The fun never ends at UIUC! (Week 3)

Each week I think it can’t possibly get better and then it surprises me once more...

tasting the AMAZING zucchini quinoa lasagna :)

 

This specific week I reported to Florida Avenue (FAR), one of the residence dining halls on campus, which has become my home away from home. One of my main tasks was to help with all the preparation that takes place directly in the kitchen at FAR for Meals on Wheels. These duties usually only lasted the first 2 hours of work, which left the rest of the day for recipe testing! Each day I was given new healthy recipes to prepare in hopes they would be delicious enough to use in the ‘Field of Greens’ specialty restaurant, which features vegetarian and vegan options for students. I love cooking and experimenting with different foods!  It was a sheer dream to get to utilize all the different healthy ingredients such as quinoa and kaῆiwa (which I never heard of until this week) to prepare the recipes. Among some of the creations I made were curried lentil dip, kaῆiwa confetti salad, lemony lentil salad with cauliflower, and my favorite zucchini quinoa lasagna. The best part of everyday had to be actually tasting the recipes and working the other cooks on ways to improve it or slightly tweak it. For example, the kaῆiwa confetti salad featured avocado, carrots, red pepper, celery, and a variety of other vegetables, but when we added rice wine vinegar the flavor was amazing! It didn’t hurt either that after cooking all these foods, I just placed the dirty dishes in the dish room.

 This weekend was also the 42^nd Annual Taste of Champaign-Urbana! Tents were sent up throughout all of West Side Park, located downtown, of food and craft vendors alike. The various food tents featured local restaurants, so that you could ‘taste’ a sample of their food. There was anything from sushi to cheesecake dipped in chocolate to gyros to pulled pork sandwiches available.

 

Just one of the rows of lined up tents. Luckily, we got there earlier so there weren't too many people yet.

Looking back at all I have gotten to do this past week, I fear it has gone by far too quickly. However, seeing as each week improves more and more, I can’t wait for Monday to come!