Nutrition Ed Serves Up My Pyramid Salsa at Whole Foods 5% Day - Capital Area Food Bank
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Nutrition Ed Serves Up My Pyramid Salsa at Whole Foods 5% Day

By Jodi Balis June 17, 2010

Nutrition Education served up My Pyramid Salsa at the Whole Foods 5% Day on May 26th.

My Pyramid Salsa is a basic mixture 2, 24 ounce jars of salsa, 1 can of corn (drained and rinsed), 1 can of diced peaches (drained and rinsed), 1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed), and 1 ½ cups of cheese. Eaten with whole grain crackers, the recipe covers FOUR food groups from My Pyramid including grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy, and beans.

This “recipe” is really not set in stone, rather, it is a Cooking By Looking recipe, which means, add what you like, and if it looks right to you, then it will taste good. We also encourage adding fresh seasonal ingredients such as cilantro, corn, or fruit when available.

My Pyramid Salsa has been offered in a variety of settings to many different audiences: board members, Brown Bag site leaders, Kids Cafe site leaders, ServSafe participants, and kids in our Kids Cook classes, to name a few. Across the board, the response to My Pyramid Salsa has been quite consistent: initial apprehension at first (the peaches are the source of apprehension), followed by two enthusiastic thumbs up after the tasting!

So how did the recipe go over at Whole Foods 5% Day? First, we had to replace the canned peaches with crushed pineapple, an ingredient readily available at Whole Foods stores. Nutrition Ed’s cooking demo volunteer helped assemble samples and the vote was unanimous: shoppers who sampled the recipe LOVED it!

Nutrition Education was thrilled to serve My Pyramid Salsa at Whole Foods 5% Day. This recipe represents nutrition education at CAFB: using basic ingredients in healthy and economical ways, adding fresh flare when and if you can, and eating a variety of foods from the Food Pyramid.