Learning to cook healthy with Vanessa!

Thursday I went to Health4Life Center to a cooking class. It was great!  Q used a Thanksgiving dinner decorating theme. There were appetizers and wine. What a great time!

Vanessa demonstrated her amazing cooking skills and used her infinite nutritional knowledge to prepare a wonderful meal and explained the reasoning behind her use of certain spices and products.

She cooked an entire meal for 10 people in the oven in 35 minutes and prepared a scrumptious dessert. The meal consisted of Oven Baked Chicken with Vegetables, Oven Roasted Red Potatoes, Roasted Asparagus with Garlic and Pine Nuts, Spinach Salad with Candied Pecans, and Toasted Coconut Ice Cream with Chocolate Syrup!

The meal was delicious and the best part was there was nothing to clean up! Vanessa cooked everything in parchment lined foil pouches.  After serving, the foil goes in the recycling and the plates and utensils into the dishwasher.

Vanessa teaching the class

The beautifully decorated room!

Q and her decorating flair!

The lovely and beautiful Q!

My secret to having a great dinner every night is to prep ahead. I have been doing this for years and it really works. I wash and cut all of my vegetables when I bring them home from the store and place everything in Ziploc bags. I often will go ahead and place the meal in foil or in the crock-pot and leave in the refrigerator until I am ready to cook. I am very glad that I developed this habit years ago in order to prepare healthy meals for my girls. Now with my new food allergies, I am thankful for this habit.

One thing that I want to stress is the importance of using parchment paper to separate your food from the aluminum foil. Aluminum is a heavy metal and it is absorbed into the body. This is not something that we want in our bodies! Parchment lined aluminum foil is available or you can just place a sheet of parchment paper in the foil and place the vegetables on top.