Spanish Cooking Workshops

Spanish teenage scientists enjoyed cooking workshops led by healthy cooking specialists in February. The aim of these workshops was to provide the teenagers with different healthy snack alternatives. Most importantly, the teenagers learned how how to prepare the snacks.

Learning about Food Options

The teenage scientists started their workshop by discovering boxes in their classrooms and they separated into groups. The SEEDS team gave a brief explanation of the workshop as well as its organization. The boxes symbolized their home kitchen and contained the recipe with all the steps, ingredients and utensils. When they opened the boxes, the students’ faces changed completely when they saw the original and colourful material they contained!

The teenagers learned how to prepare five different snack recipes in an hour-long workshop. They also learned why the snacks prepared in the workshop are a good alternative to other unhealthy snacks. Ingredients can be combined to create easier and quicker alternatives to these recipes. For example, one of the snacks was a nut and cocoa-based energy ball. A quick and easy alternative would be to take a handful of nuts and an ounce of dark chocolate.

Making Healthy Snacks

The teenagers and the SEEDS project researchers made samples of each of the healthy snacks in groups. Each group tasted their own healthy snack recipes. The group then discussed the recipes in depth, including options for transporting the snack to school. At the end of these explanations through a participatory deliberation, each teenager took a dish and put a sampling of each of the recipes to taste them and enjoy their own preparations. Many teenage scientists were surprised by the taste of many of the preparations they had prepared and were encouraged to repeat!