Eating right means snacking smart

The following post is written by NCSU student, Madelaine Frye. It is the 2nd in a series of blogs she will be writing chronicling her experience as Nutrition Instructor in her second section of spring OFL classes. Read Week 1 and Week 2 here. Madelaine is teaching OFL as part of a Service Learning Class that has teamed up North Carolina State Students with the Inter Faith Food Shuttle’s OFL/Nutrition Program. Through this partnership the IFFS and NCSU hope to engage students in service learning and community nutrition while expanding the reach of its OFL program. My name is Madelaine Frye and I am a senior Nutrition student at NC State. I have been reporting to you all on how our Side By Side classes at the Knightdale Head Start location have been progressing through our six-week healthy lifestyle adventure. Week three in the OFL Side by Side class sure was full of exciting activities, along with lots of creative, quick snacking!

This week in class we all learned about ways to eat healthy when we eat out, how to read the nutrition facts label, and tricks on snacking smart. We started off our class by making, and enjoying, some mango salsa together. One of the things that we all learned during class was that mangoes can be very tough to cut. They have a core that runs through the entire center of the fruit that makes it impossible to cut down the middle. Chef Jay taught us all that we must cut down each of the sides until we get as close to the center of the mango as we can. Be careful to tuck your finger in (Don’t forget to use the claw!) whenever using knives so you don’t cut yourself! We also learned that making little squares within the section of mango before cutting them off makes the tough skin much easier to work around.

Another one of the snacks that we enjoyed were mini pizzas. Each person received a whole grain English muffin and got to put their choice of toppings on top. Some good toppings are diced green peppers, olives, turkey pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. Feel free to put any other topics on that you may enjoy! We popped them in the oven for six minutes and had great, personalized mini pizzas. Many of the families commented that they would be making them that night when they got home because they loved them so much!

These are quick, easy and very tasty! Try to make some of these healthy snacks with your family, too.

The recipes for this week were Homemade Tortilla Chips, Mango Salsa and Mini Pizzas. As usual, we have the recipes for you below but, we now have a new recipe card format! You can start printing all of the recipes that we post, and add all of your favorite Food Shuttle recipes to your collection.