Last Thursday we made a very nutritious snack at MANUKURA. We processed almonds, walnuts, coconut, orange , vanilla and coconut oil and dried apricots together, then formed the dough into large apricot balls which we rolled in coconut. Everyone was focussed on the task of making enough for afternoon snack for 80 students, while maintaining quality control – both even sizes and clean work areas. We also learnt about safe food handling practices today which were carefully noted – ka pai everyone.

Continue reading →

Have you tried scrambled tofu?  As we receive many requests from those on a vegan diet, scrambled tofu is a good alternative to scrambled eggs.  Tofu is high in protein and will take on the flavour of what you decide to add to it.

Continue reading →

The Wednesday before last at Youth Space several elements were brought together to make a very simple pasta dish.  Always great to see the co-operation – some were making avocado sauce with basil and garlic, others were making walnut crumble for the top, and still others were slow roasting baby tomatoes with garlic and ginger.  When combined in one dish with pasta and a wedge of roasted butternut pumpkin rubbed with dried cumin, coriander and a little salt – yum.

Our food technology extension class made and enjoyed almond milk with toasted muesli – after agreeing upon the best recipe of our almond milk from the previous week. The rest of the class split into 3 groups, and with some help from Mr Google investigated into how our homemade almond milk compares with shop-bought almond milk. We compared the nutrients (fats, carbs, proteins, vitamins and minerals), the ingredients (and what all the e-numbers stand for) and the cost. Then we compared the taste!

Conclusions: our homemade almond milk has 5 times the amount of almonds in it, 5 times the protein, and is much creamier and yummier than the shop-bought almond milk, which was declared quite watery and tasteless. Our research revealed that our homemade almond milk has good levels of calcium and magnesium in it. To make 1 litre uses 1 cup of almonds – which are quite expensive, but we all decided the end result was worth it. And the left-over almond pulp is yummy in cookies, muffins, pancakes or waffles. In comparison we saw that shop-bought almond milk is quite pricey considering how much water is in it! Next week we will try our hand at making oat milk.

We headed off to the Feilding Farmers’ Market with our anti-cranky spread and our two trial flavours of protein bar – vanilla and orange. The students quickly prepared tasters of the spread on stone oven seed bread to offer prospective customers – which were enjoyed by customers and students alike! They also carefully cut some protein bars into tasters and offered them enthusiastically to market-goers. The students got pretty good at reciting the healthy ingredient list, remembering to mention the nut content. They memorised the composition of each bar – 9g protein, only 5g natural sugars (from dates) and no refined sugars. Many bars were bought for lunch-box fillers.

Continue reading →

What a great challenge the MANUKURA juniors had today – making vegan cheesecakes using almonds, dates, coconut, lemon rind, vanilla and coconut oil for the base and cashew nuts, lemon juice, coconut cream, cocoa butter and frozen strawberries and raspberries for a delicious and creamy filling.
Continue reading →

It was a very creative afternoon for the Hands-On Food team at Youth Space today. The task was to come up with toppings for toast that taste and look great. Wholegrain sourdough spelt bread from Wholegrain Organics topped with some unique options including sprouted onion seeds, and tempeh, gave the guys plenty of scope to be artistic, while thinking about which combinations would be best.

We prepared all the toppings together, such as the coriander dressing made with honey and Braggs (a healthy soy sauce), roasted capsicum BBQ sauce, a savoury spread, and many sliced or grated veges. Continue reading →

Our extension class on Friday morning began investigating MYLK – that’s milk with a difference. The students were amazed to discover we could come up with 24 different types of milk – whereas in their grandparents’ day there was only one type, pasteurised unhomogenised dairy milk, which the milkman delivered in glass bottles with cardboard tops. Then we looked at WHY we have so many different types of milk today. The reasons are many – from lactose intolerance to increased understanding and knowledge about the best sources of calcium for our bones. We saw how milk is produced by many animals for their young, and how cows’ milk is perfectly designed for baby calves (who double their weight in 47 days), rats’ milk for baby rats (who double their weight in 4 days), and human milk for human babies (who double their weight in 180 days). An interesting fact is that humans are the only species to drink milk past the baby years, and to drink another species’ milk.

Continue reading →