we need from each group.)  Help lead participants in brainstorming their ideas of how they can create a balanced plate.

Variety:  MyPlate, just like the former MyPyramid, is a colorful representation of the different foods we need to consume.  MyPlate shows that we need to consume food from all groups every day for good heatlh. Just as MyPlate is colorful, we want to make sure our plate is colorful as well.  It’s important to teach participants that not only do we want to consume a variety of food groups, we also want to consume a variety of foods from each food group.  When discussing the vegetable and fruit groups encourage participants to choose a variety of different colors of these foods.

Ask participants why it is important they eat from each section every day?

Moderation: As stated previously, MyPlate no longer contains the illustrated message abstractly showing the idea of moderation. However, it does emphasize the idea of moderation by illustrating the proper portion size of food that people should be putting on their plate.  Again note that ones plate should consist of mainly grains, vegetables, some fruit, and a small amount of protein and dairy foods.   Though MyPlate does not illustrate the idea that some foods are better choices than others (MyPyramid illustrated this by the narrowing of the food group sections towards the tops of the Pyramid), it is still important for us to discuss with our Cooking Matters Participants that not all foods are created equal and that there are foods that one should choose everyday and others that should be chosen less frequently.

Ask participants which is a healthier option: donut or whole grain toast? Apple pie or baked apples? Baked potato or French fries?

In addition, the new symbol also includes the web address for MyPlate.  It is important to remember that not everyone has an access to the internet.  It is our job as “food fighters” to give this information to those who are not able to browse the government website.  Take some time to browse the full site: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/.

Happy Teaching!

Volunteer Spotlight: Tom & Cindy

In addition to our Cooking Matters classes, each month we do several one-time cooking demos and nutrition outreach events in the St. Louis community.  When we have scheduling conflicts we look to our volunteers to help us fulfill are role as nutrition and culinary educators.  Shortly after I began my AmeriCorps term at OFS, I began hearing the names “Tom & Cindy” every time we needed volunteers for an event.   I thought to myself, who is this wonderful couple?  I soon found out that they have hearts of gold and are always willing to help out when we need it most.   This year alone, Tom & Cindy have volunteered for 4 events and reached over 375 people in the St. Louis community.   Wow!

While we can’t give Tom & Cindy their own personal plane or vacation to the Bahamas (we wish we could!), we are delighted to have them as our first spotlighted volunteers!  It takes people like Tom & Cindy sharing their strengths to fight hunger.

Tom & Cindy dishing out some Fresh Fruit Salsa. Yum!

CM: How did you first become involved with Operation Food Search?

Cindy: We felt that our experience in cooking and nutrition could benefit others and looked for a volunteer opportunity. We found Operation Food Search online at www.volunteermatch.org. Since 2008 we have taught classes and volunteered at Health Fairs, promoting healthy eating and Operation Food Search.

CM: Have you always been interested in food; what sparked your interest in food? 

Cindy: Tom has been interested in cooking since childhood, and started cooking family meals at age 13. He has a certificate in gourmet cooking and has been writing a syndicated cooking column for more than a decade. Tom is a food historian and is fascinated by the origin of ingredients.

I became interested in nutrition due to a health issue. When I started researching nutrition, I found I was fascinated by vitamins, minerals and how food affects our bodies. I have certificates in sports nutrition and fitness/nutrition. I write a syndicated column each month that explores the relationship between food and emotions.

CM: What is your favorite part about volunteering with Cooking Matters?  Do you have a favorite memory from volunteering with Cooking Matters that you would like to share?

Cindy: Our favorite part of volunteering is interacting with people. We try to enhance the lives of others by sharing recipes and health tips. One young man recently told us he didn’t know he liked vegetables after tasting a tomato salsa (recipe below). That type of feedback makes it all worthwhile.

Thanks again Tom & Cindy for all your hard work!

-Brittany

Tomato Salsa 

Ingredients:
2 medium jalapeno peppers
1/2 medium red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes, no salt added

Optional Ingredients:
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Directions:

1) Rinse, remove seeds, and mince jalapeno peppers.

2) Peel onion and garlic. Rinse onion and dice. Mince garlic.

3) Combine peppers, garlic, onion, cider vinegar, and canned tomatoes in a medium saucepan.

4) Heat mixture over medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5) Chill before serving.

6) Rinse and chop fresh cilantro and add to the chilled salsa if desired.

Servings	Serving Size	Calories	Fat	Protein	Carbohydrate
6	1/3 cup	20	0g	1g	4g