Blog #8: Thyme To Dine
Maia B V -
Hey Fans,
I CAN’T believe we are already at week 8! Despite the title of the post, it was a great week, just SUPER busy.
To begin, last Thursday and Friday I spent over 7+ hours in the kitchen preparing for Volunteer Appreciation Day! This included prepping all of the ingredients and pre-preparing dishes. If you guys forgot what I was going to make, here it is: Vegan crab cake sliders, Caramelized onion and brie puff pastry bites, Tempura fried korean-style cauliflower and stuffed mushrooms! I had to make all these in a very large quantity as there were over a hundred people coming to the event.
On Saturday I came super early in the morning to finish everything up! I was there for about 6 hours cooking straight. I was on frying duty most of the time but was also helping some other chefs complete their meals as well. It really felt like being in a cooking competition or on an episode of the bear with all the stress and hussle but it was amazing! Overall Volunteer Appreciation Day was a great success and super fun. Everyone loved the food and especially enjoyed the vegan crab cake sliders. It was also fun to share vegan and vegetarian options to classic meals in a larger setting to introduce plant-based and non-meat dishes for people who weren’t familiar with what that could look like. Since the other dishes were all meat based as well, the people who couldn’t eat meat really appreciated the variety in options (there were more non-meat eaters than I expected as well!)
On Monday I went back into the kitchen for my morning shift, which was equally fun as it was painful because waking up that early never gets easier! This day I was in the preparing station meaning for most of the time I julienned onions and peppers for the upcoming dinners later in the week.
On Tuesday I created 2 more dishes for Miriam’s Kitchen. One is a coconut-milk based green thai curry. This dish, like most that I’ve made, can be made in advance and in large quantities and is also so good. The second dish is actually more of a side dish that can be complemented with other things. Everyday at Miriam’s Kitchen, meals are paired with different side dishes like side salads, fruit cups, and applesauce, ect. This spring roll would offer a more protein-forward and vegetable-filled side meal that is also a lot different from the classic, but more usual side dishes offered.
Let’s look at the nutrient breakdown for the curry. For a regular macronutrient breakdown of a dish, assuming it’s well balanced, it should have these stats:
Carbs: ~75-100g
Fat: ~15-25g
Protein: ~15-30g
There are many reasons why it is incredibly important to maintain a balanced meal with all the necessary nutrients. Oftentimes, people think it’s healthier to exclude something like fat from a meal because it’s “worse” for you. But that’s entirely wrong. Carbohydrates are actually used to fuel your brain, muscles, and organs. Without eating carbs, you may feel tired, foggy, or sluggish. Additionally, eating enough protein per meal is also vital. Protein builds and repairs tissues, including muscles, skin, and organs. It also supports immune function, hormone production, and satiety. Without it, you may experience muscle loss, fatigue, slower healing, or hunger soon after eating. Lastly, fats are extremely important for a balanced meal. Fat provides long-lasting energy, supports cell structure, and helps absorb fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K). It’s also used to promote hormone balance, brain health, and fullness. Without the necessary fats, you may miss out on key nutrients, feel constantly hungry, or have dry skin and poor concentration. Especially for guests at Miriam’s kitchen, it’s especially important to include all the necessary macronutrients because the people that come are often already low on the necessary supportive macronutrients. That is why it’s vital to ensure there is a balanced amount in every meal served, because there is no room to serve something without fat for people who are already living without the necessary vitamins to make people healthy and hormonally balanced. That is also why increasing the protein intake of each dish is also extremely vital because that is what makes people feel fullest for the longest.
To make this dish even more protein rich then it already is, Miriam’s Kitchen could also include protein powder, chickpeas, or another type of bean to the curry to increase the protein level, although it’s not actually necessary since it does reach the protein level for this meal.
Comparing this to the list above, this dish should have these different stats when broken down:
Macronutrients: Source: Estimated Amount:
Carbs Jasmine rice, vegetables ~60-80g
Protein Tofu, Bok Choy, mushrooms ~15-20g
Fat Coconut milk, tofu ~20-30g
As we can see, this dish completes all the necessary requirements to be a properly nourishing dish. On average, one cup of curry and one cup of rice will account for around 600 calories. While this tends to be a little bit more on the lighter side, assuming this is paired with a salad, dessert, and fruit that all Miriam’s kitchen meals include, this would definitely meet the 1,000 calorie/meal expectation.
I’d also like to mention that most of these dishes are tofu-forward, due to a constant current obsession with tofu. However, next week I will be sharing different forms of protein in dishes and why that makes them nutrient dense, and I will also be sharing the recipes and nutrient-breakdowns for the hors d’oeuvre made for Volunteer Appreciation Day as well that don’t include tofu. Below I’ve also included some cool behind the scenes content of Volunteer Appreciation Day and a recipe photo which I hope you guys will enjoy! Additionally, for those of you that haven’t already checked out my website that I posted last week, be sure to check it out. I post the official recipes there and more background information for them. Here is the link: https://maiabergesv.wixsite.com/mysite
Well, that’s a wrap! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you for next week’s blog.
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