Thursday: Dairy and Proteins

First we watched the Channel 10 news story about the camp. Our campers looked and sounded very professional! then we started to think about dairy, and things got off to a rolling boil as the gallon of milk that Sierra and Ciara had poured in a deep pot to make cheese started to boil over. Off the burner! Stir in the salt, add the vinegar and suddenly--cheese curds were floating in the whey. We made ricotta for the manicotti! After that, Hannah explained all about Dairy products. Emily lives on a farm with goats and they make goat milk--how handy is that?! If you have trouble digesting milk--that is, if you get a bellyache--you need to be sure to get your calcium from other sources. Next Felicia explained all about Proteins, which was very complicated. Animal proteins are complete--meaning they have all the essential amino acids necessary to promote growth. If you want to get the proper amount of protein from vegetable sources, you need to combine some things so that they are complementary. We tried some of the classic combinations--like corn tortillas and refried beans and bean hummus and wheat pita triangles, and enjoyed some tasty tofu in a black bean garlic sauce with brown rice that Jaia and Raina made. It was delicious! You sure don't have to eat meat at every meal!