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National Nutrition Month: Chef displays healthy cooking

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Madelyn Brown
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  In support of National Nutrition Month, the David Grant USAF Medical Center nutrition clinic, Balfour Beatty Community Center and the food service chefs collaborated Monday to present the base populace with a cooking demonstration.

Mary Valentinsen, a chef at the DGMC dining facility and Air Force veteran, presented the audience with methods for cooking healthy meals on a budget. From one bag of groceries she was able to create a salad, chicken kabobs and dessert.

"National Nutrition Month is only celebrated once a year, but a healthy lifestyle is a topic we should be focused on all year long," said Capt. Denise Campbell, 60th Medical Diagnostics and Therapeutics Squadron Nutritional Medicine Flight clinical operations chief.

According to Valentinsen, it's essential to waste nothing from the ingredients to save time and money.

"With the chicken kabobs we made today we can save the cubed chicken, the chopped fresh produce and very quickly create a chicken teriyaki over rice dish the next day," she said.

Following the demonstration, a sampling of the kabobs was held and three of the attendees were able to take home a bag of free ingredients to create their own healthy meals.

"We thought a cooking demo would be a fun event for National Nutrition Month to highlight healthy recipes for base families, and teach the attendees the ease with which fresh, healthy recipes can be prepared," Campbell said.

As National Nutrition Month continues, Golden Bears will have the opportunity to share their nutritional family recipes in the first Taste of Travis Healthy Cookbook.

"This will allow the base community to share their favorite healthy recipes, so they have fresh ideas for healthy meals all year long," Campbell said. "We are looking forward to creative, colorful and healthy recipes from our Travis family."

The cookbook is planned to have four divisions: appetizers, sides, entrees and desserts. Submissions should be sent to Tech. Sgt. Jasmine Clark at jasmine.clark@us.af.mil prior to the April 18 deadline.