On Tuesday, Jan. 28, dietetics students and Eagle Nutrition Services hosted a home-cooking class at Rackham Hall. For $5 participants were instructed on healthier home cooking by EMU dietetics students.
Home cooking classes like these occur once a month. Although in March, they occur once a week for National Nutrition Month. The classes function as a Learning Beyond the Classroom credit as well as an educational opportunity on how to eat and cook healthier.
This class came out of a need of just people asking us in our nutrition clinic like, ‘Is there a cooking class?’, ‘Can I sign up for it?’, ‘Is it for credit or not?’ and we decided to bring this kind of one-off LBC event to the campus because we don’t have an undergrad cooking gen-ed course,” Darlene Bellers, ENS Manager and registered dietitian said. “It just makes sense to bring cooking into the mix when we talk about healthy eating.”
Participants were divided into groups allowing instructors to focus on a smaller number of people as well as delegate different tasks. Participants and instructors conversed about their cooking experiences and nutrition as they made chicken gyro with tzatziki sauce and falafel. Kitchen safety was also emphasized by instructors.
“[The most important part of these classes is] substitution, how to make an item healthier. Like, for this one for the tzatziki sauce we used greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Also teaching the nutrition aspects behind the food that we’re using. Also, [to teach] college students [to make] inexpensive foods that are easy to make and still healthy,” Elizabeth Keck, instructor and dietetics student.
The dish being made is not made known when registering. Meals are selected by dietetics students and approved Bellers as people register to accommodate dietary restrictions and preferences.
In addition to the home-cooking classes, ENS “offers a variety of services aimed at improving overall health, nutrition status, and restoring or maintaining vitality” and is “coordinated by junior and senior dietetic students under the supervision of Registered Dietitians (RD) and offers services at prices making it possible for everyone to lead a healthy, nutritious lifestyle” according to EMU’s website.
For more information, call 734.487.6572 or email chhs_nutrition@emich.edu. To register for a home-cooking class, visit their registration page.
