Kent State Interns

A bowl of soup can offer more than just comfort and warmth in the cold weather. It can also be a nutritious way to support your health! Below are a few benefits to having a warm bowl of soup this fall and winter season! Increase Veggie Intake: Soups are a simple way of adding more veggies to your diet. You can add vegetables such as carrots, celery, spinach, kale, tomatoes, and squash. This is a great way to make use of seasonal produce from local farmers' markets. These veggies also contains vitamins that can help support your immune system to fight off sickness.  Fiber for Digestive Health: Adding ingredients like beans, lentils, or whole grains to your soups can enhance the fiber content. Fiber helps to make the soup more filling and supports your digestive health.  Builds a Balanced Meal: One soup can be a well-rounded meal if you add protein along with carbs and some healthy fats. Adding rotisserie chicken is a simple way to increase the protein content in your soup. Pota...

Let me hold your hand while I tell you this… Any grad student who tells you they wake up early to cook themselves a healthy breakfast is a LIAR!!!!! They’re robots, not real people. But don’t worry. I’ll be real with you. I’m a broke grad student who somehow always is running late. But I also can’t ignore my degree in nutrition, SO, I don’t have any other choice but to eat a nutritious breakfast (or any breakfast at all for that matter) for the sake of having enough brainpower (and willpower) to get through my 9 hour day of classes.  So if you’re in the same boat, I gladly present to you: recipe-less overnight oats!  Here’s what you’ll need: Old-fashioned rolled oats . Specifically old-fashioned because they absorb moisture without getting mushy. Oats are also very cost-efficient, being less than $10 for a bag that typically lasts me months.  Milk . Calcium. Vitamin D. B vitamins. Protein. Need I say more? Chia seeds. Amazing source of fiber and omega 3s. I’ve been raving...

🎃 Benefits of a healthy snack plate: What's so great about a snack plate you might ask, well everything! It's sweet, it's salty, it's colorful, and most of all IT’S EASY! A snack plate can include a variety of foods that you love while also helping you get important nutrients throughout the day. Think of items like fruit, veggies, cheese and crackers, nuts or even chocolate. There are no rules when making your perfect plate. Having a little bit of everything helps you get different nutrients like protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. It doesn't always have to be complicated recipes or spending all day in the kitchen, sometimes the quick and easy ideas are the best ones. So don’t let eating healthy scare you like a nightmare. A snack plate is an easy way to add variety to your plate while finding options that work for you. One benefit of a healthy snack plate is it keeps you satisfied, including protein and fiber on the plate can help keep you feeling full and ener...

My lovely boyfriend has severe allergies to peanuts, tree nuts and shellfish. I constantly worry that the food he eats has come in contact with these things. Even the smallest amount of cross-contamination can send him to the hospital. Soooo, what do I do to avoid him…. dying? Well first I always start cooking with clean hands. Everyone should do this, but it is especially important when it comes to cross-contamination. You should be washing your hands for at least 30 seconds under hot water. Use soap. If I had way more money, I would buy separate utensils and cooking tools for the ingredients he is allergic to. Unfortunately, I am broke, so I wash all of those kitchen tools under super-hot water with soap. I utilize the wash, rinse and sanitize method to ensure any trace amounts of those allergens are GONE. Also, if I am eating something he is allergic to, whatever utensils or tools I am using do not touch anything that is communal or can’t be cleaned. For example, if I make a...

Happy Halloween!  It’s that time of year when children (and even some adults!) get to dress up as their favorite characters, celebrities, foods, video games, and more. Then it’s off to explore the neighborhood and community, show off those amazing costumes, and collect some tasty treats! However, not everyone always gets to enjoy the same experience while trick or treating, especially those with food allergies.  The big 9 allergens are as follows:  While fish and shellfish aren’t very common in most Halloween treats and snacks, several other of the big 9 food allergens can be found in popular treats! Milk - Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bars, Milk Duds, and many varieties of M&M’s Soy - Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Snickers Wheat - KitKats, Twix, Crunch Bars Peanuts - Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Butterfingers, Snickers Treenuts - Almond Joys and Ferroro Roche For an inclusive Halloween this year so all kiddos (and adults) can feel included, consider handing out some aller...

Here are some tips for roasting pumpkin seeds this fall, and 7 ways to season them!  ’Tis the season... to eat pumpkin seeds! Baking pumpkin seeds is an easy and fun way to get more out of your pumpkin carvings. They are also a nutritious snack that contains fiber, healthy fats, and magnesium. Magnesium is an important mineral your body uses for different functions, from muscle movements to keeping your heart beating. One ounce of hulled pumpkin seeds (a small handful, without the shell) has about 150 mg of magnesium, which is about one third or more of what most adults need in a day. I bake mine with the shells on, so the exact amount will vary, but it’s a tasty way to get some magnesium in! I always try to get my family to join me in carving a few pumpkins every fall, mainly so I can bake the seeds... and after some trial and error, I think I have perfected the process!  Here are the steps I follow to make perfect pumpkin seeds, as well as some seasoning ideas below:  ...