Lesson 7

We had the practical session. I think that it didn't go so well because I finished too quickly. Also, my cakes had too much sugar on them. However, I liked the taste of the matcha because it was bitter and not too sweet like the commercially-produced ones.

Regarding the weekly blogging sessions,

I managed to update my blog punctually and on time. However, I think I was too general and not detailed enough. 

I rectified my problems when I couldn't think of ideas for my blog by searhching the internet to read other peoples' opinions.

The nutritional tools were very helpful because I could objectively qualify food as "healthy" or "not healthy". Usually, the we look at food, we just pass judgement on its "healthiness" immediately based on its look. Somethings that may seem unhealthy might be healthy, and vice versa if we do not use the right tools to objectively judge their health value.

I was able to modify recipes to some extent to make them healthier through small modifications, either by change of ingredient or method.

Lesson 6

Other than pizza, we can use the basic bread recipe to make pita bread and naan.

Criteria	Dish 1: Matcha Lava Cake	Dish 2: Cream Spinach Fettuccine	Dish 3: Fried Rice	Best Option: Lava cake
Time Management: Will I be able to prepare this dish within the one hour given? (including Prep + Washing up Time)	Dish will take about 45 minutes if fast. Yes.	No, it will take too long for me.	No, it will take too little time.
High Manipulation Skills: Does this dish include the use of Flour Mixtures (cakes, biscuits, pasta, bread, pastry, batter, dough)?	Yes.	Yes.	No.
Creativity: Can the chosen recipe be modified to make it healthier?	I can use something else other can caster sugar to decorate the cake, like fruits.	Use less cream, or sour cream.	Can use more vegetables when frying.

Lesson 5

We can see that the frozen pastry contains a lot of fat, sugar, and sodium, as well as additives. It is clearly very detrimental to our health as these things like salt, sugar, and fat are found on the top of the healthy food pyramid. 

I would use either asparagus and spinach or pumpkin in my quiche.

Lesson 4

I learn that we could use our knowledge of flour mixtures to make lasagna sheets. Also, that kneading is a process that takes a long time and you cannot add too much flour.

To make the lasagna healthier, we can use part-skim cheeses instead of full-fat cheeses to reduce calories and saturated fat. We can also opt for a vegetarian lasagna, and use spinach. In addition, we can make our own tomato sauce from scratch. 

Lesson 3

The cupcakes that Mrs Abbas made had 25 grams less butter. Hence, they were greater in volume and drier than our cupcakes. Our cupcakes were fluffier and softer. This difference arose as Mrs Abbas’s healthier cupcakes had less fat, and hence the taste, volume, and density was affected. Both were generally the same and delicious, and I think that I would like to use less butter the next time I make cupcakes as butter contains fat which is unhealthy (we can see that it is at the top of the healthy food pyramid). Also, I would add less cocoa as the taste was too strong and neither my partner nor myself really liked it.

In order to make it more healthy, we can reduce the amount of butter and sugar added. We can also not put in the chocolate rice flakes, and include fruits like bananas or nuts instead. We can also use less eggs if possible. In the right picture above, we can see the cross-sections of our cupcake on the right and Mrs Abbas's on the left. Also, in the left picture above, we put the two halves of the cupcakes together for comparison. The taller half is Mrs Abbas's.

The cookies were also really crunchy but soft and the colours were not too brown. However, I think I added too much vanilla essence, hence the flavour was too strong.

Lesson 2

rice dish we cooked in class.

recent meal with rice, vegetables (broccolli with tuna, wakamen- assorted vegetables, karikari, asparagus wrapped in pork), and meat (soy-sauce pork with egg and tofu).

BALANCED?

I think both meals are quite balanced because they follow the nutrition chart of half vegetables, half rice/carbohydrates and half meat/protein. Also, I had fruits after the meal at home. However, I think that the portion I eat at home is too large as I usually feel quite full after consuming the food. I think that I have to cut down on eating a bit of everything.