Cooking From Scratch

Guest Blog post by our Nutrition Education Manager, Laura Fillbach

Laura's son, Ohan, is pictured below!

My 16 year old son was recently home over vacation and was looking for something to eat. I suggested that he make a burrito since we had whole grain tortillas, beans, cheese and salsa on hand. After finding a can of pinto beans, he was concerned that we didn’t have the “right kind.” “It’s fine,” I assured him, “you just have to mash them yourself.” Likewise with the block of cheese; he’d need to do a bit of grating. He grumbled his way through the process, but ended up with a couple of burritos and a hearty lunch. While he would have preferred that we had more “ready made” food around, I made sure to let him know that cooking from scratch with basic ingredients is a skill that will continue to serve him well. This is precisely the focus of Hunger Free Vermont’s Learning Kitchen program, which I am proud to manage.

This post is part of our month-long blog series in celebration of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' "National Nutrition Month." This year's theme is, "Eat Right, Your Way, Every Day," so each of us here at Hunger Free Vermont will take a turn to share a personal goal, story or fact regarding nutrition through daily blog posts throughout the month.