Vegetarian Cooking Class!

cure for salad blues veggie cooking class with Kath

WFM Cary

Staff Haikus

Melissa, CDO:

Help people give back

With time, talent and treasure

Through innovation

 

Sally, Director of Administration:

Paper on my desk,

Snowy white and drifting free.

Have you seen my keys?

 

Nikki, Hands on Health Coordinator:

It’s about the kids

Learning to be healthier

This is Hands on Health

Staff Haiku

the great Shuttle Staff

gives us their job descriptions

beautiful haiku

 

Emily Zartman: Volunteer Coordinator

Volunteers helping

Feeding, hungry, homeless, kids

Nurture, nourish, soothe.

Cooking Class at Whole Foods-This Wednesday!

WFM Cary Veggie cooking class with Kat

Benefits Shuttle

Ripe Recipe-Rutabaga edition

= That's right, we're not at all afraid to bust out a Ripe Rutabaga Recipe on you. It comes from our favorite Director of Programs, Tonya Post. Tonya works as well in the kitchen as she does with grant reports, so you can trust that this rutabga recipe will reign resplendently in your repertoire of root vegetable repasts.

Rutabaga Casserole

Cook Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 1 large rutabaga, peeled and cubed
• 4 medium carrots, shredded
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• dash pepper
• 1 cup fat free evaporated milk
• 1 cup cooked brown rice

Preparation:

Cook rutabaga, covered, in boiling salted water until tender, about 25 minutes. Drain well. Cook carrots in boiling salted water for about 5 minute, until just tender.

Transfer cooked rutabaga to a mixing bowl. With an electric hand-held mixer, beat rutabaga with butter, egg, brown sugar, salt, and pepper until smooth and fluffy. Stir in milk; stir in rice and carrots. Spoon into a buttered 10x6 or 8-inch square baking dish. Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes. Serves 10 to 12.

A message from Steven

A quick garden update from Steven Horton.

Haiku!

Thanks for tuning in so regularly on the Behind the Scenes Blog. We just want you to be aware of a small programming note for next week. Starting Monday and going all the way through Friday, we will be communicating stricly in Haiku form. Here's a little refresher on Haiku, in case it's been awhile. So when you tune in Monday, that's what'll be happening. Until then

Hope your weekend rocks

as you rest up and have fun

don't forget hunger

You can be a Hunger Fighter!

A few months back we put out a call for volunteer photographers. Since then, we've been lucky enough to work with two very talented photogs: Mark Petko and Andy Beal.  Andy was by the Shuttle today to take pictures of the Culinary Job Training Program and chatted a bit about using his photography skills to help drive hunger from the community. Check it out below.

Thanks to Andy and Mark for using their talents to help in the fight against hunger!

Melissa's journey on the Pound for Pound Challenge

Thanks to our very own, Melissa Wajnert Hartzell, for sharing this inspirational story on the blog and for her committment to fighting hunger through personal health goals! Do you have a Pound for Pound (PFP) Challenge story?  Share it with us on the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle's PFP Facebook group by clicking here.

By: Melissa Wajnert Hartzell

So it has been several weeks since I first pledged to lose 25 pounds for the Pound for Pound Challenge.  I have had some success, a few setbacks (snow, sick kids, yummy food in the house) and there is still more work to be done!

Forgiveness & Focusing Beyond Self

The first thing I did is I forgave myself for the weight I had gained and committed to losing weight not just for myself but to help people who are facing food insecurity.  I have struggled with my weight my entire life… now that I am committed to help create solutions for people who are hungry and food insecure… my relationship with food has changed.  I view food less as a comfort and more of a critical resource that all people deserve to have access.  Food directly impacts our health whether we are faced with abundance or food insecurity.  Besides, it is not fair for me to expect more from my children to eat healthy than I do of myself. Bottom line, I can be healthier and that is what I am working so hard to do for my family, for my health, and to raise money and food for those that are food insecure.

New Habits & Get Up and Move

During the week I am doing pretty well with sticking to my new lifestyle…I refuse to use the word diet.  I no longer skip breakfast, grab junk at lunch and then go home to make plenty of comfort food.  Instead I have started new habits…I start my day with a protein smoothie and vitamins, for lunch I have either another smoothie and fruit or salad and then for dinner a well balanced meal.

As difficult as it is to find the time to work out I am enjoying when I do go to the gym especially now that my pants that were once tight are loose and much more comfortable.  If I was to give myself a grade: nutrition solid B+; exercise C.  The good news is I am not failing, I feel better than I have in years, and have a solid foundation to build on.  That bad news is I still struggle to make time for exercise.  If I don’t make it to the gym more than a day or two, I dance with my kids in the living room.  At least it is a start to moving more.

Asking for Support & Celebrating Small Successes

I tell everyone I have a personal relationship with that I am losing weight and I ask for their support.  They keep me in check when they ask how things are going and I feel accountable to people beyond myself.

I celebrate the little successes: Walking by desserts and no longer craving them, losing a pound on the scale, feeling great all day, having my kids reflecting back to me ways to make better choices while we are shopping at the store.  I am grateful for the access I have to healthy food and celebrate that I am helping people in our community have better access to healthy food.

Results

Since January 1^st , the good news is I am down a size, lost 15 pounds and raised 15 pounds of food for people who are food insecure in our community.  I feel less sluggish and have more energy.  I am so excited that I am already a 1/3 of the way towards my goal, I decided to challenge myself more and ask my friends and family to help me help others who are food insecure!  Last week on my Facebook page I posted:

“I am pledging to lose 40 pounds by my 40th birthday for Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. Would you please consider making a pledge to donate $1 per pound I lose by June 30th?”  More than 55 people have joined the cause because of me and several have committed to support Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and my weight loss by pledging a $1 for each pound I lose! I am excited that the work I am doing to live healthier is making a difference and serving as a catalyst for others to help.

Battling the Cold With Homemade Vegetable Soup!

Hello again!  My name is Rebecca Holmes, and this is the third blog for the Operation Frontline class at Loaves and Fishes this winter.  I’m an Intern at the Food Shuttle, and manage the Loaves and Fishes class in order to fulfill a practicum requirement for my NCSU health minor.   So far, the class has only been wonderful.  Here are links to blog posts from Week 1 and Week 2. I look forward to Wednesday every week, and each lesson provides me with a different experience.  This week Megan (our nutrition instructor), Susan (our chef), and I (class manager) collaborated our efforts to provide the youth with a lesson including the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables, interactive preparation of vegetable soup, and a planting and gardening lesson. We switched up our routine a little this week.   First I helped the youth plant snow peas, I talked a little about plant care, and then I explained to them the importance of buying locally grown crops.  They seemed excited about their individual plants, and very excited to take them home this week.  I planted one as well, and will bring it to their last class to show them how my plant has progressed.  Next, after thoroughly washing the soil off our hands we headed to the kitchen to cook our vegetable soup with chef Susan.  It was filled with colorful ingredients!  Their cooking lesson mainly consisted of proper vegetable chopping techniques, and Susan stressed to them that making soup doesn’t have to be time consuming and it’s a good way to use leftover vegetables.  For dessert Susan taught them how to make baked apples with raisin honey filling and a maple syrup yogurt topping.  While the apples baked, and the soup simmered Megan gave the youth a MyPyramid inspired fruit and vegetable lesson.  She asked the youth to recall all the colors that were included in our soup, and explained that more colors gives more variety.  She followed up with an activity to further their knowledge of variety where they used their senses, excluding sight, to identify fruits and vegetables.  She discussed with them the different vitamins that fruit and vegetables provide, and why we need them.  They completed an activity that included arranging fruits and vegetables by their vitamin A and vitamin C content using nutrition labels.  After the lesson it was time to eat!  The meal was warm, full of variety, and absolutely delicious!

We would like to give a special thanks to the Food Shuttle kitchen staff for providing us with such wonderful vegetable stock!

Stay tuned for the update next week from the Loaves and Fishes Power of Eating Right OFL team.

Vegetable Soup

makes 8 servings

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 6 cups of vegetable stock
• 1 cup of chopped tomato
• 1 cup fresh or frozen okra, cut in rounds
• 1 small zucchini
• 1 cup frozen peas
• ¾ cup small shaped pasta
• 1 16-oz can of kidney beans
• ¼ cup parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried basil and/or 1 teaspoon oregano
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat oil and sauté carrots, onions, celery, and garlic in a large pot
2. Add in vegetable stock and bring to a simmer.
3. Add tomatoes, squash, okra, peas, and pasta.  Simmer for 10 minutes or until the past a is almost done
4. Add beans.  Cook for another 5 minutes
5. Season with salt and pepper as needed.
6. Serve with croutons and parmesan cheese if wanted.

Baked Apples

makes 2 servings

•  1 small apple, cut in half
• honey
• chopped nuts
• raisins
• yogurt
• maple syrup

Directions:

1. Use a melon baller to remove the seeds and make a small hole.
2. Mix honey, nuts, and raisins.  Fill the hole with the mixture.
3. Wrap in tin foil, and bake halves in oven.
4. Mix yogurt and maple syrup to top the baked apples.