I was joined again by my class of 6 teens from Watford, Northwood, Pinner, Eastcote and Stanmore.

Our second session was all about cooking with spices and which spices different countries use in their cooking.

They did a great job of producing three, very tasty, spicy vegetarian dishes. We made Sweet Potato, Chickpea and Spinach Curry, Red Lentil and Butternut Squash Daal and Jerk Jackfruit Bean Chilli.

 

We got off to a great start on my Duke of Edinburgh Life Cooking Skills Course on February 3rd. It’s a seven session course designed to give the teenagers the life skills they need to be able to prepare and cook healthy food for themselves.

The first session was cooking with eggs and learning about food safety and knife skills. We cooked Mini Pavlovas, Egg Fried Rice and a Spanish Omelette.

So you might be asking are Mini Pavlovas really healthy? Well they do have a fair amount of sugar in them but they are designed as treats. Much better a home cooked treat with just a few ingredients than a shop bought treat with a huge long list of ingredients with preservatives etc. etc.

Back to my lovely group of teens. I started off with 5 and have done a catch up session with one new joiner so am up to my maximum of 6 for session number two this Saturday. Looking forward to cooking with spices plus talking about what spices different countries use in their cooking.

 

 

 

 

Well, there are so many great things about vegetables.

If you eat your way through the rainbow, from green to red, orange, yellow and shades of blue/purple you will be BOOSTING YOUR HEALTH and FIGHTING OFF DISEASE.

I know rainbows don’t start off green but green vegetables are the best! More about that in a sec.

Each colour flags up the phytochemicals which are in the vegetables, these help protect against cancer and disease and boost your health in different ways.

GREENS

Vegetables in the Cabbage Family. As well as every variety of Cabbage this family includes Broccoli, Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts ( I have to include Sprouts as Christmas is coming). These contain glucosinalates which help reduce the risk of cancer and help detox. To get the most from the glucosinalates these vegetables should be eaten raw but there are lots of other nutritional benefits from cooking these vegetables.

Dark coloured greens like Spinach, Kale and Chard contain carotenes which act as antioxidants and help your immune system.

REDS

Tomatoes have carotenes and flavonoids which help protect against tumours and boost your immune system.

ORANGE

Carrots, Squashes and Sweet Potatoes have carotenes

YELLOW

Corn and squashes have flavonoids

BLUE/PURPLE

Beetroot specifically helps to protect against colon cancer

 

If you eat plenty of vegetables, as well as the benefits above, you will be getting the vitamins and minerals you need to stay HEALTHY and ENERGIZED, enough fiber to keep your insides happy, feeding the good bacteria and keeping you regular. As a bonus fiber rich foods have been proved to help you sleep well.

If you want more inspiration on how to eat more vegetables let’s talk…

To your HEALTH and HAPPINESS

Caroline 🙂

A week today I’m starting the amazing ‘Nutrition in Practice’ course back at Leiths.

Ten weeks working with a chef and nutritionist every Monday and a lot of course work and experimental cooking in-between.

Cannot wait to get started!

I am going to be presenting all the tasty and healthy food I make on Pinterest so I will be keeping you posted.

Catch up with you next week

Caroline 🙂

Lovely comments from Great Taste Event at Intu Uxbridge:

“Great tasting home-made food providing a refreshing difference from what has become considered the norm in food retailers”

“Amazing treats!”

 

For my first blog I would like to thank everyone who has helped to create this brilliant website for me:

First of all Cassie Hicks Kerr (mmspark.com) who was in the right place at the right time just when I thought I would never find the right person to do my website. Cassie was definitely the right person and thank you it looks amazing. With Cassie it is a lot more than just designing your website, she followed up with a Skype session to get me going on Word Press and sorted out a few problems along the way.

Secondly, a big thank you to Cory Reid for designing my banner and logo. Cory has brought to life some vague ideas I had and made them look better than I could ever imagine.

Thirdly, another big thank you to Jo Neville who managed to make me look really good in the photo on my Home Page and made the whole photo shoot really fun. Jo worked magic to make me look like I am juggling a load of cooking utensils on my Profile Page.

Thank you all

Caroline x