Congrats Seniors! Happy Summer Everyone, Vote for Fall!

It's been an awesome semester for Cooking on Campus! From all of us here, we wish you a tasty, productive and exciting summer!
But before you go...here's the line up for next semester? What would be your top pick for Hands-On Cooking? Please post a comment, tell us what you'd like to see in the Fall and vote in the poll to the left.

1. Chop, dice, and cook! Learn essential knife skills.
2. Pan frying and Sauteing. One pan, many meals!
3. Microwaving: I bet you didn't know you could do THAT in the microwave!
4. Roasting: Simple and flavorful, roasting turns out better proteins, veggies and
   tofu.
5. Fish: Fast and tasty ways to cook fish.
6. Stir-Frying: Learn an essential skill and how to make delicious sauces.
7. Eggs:Versatile, healthy, fast and high in protein, learn how to cook eggs in a
   variety of new ways.
8. Whole grains: Think beyond bread, pasta and rice...what can you do with quinoa,
   buckwheat or millet?
9. Beans and Lentils: Not just for vegetarians! Beans and lentils are cheap, fast
   and easy.
10. Iron Chef: Learn how to improvise in the kitchen! Bring the ingredients from your
    kitchen and play Iron Chef with our Cooking on Campus Chef.

Eating Green Class

The last class of this semester’s Cooking on Campus was "Eating Green".  We created tasty, sustainable dishes:

• Grapefruitand Avocado Salad
• Poppyseed Dressing
• Sweetand Tangy Coleslaw
• CollardVeggie Burger Wrap
• AsparagusSoup
• Microwave Carrot Cake 

These dishes used seasonal ingredients that are found locally, and they were all vegetarian. Eating seasonally, locally and a plant-based diet decreases your carbon footprint and makes your diet environmentally sustainable. Added bonus: these recipes involved minimal to no cooking time to prepare, good for the environment AND your busy life.

First up on the menu was Grapefruit and Avocado Salad topped with a sweet Poppy Seed Dressing.  It was light, refreshing, and very easy to make.  It had a unique combination of flavors from the tangy grapefruit, the creamy avocado, and the sweet poppy seed dressing. This salad contains grapefruit, avocado, quinoa and almonds; it's a main dish salad, but you could add even more to it if you want to. Cooked wild salmon, black beans or edamame would be sustainable proteins that you could add.



Next, we made Sweet and Tangy Coleslaw.  It had a satisfying, crunchy texture from shredded apples, carrots, cabbage, and chopped walnuts.  The variety of vegetables and fruit made the salad exciting with vibrant colors.  Instead of using mayonnaise or sour cream, we used  low-fat yogurt and lemon juice to give the salad its delicious creaminess.  Yogurt and lemon juice contributed great flavor without a lot of added calories. 

Collard Veggie Burger Wraps were also on the menu.  The burgers were fun to eat because they were wrapped in collard green leaves rather than buns, much like lettuce wraps.  The steamed collard greens served as a great vehicle for the savory chickpea filling.  We used cayenne pepper spice up the beans and oats were added for texture and to bind the bean burger together.  The wraps were high in plant-protein and packed with flavor.    

Asparagus Soup was probably the greenest item made on the menu…literally.  It resembled a split pea soup and had a hearty texture.  Tofu was added for protein and to give the soup a creamy texture.  The final product was satisfying and full-flavored.  It was a great accompaniment to the Collard Veggie Burger Wraps.   




 We topped off all these deliciously sustainable foods with an environmentally-friendly Microwave Carrot Cake.  It was a great success.  It’s hard to believe you could bake a full cake in 3 minutes, but we pulled it off!  The cake smelled and tasted delicious with aromatic spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg. The spices made the cake so flavorful that it had just the right amount of sweetness, even without icing. Using the microwave is an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint. When you can use the microwave or stove top instead of the oven, do so. You'll save energy, which helps your utility bill and the environment.

Thank you to all who participated in Cooking on Campus this year.  We enjoyed cooking with you and hope to see you next year!  We hope you join us next year for our revamped cooking program. 

~Vianett