Let’s Move campaign inspires Kerry Eich to Teach Students about Nutrition – Food Exposed
This week, Jackie discusses the challenges of getting kids to make healthy choices and eat right. Jackie’s involvement with Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move and Chefs Move to Schools campaigns takes her into elementary and high school classrooms, where she works with educators (such as today’s guest) in the hopes of curbing the childhood obesity epidemic. Additionally, she sees how school nutrition and physical education factor into kids eating habits and health and she shares her knowledge on today’s episode.
Jackie’s guest this week is University High School teacher Kerri Eich. Kerris it the Director of the School of Health & Environmental Sciences and teaches food science, physiology and environmental sciences. She also envisioned and created Uni High’s school garden, which includes a native pollinator garden and raises crops with the help of her 90 Food Science students. This week, she discusses her cooking program, Uni’s school garden and the challenges of working with teenage students.
What’s on your plate this week you’ll want to put on your kids’ plates as well! Nourish and flourish with Stir Fried Turkey in Lettuce Cups – a low fat, extremely healthy and kid-friendly dish!
Stir Fried Turkey in Lettuce Cups
Servings: 6 Serving Size: 5 oz. Chicken mixture
Ingredients
1 ½ lb. turkey breast meat
¼ cup dried shiitake mushrooms
1 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tbsp. dry sherry
½ tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. canola oil
1 tbsp. ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 clove garlic, finely minced
2 ea. scallion, chopped
½ cup water chestnuts, chopped
½ cup bamboo shoots
½ cup bok choy
½ tsp. sesame oil
12 ea. lettuce leaves
Directions:
1.Soak the mushrooms in a bowl of hot water for 10 minutes. Stir to release any sand, then let them stand in the water for another 20 minutes. Drain, Cut off and discard stems, slice the caps thinly, and set them aside. Cut the turkey breast into very thin strips, set aside.
2. Mix the cornstarch and sherry in a bowl. Add the turkey and let marinate for at least 15 minutes. Prepare the lettuce cups – the leaves should be able to hold mixture in the center like a flower.
3. Heat a wok over high heat. Add 1 tbsp. Of the canola oil and then stir fry the turkey 2-3 minutes. Remove the meat from the pan. Add the remaining oil, then the ginger, garlic, scallions, water chestnuts, bok choy and bamboo shoots, and stir fry for 2 min. Add the mushrooms, toss in the turkey and fry until heated through. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the soy sauce and sesame oil. Arrange the lettuce leaves on a platter, spoon the mixture into the leaves and serve with brown rice on the side (optional).
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Food Exposed with Jackie Keller
Jackie Keller has dedicated her life to helping people improve their health and lives. On this segment, Jackie discusses the importance of teaching kids about health and her efforts in the Chef’s Move to School and Let’s Move campaigns!
Learn the health benefits of each ingredient in her NutriFit recipe for Stir Fried Turkey in Lettuce Cups and make them in your kitchen along with Jackie!
Be sure to tune in Tuesdays for full episodes of Jackie’s show – Food Exposed – where she discusses the latest news in health and wellness; share recipes, tips & coaching advice as well as interview top guests in the health and fitness world!
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Meet Jackie (Creator, Host):
Jackie Keller is the Founding Director of NutriFit, LLC, Los Angeles’ premiere healthy food company. Since 1987, Jackie has dedicated her life to helping others live longer and healthier lives.
Meet Kerri (Guest):
Kerri Eich is Director of the School and Academy of Health & Environmental Sciences at University High School (LAUSD). She’s been teaching at University High School since 2001. When the school converted to LAUSD’s ‘small schools’ format (2008), she led the transition the School and Academy of Health and Environmental Sciences with the support of several teachers and Administration. They opened a year early due to a supporting grant from the California Partnership Academies. With this funding they’ve been able to create over an acre of outdoor learn-scape that is unique to Uni and constantly evolving. Our Academy Classes include Food Sciences, Physiology, and Environmental Science. they were originally funded through the CPA “Green Academy” funding source, making us the only “green” Health Academy in the State.
She envisioned creation of a large school garden, which was built in 2011, with the support of Environmental Media Association, LA Conservation Corps and United Talent Agency. On Earth Day of 2012, UCLA student volunteers in conjunction with Uni students and transformed an adjacent hillside into an instructional Food Forest. Over the course of the next year they transitioned hundreds of native plants from Emerson Middle School that were going to be taken out due to construction into a native pollinator garden. This space now provides a continuous landscape of Monarch Butterflies.
All of my 90 Food Science students are learning hands-on, about sustainability and community health by preparing soil, planting, raising and harvesting crops from our 1-acre urban campus farm. She teaches nutrition through students’ interests in the garden. They prepare food as a class once a week and learn about the health benefits of eating the nutrients that food provides.
To celebrate, students organize and produce an annual Health & Fitness Fair for fellow students/staff and several community members. This years event will take place April 10th from 5:00-7:00pm. they will have several interactive booths, health talks, and our students will be preparing health food dishes for our guests to sample. They will also have a large variety of plants for sale all in an effort to rally our community around food, fitness, and the garden.
She also teaches Health and coach the Men’s Volleyball Team. This past fall she teamed up with Nutribullet and conducted a 3-month health study that has the potential to be published. they also were able to video our progress and our documentary will be put out by Nutribullet sometime this Spring. She is working on a Masters of Nutrition Science and am empowered by finding new ways to motivate youth toward healthier eating.
Because of our hands on approach to wellness she’s been able to witness many more positive changes in my students. She’d love to share some of these stories with your listeners.