Patrick Hanlon | Crumbs
A large number of students buy and cook their own food while going to school.
Marissa Rudley, campus dietician, said she wants to help students by providing inexpensive, healthy options and recipes through her monthly cooking class.
At the last University of Idaho Vandalizing the Kitchen cooking class, Rudley demonstrated how to make desserts with a healthy twist.
Rudley showed a full classroom of students how to make oatmeal banana cupcakes and a healthy chocolate milkshake. Each oatmeal banana cupcake contains calories, while one serving of the chocolate milkshake contains 240 calories.
“These muffins are a great portable breakfast that you can take with you to class,” Rudley said. “They’re also the perfect snack.”
While making the muffins, Rudley shared a few tips about purchasing bananas and how to mash bananas before peeling them. Rudley said using bananas helps curb sugar use in recipes and provides a healthy, sweet taste for muffins and milkshakes.
“You can throw anything you like in the muffins,” Rudley said. “Today, we’re adding chocolate chips and Craisins.”
Rudley also demonstrated how to make a simple chocolate milkshake with bananas, cocoa powder, almond milk and chia seeds. She also taught the class a recipe for Greek yogurt cheesecake dip.
Rudley provided the students with calorie counts of each recipe she demonstrated and gave them some shopping tips about various ingredients. In honor of February being Healthy Heart month, she also provided a list of heart-healthy grocery items.
“These recipes are great for desserts,” Rudley said. “But you can even eat them for breakfast.”
UI student Chris Masciotra said he enjoyed the class and thought Rudley did a great job.
“She was able to show us cheap healthy desserts that were really good as well,” Masciotra said.
The next Vandalizing the Kitchen “Simply Stir-fry” takes place at 4 p.m., March 25 in the Student Recreation Center classroom.
Patrick Hanlon can be reached at crumbs@uidaho.edu