Fruits, Veggies, and Eggrolls

Hi everyone! I’ve gotten so used to posting every day that the last week has felt very strange posting only every other day. Life gets so busy that I find it hard to take time out to do something that I really enjoy – but, it’s good to make time when I can!

Yesterday and today were very FULL days, so let’s run over the highlights. This morning, I tried out a new jam I picked up in Utah at the suggestion of these ladies a while back:

I was looking for a jam with minimal ingredients but rich, tart taste. This Crofter’s conserve definitely fits the bill! The ingredients are raspberries, sugar, pectin , vitamin C, and citric acid. The appearance and taste? Well, take a look:

Look at that gorgeous red. Trust me, it tastes as good as it looks.

I think I spent about 2.5 hours on my bottom in the car today. In the morning, I drove for an hour to set up a National Nutrition Month table with some of the other girls in the program at a DSS. Sadly, there were hardly any people around to talk with about healthy eating, easy recipes, and why the carrots and hummus we brought with us for them to sample are so darn tasty and good for you. No pics because, well, I forgot.

The afternoon was fun! We drove to another town about an hour away to teach a lesson on fruits and vegetables to a class of sixth graders. I was a little nervous about my first real teaching experience, but these kids were WONDERFUL! They were so nice and very sharp – when I was in sixth grade, I sure didn’t know the word “antioxidant”!

Teaching it up:

Yummy fruit & veggie cups for the kids:

Kaylan and I preparing the fruits and veggies:

Fun! I know that not all teaching experiences will be as easy or fulfilling, but this experience was a great introduction to the world of community teaching.

Since I’ve been so busy the past couple of days, Peter has been taking over the cooking. You know what he made today, master chef that he is? EGGROLLS. Yep.

Bowing to my need for veggies and my lack of need for anything deep-fried, he made a healthy version based on this recipe. The filling contains beef, chicken, ginger, scallions, and lots of cabbage.

Pressing the liquid out of the filling:

Filling the wrappers (Edited to add: 1/3 of the eggrolls had peanut butter in them, 1/3 had hoisin sauce, and 1/3 had extremely hot hot sauce in them.):

Ready to go in the oven:

The eggrolls came out of the oven crispy and flavorful (although they were not as crispy as deep-fried versions). The hot sauce eggrolls were a little much for me, but the PB and hoisin sauce eggrolls were delicious!

Served with a side of grapes (that may or may not be leftover from the teaching session today):

I’m so lucky to have a Peter to keep me awash in good food 🙂

Time to study for my Food Service midterm tomorrow … fun fact: did you know that the word “restaurant” originated in the 16th century to mean a food that “restores” and refers to a rich, highly-flavored meat-based soup thought capable of restoring lost strength? Me neither!

Have a nice evening!

Q: Here’s one we asked the kids today: what’s your favorite fruit and your favorite veggie?

15 Comments

  1. I love trying out new jellies and jams! That one looks great!!

    Glad your teaching experience went so well!! I’m sure you were awesome, you must have been if the kids responded so well to you!! 🙂 My favorite fruit is apples and is kabocha a vegetable?? I feel dumb for not knowing that, but if not, then green beans would be my favorite veggie! 🙂

    1. Thanks! They were a really great group of kids, so I can’t really take credit! And you’re right, kabocha is a vegetable. 🙂

  2. Congratulations on a great day of teaching!
    I love Peter’s egg rolls! How creative, fun, and tasty!
    And my fave fruit is pink lady apples, fave veg is brussels sprouts!
    Yumm

    1. Pink lady’s are one of my favorites, too!

    1. Duh, I almost forgot! 1/3 of the eggrolls had peanut butter in them, 1/3 had hoisin sauce, and 1/3 had extremely hot hot sauce in them. Thanks for the reminder!

  3. I absolutely love the education going on with kids and nutrition. It’s kind of scary to me how much BAD food there is out there – what with all the preservatives and fats and ingredients impossible to announce.

    I love berries – raspberries are my favorite, but if I can get my hands on wild blackberries in the summer they take first place. As for veggies, I’d have to say I like fresh green beans sauteed up nice and brown with some butter and garlic. They are a great side to any meal 🙂

  4. Good luck on your midterm! you seem so dedicated and to love the subject so much that I’m sure you’ll do great.

    If I weren’t going into medicine, I would definitely be getting my RD. I love teaching people about nutrition! And LOL at the kids knowing the word antioxidant….it’s a new world.

    Those eggrolls look great! Love that they aren’t deep fried and are filled so deliciously.

  5. I hate when people never show up to NNM info tables 🙁 That happens to all nutrition students, don’t fret! The kids, however, sounded like a blast!

    We taught in an elementary school to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders. We had this game we combined activity with nutrition. We put big cards with the food groups at one end of the gym and the kids (in teams) at the other end of the gym. In front of the kids there were small cards on the floor turned upside down. The kids relayed to flip over the cards (one card and one person at a time) and had to identify the food group and place it next to the right food group at the end of the gym. The first week the activity went sooo poorly because they didn’t know what foods went into which category. So, we did this activity every week…and they loved it. At the end of the school year (and after adding in new food cards), the kids had learned so much and they got sweaty sometimes participating! It was fun!

    Favorite fruit: apples
    Favorite vegetable: artichoke (but potatoes are a close second!)

    1. That game seems like a lot of fun! 🙂

  6. How lucky that Peter cooks you food! I wish my husband cooked me something…anything?

    My favorite fruit – grapes

    My favorite vegetable – zucchini

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