In between healthy dessert recipes prepared by Campus Dietitian Mindy Rice, students at Vandalizing the Kitchen answered trivia questions.
Rice said the campus dietitian has been showing students how to prepare healthier desserts, vegan snacks, and a variety of other foods for about five years. This is her first year.
“This is a way to reach out to students, one to make people feel more confident in their cooking abilities, two to just interact with the students, provide nutrition information that gets them eating and learning at the same time,” Rice said.
There were three desserts students learned how to make a banana cupcake, chickpea cookie dough and apple pizzas.
She started the event with a banana cupcake, which was more like a muffin Rice explained to the small group of students.
Rice said she looks for recipes that are fast and easy to make so students can learn them in an hour.
“We also have a real problem with food insecurity on campus where sometimes it’s kind of a norm to say, ‘oh I don’t have something to eat until I get paid’ or something like that, so it’s a great way to address food insecurity,” Rice said.
If students were not able to make it to Vandalizing the Kitchen and want to look for reputable sources on nutrition, Rice said she does one on one counseling through her office.
“I tell people to look for reputable sources whether it’s in a journal or on the internet, look for medical professionals with credentials. Although that’s not always the best, but that’s at least something to look for. Looing for references in the information,” Rice said.
The next Vandalizing the Kitchen event will be held April 23, and the topic is vegan meals.
“When I work with students, I know might be food insecure I always say come to Vandalizing the kitchen, come to our hands-on cooking classes. We have one that we do in the family consumer sciences department and they get to make the food and take it with them,” Rice said.
The hands-on cooking events are called Make it, Taste it, Take it Rice said.
The Student Rec Center will be hosting a grocery bingo on Friday April 12 starting at 9 p.m. Rice said.
Kali Nelson can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kalinelson6