Nutrition and your Health

Dr.Johnson talk to the campers about the importance of eating healthy.

Friday--One week down already! Dr. Glenda Johnson showed a Powerpoint to stress the importance of making wise choices even if you do choose to go for fast food.  Sometimes you have to!! Just not every day and when you do--choose the right thing!

 

Whole Foods Tours, Wednesday and Thursday

The bus ride was fun!

Field Trip to Whole Foods in Baton Rouge!  Two days of bus trips with half the campers at a time gave everyone the low down on the most popular grocery store in America today.  Special thanks to the tour guide there for spending a couple of hours with the campers and showing them what goes on in the marketplace.

Heat Transfer

Today campers learned that this camp isn't called "The Basics" for nothing!  We started slow, with Video Flash Cards that showed cooking methods and a discussion about temperature and heat transfer.  We cook food to make it safe, to make it more digestible, and because soon we will be making the food more interesting! Who wants to live on raw fruits and vegetables all the time? (Some people do!) Cooking can make food more interesting. Mise en place was gone over and over and Chef Corr even demonstrated how to do the mise en place for today's demonstration recipes. Very basic chicken breast cutlet and raw broccoli were used to illustrate the various types of cooking methods--roast, boil, steam, poach, microwave and stir fry--and the campers sampled them all.  While many asked for hot sauce or ketchup, it was interesting to see how the products turned out with the different methods. It's a first step!  Next week we will introduce seasoning and flavoring and move more toward the type of cooking that tastes good. After the cooking demo the campers learned about the special day that it is today  World Environment Day! We had a discussion about the benefits of recycling and composting and some camper families do that already.  If you have a garden you want to save your compost so your vegetables will have more natural nutrients.  "Going Green in Red Stick:  A Green Living Guide for Baton Rouge" were handed out to each camper and counselor and will go home as a resource guide for the families. Then Ms. Debbie and Ms. Crystal came in and took everyone's numbers, measuring height, weight, arm span--all sorts of numbers for the study. Data, data, data--that's what a study is all about. The campers were escorted to the Lab School for lunch and for physical activities with Mrs. Marshall, who had a new fun toy to roll out.  Late in the afternoon was refreshment time and today's was a fresca like the one served at the parent's orientation meeting, only it had fresh blueberries, watermelon, ice and a splash of water.  Cold and refreshing on a 97 degree afternoon!  Tomorrow and Thursday--field trip to Whole Foods for half the campers at a time. And one of those days Chef Tonya will be Making Groceries!

Test, Test, Taste!

Photos courtesy of David Long, Jr., official photographer for the program.  

Day One of Cook Like a Chef! Cooking Camp at SUBR was sur un rouleau! Mrs. Fields checked in the campers at the Lab School and then counselors Jada Harris and Trevor Pickney escorted them to the foods lab in Pinkie Thrift.  The 10 minute walk seemed to energize the group of 25 campers, 10 to 14 years old in a wide range of sizes.  Looks like there may be more boys than girls!  Trevor took a count.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Re'shonsi Smart and Derika Allen were getting their ducks in order, make that paperwork in order, for the in itial 3 surveys that asked questions about how the campers felt about food and cooking.  They are about to do a lot of it! But first, Chef Corr went over some of the notes in the manual about food preference.  We choose different foods for lots of reasons! Maybe the campers will learn some new reasons to choose different foods in a few weeks.  We talked about how to "think like a chef" and also learned how to properly wash your hands before cooking or eating.  Measuring techniques came next--not all cups weigh the same!  Even of flour!  We discussed the disappointing news that a large box of movie theatre plain popcorn can contain up to 1047 calories, and then we learned how to make healthy homemade popcorn and season it up a bit with Italian seasoning.  Lots of campers preferred plain salt, of course, but at least they tried it. Chef Tonya read everyone the riot act because she really wants to maintain order in the lab so that everyone can hear and participate fully. She WILL NOT stand for any shenanigans!  But the campers will soon be too busy to be goofing around; they will be learning to Cook Like a Chef!

Around noon Mrs. Fields collected everyone to go and have lunch at the Lab School and Da'Nethia Burton helped escort the troops.  There was a whole program in store for them in the afternoon physical activity part of the camp with Ms. Marshall who had lots of tricks up her sleeves.  She kept them movin, movin, movin for the afternoon.  Around 3:30, after lots of tiring games, Chef COrr broke out some Blueberry Bliss, the featured smoothie of the afternoon. This icy blue drink was made of bananas, blueberries, almond milk, almond butter--and cinnamon!

The campers "blissed out" and soon it was time to pack it up for the day.  See you tomorrow, campers!

Ready to Rouler!

Groceries are in!  Floor is polished (thanks to Jimmy!) and the manuals are on the desks ready to go for the campers on Monday morning.  We are ready to rouler!

Meet the Parents

Parent Orientation Meeting Thursday, May 31 Dr. Glenda Johnson and Mrs. Fields held the first of 6 important parent meetings in the library at the Lab School. The parents learned that the camp is part of a study aimed to curb the incidence of childhood obesity by teaching children how to choose and prepare healthy foods.  No one is more important in this equation than the parents! Weekly meetings will be held to inform the parents about what the campers are learning--and to teach them a few new tricks as well.  Everyone was excited to try the watermelon fresca that Chef Corr whipped up on the spot with a delicious--and gigantic--Washington Parish watermelon purchased that afternoon from a pick up truck parked across from the airport on Plank Road. Thanks to Chef Tonya for hauling that big boy in--and to Mrs. Fields who saved the day with a knife.

Makin' Groceries

David Long, Jr, Tonya Hill Long and Ryan Long prove that setting up Cooking Camp can be a family thing! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plenty of equipment rolled down from central PA.  Ice cream, anyone?

Chef Tonya and her sons David Jr. and Ryan have been busy!  They unload the groceries to the pantry as we prepare for camp to start on Monday.