One of our major projects in this class was our own "spa philosophy." With this, we had to make up our own spa, gear it towards a specific audience, and portray it through dining and the food we served. My group, putting on our 'Spa' near Valentine's Day, made a heart healthy spa. The atmosphere was semi-romantic with a classy touch for the Valentine's theme. Before I talk about the food, here is what it looked like! And some of our wonderful guests!
The food was low in fat and calories, but filled with flavor. We used a lot of fresh vegetables and whole grains, along with healthy omega 3 fats from tuna, fiber from beans, and much more. We wanted to provide our guests with a colorful plate filled with different textures and flavors to bring our menu full circle. We served a five course dinner with a "cocktail hour" beforehand!
Another fun part of this class was our mystery basket! We had no idea of any of the ingredients we were going to be given, and we had to utilize all the ingredients in some way on our plates. I was given cactus, a quail egg, an English cucumber, beet, fennel, and lamb loin. I decided to make sunflower seed crusted lamb (utilizing the quail egg as a binder), with a beet and cactus farro, and a sweet fennel cucumber salad! I enjoy doing things like this when I am home, but having weird ingredients definitely challenged me a bit!
The final part of this class I want to highlight is our cooking demos. Our first demo we were given 1 out of 4 recipes, but only the ingredients. We had to come up with a certain way we wanted to prepare the dish and nutritional concepts to go with it. My demo was on Pasta Portobello, and I highlighted the fiber and calcium in the dish because I was directing my demo to senior citizens. I have done cooking demos before, but doing them in front of culinary students is intimidating because they know as much as I do in regards to food and nutrition, so there is less room for error or mess-ups!
The other demo we did was for actual guests, not just our class. We were instructed to make a lesson plan that will actually go into action this summer for a weight loss program at a health center in the Denver area. My partner and I chose to do our lesson on spices and dressings, and not only how much money one would save making their own spice blends, but how much less sodium and preservatives are in homemade dressings and seasoning blends. We had a variety of blends that we talked about, including taco seasoning, barbeque rub, ranch seasoning, garam masala, and apple pie spice blend. We also demonstrated a citrus as well as balsamic dressing in mason jars and how simple they are to prepare. 
And here are just some more pictures throughout the class! I hope you enjoy all the tasty looking food!
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