Healthy Cooking Instructor Sapna von Reich poses with ingredients for the three dishes she’s been teaching children during a class at the Windsor Community Recreation Center (250 11th Street) on Saturday, February 4, 2023. For youth and adults at Loveland’s Chilson Center. (Pamela Johnson/Loveland Reporter-Herald)
Sapna Von Reich loves cooking healthy food and loves sharing her passion with others in her community through cooking classes.
She began teaching cooking classes in 2003 after moving to the area from India, and began offering classes at Loveland’s Chilson Center in 2007. So she teaches both children and adults different types of cooking and offers classes at Fort. Private lessons with Collins & Windsor.
“Food has always been my passion and cooking,” says Von Reich, Food for Life instructor at the Physicians’ Board for Responsible Medicine, who is certified in plant-based nutrition by eCornell’s Center for Nutritional Research. and Lifestyle Health Coach.
Her passion is also in health, which she mixes in her life and cooking lessons.
In a recent class in Windsor, she made cooking fun for a group of children and taught healthy eating along with cooking skills. I made sweet potato baked fries and a cake with reduced sugar using applesauce.
Students were excited to learn about the benefits and recipes for whole wheat.
She has several classes booked at Loveland from March to June, including a multi-session cooking camp including pancakes, chips and dips, spring food, and lentil lessons. A complete list of upcoming classes in Windsor, Fort Collins, and Loveland and registration fees are available online. sapnavonreich.com.
1. How did you learn to cook? What inspired you to start teaching?
I grew up in India. When I was a child, my mother was a housewife and a good cook. I learned to cook from her mother. I started cooking when I was 11. I did the same with my children and encouraged them to cook from an early age. In fact, my daughter says she started cooking at age 3!
I was volunteering at my children’s school and saw how poorly they ate, how much junk food they brought to school, and how much food was thrown away. I always wanted to teach my kids good food choices, so I started teaching them cooking classes.I wanted to teach them what I learned from my mom.
I believe cooking is a survival skill that every child should learn at an early age.
2. How important is it to choose healthy ingredients? What is the overall impact of food on your health? How important is fresh ingredients? Where can I find less common ingredients?
Choosing healthy ingredients is important. Because those ingredients and the food you eat become the building blocks of your body. It is useful for
Fresh ingredients are very important in creating flavor. Fresh spices are better than using spice jars that have been in your pantry for 10 years. For example, asparagus in a vegetable bag spoils faster than it does in a jar of water. In my experience, leafy greens should be placed in a produce bag and refrigerated, otherwise they dry out quickly.
Less common ingredients can be found at health food stores, ethnic or Asian stores. You’ll need to ask the grocer at the store to help you with the groceries.
3. Other than learning how to make recipes, what lessons can people of all ages learn from your cooking class?
I teach people how to be comfortable in the kitchen. How to stock your pantry with good ingredients. How to shop and store produce. how to cook on a budget; how to batch cook and meal prep; How to revive leftovers without getting bored. We also teach them the importance of eating in season and which produce is best to buy in that season. It also teaches you a lot about the health benefits of spices and what spices are good for you, but you don’t have to use a lot of spices to make your food taste good. is teaching.
4. What advice would you give to parents who want to cook at home with their children?
Let the kids mess up in the kitchen. If they are not given the freedom to be creative and the freedom to be free in the kitchen, they will never learn to cook and create comfort food and recipes. children should be taught to be safe in the kitchen. So teaching them about knives, hot pots, boiling water, and turning off the stove or oven when they are done cooking or baking are very important lessons that parents can teach their children. .
5. Please tell us an episode that left an impression on you during the cooking class.
I recently taught a six-class series called Food For Life: Kids Health at Loveland’s Boys and Girls Club. In addition to learning about good nutrition, each class made some quick and easy recipes. The kids enjoyed all the dishes we made and kept telling me that they would make these recipes with their parents because they were so good. I was very happy with almost all the recipes, but forgot to make a dessert recipe with me and kept asking for the same. , made no-bake brownie bites with beneficial ingredients such as pumpkin seeds, and they enjoyed this dessert a lot. It means that Their satisfied expressions will never forget this day/class.
Bonus: What are your kitchen must-haves?
My kitchen gadgets (food processor, blender, Instant Pot, etc.), spices, fresh produce, and a pantry with dried lentils, beans, and whole grains.
name: Sapna von Reich
Regional Year: twenty two
Years teaching cooking: twenty one
Website: www.sapnavonreich.com/
