Week 4 at UIUC!

     This week I was given the chance to go back to FAR dining hall and continue more recipe testing! A dream come true!

      On Monday, I was given more vegan and vegetarian recipes to try out. At the end of the day, I worked with one of the chefs to decide which recipes to use for the official tasting day on Wednesday. Tuesday was spent chopping, dicing, and measuring whatever ingredients could be prepared for each recipe. This may seem an easy task, but it took all day. Making sure each ingredient was properly measure and weighed was essential. The weighing was necessary for when and if the recipe was accepted it must be put into the C-Bord System properly. The minute I walked into work on Wednesday the excitement began! I was shocked that with only myself and one chef working on all the items, we were able to get everything prepared for 1:30 pm. The official menu included 9 items: Vegan Zucchini-Quinoa Lasagna, Tuscan Bean Salad, Miso Butternut Squash, Mac & Cheese with Butternut Squash, Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes of cabbage and scallions with a sauce of mayonnaise, sriracha sauce, and soy sauce), Pineapple Fried Rice, Mexican Avocado Salad, Roasted Edamame Salad, and Banana-Avocado Chocolate Pudding. It was a great experience to watch the other chefs and unit managers from other dining halls and try the different recipes and get their input. To make it even better, everyone loved the Zucchini-Quinoa Lasagna!

Setting the food out in the hot holding stations & labeling the items correctly.

The salads got their own station.

     After the excitement of Wednesday, the week slowed down. I was able to work on some of my projects. One of them was to create a handout of certain items that are displayed in the Vegan Corner of Ikenberry Dining Hall. The three items were Brewer’s Yeast, Flax Meal, and Bragg Liquid Amino Acid. Each item can be added to foods in unique ways. Flax meal, for example, can be substituted for eggs to make certain baked goods!

      I also went through the 4 cycle menu that will be used at the University for the Fall 2012 Semester and created Healthy Lunch Selections. Each meal was under 650 calories, 730 mg sodium, 35% total fat, and 10% saturated fat. The hardest part of this task has been to stay under this low level of sodium. Unfortunately, salt is being added to foods everywhere, and in the dining halls of universities are no exception.

This week I also had the chance to visit Prairie Fruits Farm, a goat farm located about 4 miles away from Downtown Champaign. They are only open on Wednesdays from 4-6pm, so I made sure after the recipe testing I was able to make it in time. The farm was small but beautiful. In my opinion, it was also surprising clean for being a goat farm. There were two small tents set up outside of the barn. One sold fresh vegetables, while the other sold various goat cheeses and homemade breads. Inside the barn was a small area where gelato made from goat’s milk was being sold. There were five unique flavors: Chocolate, Vanilla Chevre, Rhubarb, Honey Lavender, and Hazelnut. I made sure to taste each one before making my choice, honey lavender! It even came with free biscotti! A sweet end to a filling day!

It has already been 4 weeks so far, which means I am currently at the halfway point in this internship. Only 4 more weeks to go and I have no doubt they will flash by way too quickly!