First Test and Kitchen Around the Corner!

Things have been wild over at JB and got a little behind on updating the blog, so here is Natasha with the last two weeks!

Week 3:

We had the ServSafe final this week which was a bit stressful. Test tips:

• Breathe-if your brain has no oxygen you can’t think straight!
• Go slow- give yourself time. Take time to read and reread the questions.
• Skip one and come back-when you get stuck on one, unstick yourself and come back to it.
• Arrive early and be prepared
• Prioritize sleep-its tempting to stay up late to study on nights leading up to your test, but that can do more harm than good.
• Eat well-this is good advice always!

Robert from Worker Justice came in for a visit about worker rights. It was eye-opening to see the rights employees have and what some shady employers try to get away with. Also what and how we can protect ourselves. Great session!

More visitors! Jose from Madison College is an academic advisor for the college with a plethora of knowledge on how to navigate the college experience. Thanks Jose!

We also started the Nutrition portion of the course with a bright, shiny new book and really great information on planning a healthy diet and menu.

A really funny YouTube episode called Adam Ruins Everything talked about what in our diets really makes us gain weight-no spoilers- go watch it and you will probably be surprised! So get on it like a bonnet!

We also learned about different tastes we experience: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, but the fifth is a buzzword you probably have heard of and that is Umami! Umami exists in many foods and cultures. For example, mushrooms, soy sauce, tomatoes, parmesan cheese, and yes, even ketchup. These foods have an earthy, yummy flavor that sends signals to the brain to get you excited for savory eating!

Gianni and Bonnie

asked their mommy

to make mushroom risotto

with a tsunami of umami!

We also had a lot of new kinds of math-measuring and recipes, King Gallon and his family of Queens and Princesses and Cats came to visit too! I didn’t like this royal family at first, but eventually found them to be very useful for measuring!

And we learned that fiber isn’t digested?! What they do is slow down the food digestion so we can absorb nutrients better. I named them the Fiber Police-slowing down traffic and keeping the roads safe!

Week 4:

Well we had a bunch of sick people this week 😔It was also a short week because of the holiday, which hopefully gives everyone time to rest up and study!

Shout out to Candice, the Resource Specialist! She is a wonderful person who has helped me, and everyone else in class, a ton, getting through everything and building new and exciting futures!

We got to meet two of the new members of our Nutrition Team: Digestion Dave and Chef Clare.

Digestion Dave helped us learn the digestive system:

• Into the mouth, over the tongue, look out salivary glands-here we come!
• Down the esophagus and into the stomach.
• Through the small intestine and large intestine. This is where we lead our charge with help from the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas.
• After that you may be curious, “butt” the “ending” is really not mysterious-after all, this battle is serious! 😝

Our second team member was Chef Clare, who gave us a great tour of the operation. The kitchen, dry storage room, ovens, equipment, production process-needless to say, we can’t wait to get hands on!

A couple more fun guys who stopped by were the Dirty Dozen and Major Calcium! Both who help us in the war of proper nutrition!