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Learning to Cook

Learning to Cook

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three girls making and tasting food

Purpose

Cooking and eating nutritious food is an important part of caring for our bodies—and can be a lot of fun, too! Work together to learn how to plan and prepare nutritious meals.

Description

As a group, briefly review the guidelines about healthy eating in Doctrine and Covenants 89, Doctrine and Covenants 49:18–21, and the “Physical and Emotional Health” section of For the Strength of Youth (booklet, 2011), 25–27. Invite an experienced cook to teach your group how to plan meals, purchase ingredients, and use basic cooking skills. Practice cooking and enjoy a nutritious meal together. You might also consider sharing your meal with others.

As you plan this activity, please follow the counsel given in chapter 13 of Handbook 2: Administering the Church (2010) and review “Safety Recommendations for Church Activities.”

More Ideas

  • Food in season—When fruits and vegetables are in season, they are healthier, tastier, and usually much cheaper. Make a list of fruits and vegetables that are in season in your area. Provide participants with paper and crayons or colored pencils; then divide into small groups to plan a nutritious meal. Have each group draw several examples of nutritious meals by including various seasonal foods.

  • Share recipes—Invite participants to bring a copy of their favorite recipe. Collect the recipes and make copies for everyone. You could even compile them into a simple cookbook, which participants could use as they go away to school, serve missions, or start their own families.

  • Shopping trip—Decide on a recipe you’d like to make together, and then look up the ingredients you will need. As a group, go to the store to buy the ingredients. Make sure to buy enough for what you need, but not so much that you end up wasting it.

  • Ingredient challenge—Divide into groups to participate in a healthy “ingredient challenge.” Assign each group a healthy “secret ingredient,” and give them a set amount of time to prepare a dish using that ingredient. Enjoy your creations! It might be fun to make this a competition and award several prizes afterward.

Discussion

Encourage participants to talk about what they are learning. Discussions can take place before, during, or after the activity. You could ask questions like the following:

  • Why is it important to cook nutritious food?

  • When have you been blessed by cooking healthy meals?

  • What feelings or impressions do you have about learning to cook?

  • How can you apply what you are learning in your life?

Related Resources

Sabbath Day Lessons

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