Category: Foods & Nutrition

Consumer Rights & Panera Bread

Panera Bread has taken a stand to raise the bar and become transparent in their new campaign to offer consumers the best nutritional quality possible. They even put their promise out there for the whole country to see in the form of a letter, ads and commercials. As I read the letter and watched the commercials, I was impressed with the measures they are taking and think it’s a great example of our consumer rights in action. That’s why I am using it as a realistic way to reinforce the consumer rights with my students, as well as include non-fiction reading and writing into my curriculum.

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Create Your Own Omelet: Panini Grill Lab

There are appliances and then there are appliances! Some do only what they were created for such as a donut maker while others are great uni-taskers, capable of completing the most unique foods. My students wanted to see the capabilities of some uni-tasking appliances (as well as learn how to make omelets) and thus the omelet lab was created. And, this.lab.was.AWESOME!! I have never had so much positive feedback with a lab as I did this one. So, enjoy this fun lab and share your most unique recipe prepared on a panini grill in the comments section below.

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Equipment Activities: What am I?

My classroom runs much smoother when my students are engaged in interactive activities. That’s one of the reasons why I POST.IT.NOTESlove these activities! The first is a fun little game that gets students up, moving around and tests their knowledge of basic equipment used in the kitchen, the sewing room, or the nursery. All you need is a list of equipment and some post-it-notes or index cards. This activity can be prepared as a one time use activity or you can make reusable cards with yarn. This activity is very versatile and can be used like a pretest to see what students know about the basic equipment used in each area or it could be used as a review activity after teaching about them. Another fun review game is played on the laptop or electronic devices such as phones, ipads, tablets, etc. using a web-based technology called Kahoot. Students beg to play this fun, interactive game and are very competitive. Try them out and be prepared to see your students engaged, learning and having fun all at the same time!

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Basic Baking Ingredients: What’s My Function?

When I teach my quickbread unit I like my students to know the function of the basic ingredients they are working with. InIngredients.Foldable order to do this, I like to do a mini-pancake demo made up of rounds. Each round adds a new ingredient to the mini-pancakes. Students must taste test the mini-pancakes during each round and try to figure what the purpose or function of the basic ingredient is and describe the pancake’s taste, texture and appearance. After sharing their guesses, students create a foldable of ingredient function notes and then apply it to the pancake demo in a follow-up review.

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Kitchens of the Future: Design Project

This past spring Ikea joined Concept Kitchen 2025 at the Milan Design week to explore how the kitchen “as we know it” will change in the future. Concept Kitchen 2025 surveyed students from Lund University and the Eindhoven University of Technology about their assumptions of the kitchen in ten years and then teamed up with Ideo innovative design firm to develop prototypes for the future 2025 kitchen. According to the analysis the kitchen of the future will include more technology, and will be more practical and environmental. This whole concept had “project” for CTE & STEM class or an Interior Design class written all over it. So…below you will find some ideas of how to incorporate this into your curriculum.

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Fish Unit

Doing a unit on fish and seafood can be expensive so most programs leave it out. I had the privileged of working at a high school with a fish market adjacent to the school. We took a walking field trip to the fish market for a demonstration of how to select and cook fish. This was an awesome opportunity for students and helped mitigate the costs to the culinary department. With a little creative thinking, you maybe able to incorporate a seafood unit into your culinary program.

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Time to BAKE the Doughnuts!

Whether you are celebrating Fat Tuesday, National Doughnut Day or just need a fun, tasty dessert or snack, this lesson brings you donutsome healthy ideas for incorporating this usually unhealthy treat into your class. Continue reading for some historical background on these mini-pastries, along with how they are commercially made and then bake up some sweetness by preparing a healthy version of the baked vanilla doughnut. And don’t forget the healthy topping too!

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Project Brainstorm: Let us help you! This month’s topic is Microwaves

We are going to pose a topic and ask you to “help us help you” by just sharing one thing you did whether it be an activity, a video clip, infographic, reading, TPT product, etc. when teaching that topic. We believe everyone will win in the end as you’ll have a new lesson or at least a lot of new ideas and resources to pull from. Check back often as this page will be updated as resources come in.

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Fun with Foods: Bento Box Lunches for Kids

When my children were in elementary school they thought it was cool to take their lunches in a fun lunch box. Sometimes I would surprise them with a clever, creative food inside. The memory of this, plus knowing I wanted to teach my child development students about healthy foods choices for children triggered this lesson and project. I assign this as a take home project but this could easily be done in a foods lab or even as a creative competition!

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Desserts in a Jar: Lab Ideas

Who would have thought that the age old canning jar would be perfect for dessert food labs! When choosing recipes for labs I try to select recipes so students get a nice sample to taste, but leave very little, if any leftovers. Not only does this cut down on waste, money spent on ingredients, but it also forces students to practice portion control and eliminates arguing over who gets the extras.

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