Choosing Healthy Foods

Getting the most nutrition for your food budget starts with a little extra planning before you shop. There are many ways to save money on the foods that you eat. Here are some budget-friendly tips for eating right. Plan what you’re going to eat Before you head for the grocery store, plan your meals and snacks for the week. Review recipes for what ingredients are needed. Check to see what foods you already have and make a list of what you need to buy. When you shop with a list, you will be less likely to buy extra items that are not on it. Decide how much to make Making a large batch by doubling a recipe will save time in the kitchen later on. Extra portions can be used for lunches or meals later in the week, or freeze leftovers in individual containers for future use. Plus, foods purchased in bulk are almost always cheaper. Determine where to shop Check the local newspaper, online and at the store for sales and coupons, especially when it comes to more expensive ingredients, such as me...

by Campus Executive Chef Tom Barton Well it's finally here -- the final Cooking 101 class. As promised, next week's final session will be the student chefs' chance to utilize the tips and techniques they have learned during the past eight weeks to prepare a complete three course dinner for their invited guests. In this past Tuesday's class, our chefs were busy practicing the surprise menu. Chef Tom going over the menu with our student chefs Follow Northeastern Dining on Instagram! Just before the start of class, each student was presented with a very special personalized Xhibition Kitchen chef coat that they will wear proudly next week -- well actually, some couldn't wait and wore them this week too! The group was split into two separate teams and the students got busy chopping, pounding, sautéing, braising, whipping and folding. Timing the food to come out at the same time proved to be a bit of a challenge but everyone overcame the cramped quarters behind the count...

by Campus Executive Chef Tom Barton Last night was week seven of our Cooking 101 class in the Xhibition Kitchen and after learning about knife skills, cold preparations, and entrées over the past few weeks we had finally reached most everyone's favorite area of the kitchen: dessert! We brought in a heavy hitter, Ritz-Carlton Boston Common pastry chef Bouchaib Errafiy , to work with us and show us the finer points of several desserts. Chef Errafiy spoke about the various differences between all of the flours and sugars that we see these days at our favorite market. The discussion was very lively but I could tell everyone was ready to start making (and tasting!) some great desserts. First off -- cheesecake . We learned one of the secrets to a great cheesecake is in the creaming of the cream cheese and sugar. We spoke about the technique of creaming and its importance in many dessert recipes. We then moved onto the classic recipe of profiteroles au chocolate . The nice thing about ...

by Chris Jennings, Northeastern Dining Quality Assurance Manager Braising – Sauteing – Pan Frying – Steaming. These were just some of the cooking techniques demonstrated this week in the latest segment of Cooking 101. The main topic of focus were dry and moist heat cooking methods. Follow NUDining on Instagram! Dry heat refers to cooking foods where the heat transfers to the food without any moisture and typically involves temperatures of 300ºF or higher. Examples would be sautéing, roasting, baking, grilling and deep frying to name a few. And yes, despite initial hesitations, deep frying and pan frying are in fact dry heat cooking methods since you are submerging the food in hot liquid fat and not relying on a water-based moisture. Moist heat refers to cooking foods with a water-based moisture, be it water, steam, stock, wine, etc. Cooking temperatures typically range from 140ºF-212ºF and examples include braising, stewing, poaching, simmering, boiling and steaming. Our student chef...

by Campus Executive Chef Tom Barton Hi everyone! Last night we had the fifth week of our Cooking 101 class and we had a great time talking with all of our student chefs about the oh so popular subject of side dishes. While it can be a bland topic, we instead focused on some of the more nontraditional, but increasingly popular, starches and vegetables available at your local market. Follow us on Instagram! It's easy to pick a great vegetable side dish in the summer when produce is at its peak...but how about in the dead of winter? Our class participants made and tasted things like lemon scented multigrain pilaf, wild mushroom risotto , smoky cider braised greens, and roasted spiced winter squash. We also spoke about various potatoes and what their best uses are. People are very particular about their mashed potatoes so we tried to settle some important mashed potato debates, such as lumps or no lumps and skins on or off? To spice things up a little we used the knife skills learned i...

by Northeastern Dining Quality Assurance Manager Chris Jennings We dove right into stocks and sauces this week. Chef Tom had a beautiful chicken stock already simmering before class started. The aroma filtered thru the XK and set the tone for a stimulating experience on how to create your own stocks and sauces. Once we covered the different types of stocks and how to create them thru many variations, we figured we would transform some of them into sauces. Most sauces require a thickening agent and the type of thickening agent used depends on the desired texture, flavor and appearance of the sauce you want. Many were discussed but the class tried their hand at it with a roux, corn starch, beurre manié and a liaison. Quite a bit of whisking, tempering, and straining was involved but the end results were very nice. The goal was achieved. We transformed chicken stock into chicken velouté; a Béchamel sauce became a Mornay sauce; but the highlight was the hollandaise. Chef Andy and Chef Jenn...

Hi everyone! Chef Barton here with our weekly Cooking 101 recap. After a week off last Tuesday so everyone could enjoy Mardi Gras , we got back on schedule last night with session three of our Cooking 101 series. This week featured the " Garde Manger ," or cold section of the kitchen. We talked about strategies for putting together great looking contemporary cheese boards, crudité platters, fruit platters, and antipasto displays. We also prepared several dressings from scratch and everyone got to try their hand at making their own vinaigrette. The ranch dressing I made with homemade mayo came out a little thin but tasty - I think I got carried away with our housemade buttermilk! We also tasted many different salad greens to showcase the wide differences there are of greens there are to choose from. We saw some different salad presentations with "bowls" made from baked parmesan cheese, or frico , and also created a thinly sliced cucumber round just large enough to ho...

Chris Jennings - Northeastern Dining Quality Assurance Manager We rolled right into Session II of the Cooking 101 series last evening in the XK. Before you start cooking your food, it is generally a good idea to cut it to your needs; so we worked on knife skills. Chef Tom helped us identify some different types of knives from a French Knife to a Slicer to a Boning Knife and what applications they are best suited for. In order to make sure that our knives where not dull, a honing demonstration needed to make the sharp edges keener. After some quick safety tips and discussion on potential cross contamination we started to rock - our knives that is! With fingers tucked in and knife tip on the board the cutting began. Everyone started by trying their hand at dicing and chopping. By the end of the evening we had some great brunoise onion, julienne carrot, and paysanne potato to name a few. It was a job well done by everyone. The best part of the evening was that no one cut themselves (phew!...

Hi everyone! Campus Executive Chef Tom Barton here. Last night we had the first session of our nine week Cooking 101 class -- and we had a blast! Our ten lucky students joined Northeastern Dining's Nutritionist Christine Clark, Quality Assurance Manager Chris Jennings, and myself for a lot of great interactive discussions. Our first class was a bit of an introduction to the course - just as most first classes are - but we did have some lively discussions about nutrition, building your pantry, and menu planning. We also compared a few store brand products with national brands and showed that a well-known brand name (with brand name pricing) doesn't necessarily mean you can't find the same, or better, flavor from a store brand. I also really enjoyed the initial discussion we had about building flavors and plate design. Christine gave us some very useful tips on reading food labels and some great things to think about when menu planning and shopping. Many thanks to Christine a...