Some Success and Some Failures

Week 3 done and 2 recipes of Jamie Oliver's has been attempted! However, it is not all good news as the first recipe I tried to make was a complete fail! The first recipe I tried was on how to make his sweet potato fries...seems simple right, well not so much. First trouble came with from simply trying to cut up the potato into wedges. The cutting was actually quite difficult I asked my boyfriend to try and cut it for me. As he tried to cut the potato, he ended up cutting his finger and it was not pretty to see! Then, after I finally got the potato cut into wedges, and seasoned them as the recipe calls for to be put into the oven, I thought the rough parts were in the past. The recipe says put the wedges into the oven at 400 degrees F and for 30-40 minutes. Well, after 15 minutes of being in the oven I thought maybe I should flip them, in order to have an even crispiness to the fries; as I pulled them out of the oven and flipped them over, the bottoms were burned to a crisp! Super charred and inedible!

Here is a picture I took of the "final product". What is deemed as a "Super Easy" level recipe, ended up not working at all. I think it was because of my oven, as my oven is very strong and old.

 


So although the first recipe I tried was did not work out so well for me, I thought I would try another. This time I tried a dessert, the Frozen Yogurt layer cake. Now, I only tried 2 layers; one raspberry and one banana. After hours of eagerly waiting, it was finally time to try this dessert, and it was actually pretty good. The texture was icier than a frozen yogurt you buy at a store or ice-cream shop, but for a first time try, I am proud of what I created. The raspberry flavour was nice and tart; and the banana flavour was rich and not too sweet. Overall, I think this recipe is a must-try again recipe! Thank you Jamie Oliver!





I have learned that all though not all recipes may live up to the difficulty level assigned to them, or work out well the first time, but you just need to try, try again and just learn from your mistakes! From the 2 recipes I have tried so far, and the dozens I have read over already, I can say that Jamie Oliver meets the expectation he created that every recipe on his website is healthy and quite natural for you to try to make/eat. Next week I am going to possibly try to cook a dinner recipe from the Jamie Oliverwebsite, as well as start researching into his Food Revolution Foundation. Everything can be found on his website, as posted in my first blog post! Until next time readers!

Where to go from here...

The first week is over and I have a game plan in place! (Under Project Proposal you can see the plan I have set) So far this week I feel like I have just hit the tip of the iceberg of what I am going to uncover from the Jamie Oliver website. I have researched a huge variety of recipes I am thinking I could (try to) make during this Genius Hour project, but there are just so many possibilities! Desserts, chicken dishes, veggie dishes, meat dishes, drinks, breakfasts, and so much more! I will say though that the problem is not deciding what to try and make, but the problem is towards the amount of different ingredients all of these recipes calls for. Perhaps this different and worldly ingredients are the reasons behind it is an healthy alternative to cook/bake, but I am not going to be able to purchase every single different and odd ingredient a lot of these recipes ask for. So, in a way perhaps this will actually help me decide on what to try and make to eat. 

I saw that on his website there are not just recipes for a variety of audiences to make from, but also healthy tips, blog posts, and expertly advice available from him and others in the world of food and healthy nutrition. So I do not think I will have any trouble on what to decide to do each week for this course, as during a busier week I may just read or watch a couple of posts from his website, verses a calmer school week I will try and cook one of his main dishes he recommends on his recipe side of the website, or perhaps an every-other-week switch sort of system could work, too.

With a lot of the initial ground digging work completed from this week's Genius Hour efforts, next week I plan on trying to make one of this recipes. You will have to wait and see until the next blog post to find out what I decide on making! I will have to admit that I look forward to the end for I have decided that at that point in time would be a good prize/finale assignment to go to Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant in Toronto! (The first and only one so far in Canada!!) My mouth has already been watering as I read the menus from the restaurant's website.

Stay tuned on my adventure towards the Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution!

Joining the Genius Hour Revolution

Jamie Oliver is a famous British chef that may be a household name depending on the country you reside in. I have heard of him, am a huge fan of him and has watched his show called the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution (See the USA Season Trailer here). After divulging into the 1000s of ideas that one could do for a Genius Hour, I was drawn to the idea towards cooking. When I thought about cooking, it of course led me to Jamie Oliver. As much as I am a fan of his, I have never tried any of his meals, tried cooking any of his recipes, or even own any of his recipe books - I have only watched one of his series on the television. So my Genius Hour question is: How can I join the Jamie Oliver Revolution?

As a former Varsity athlete, life long mover and a Health & Physical Education teacher (to-be!), I believe it is important to live a healthy life. Living a healthy life does not just require to be physically active, but to also live a healthy life in other ways - one important way is to eat and sustain a healthy, nutritious life. Through this Genius Hour I am going to further look into Jamie Oliver and what he stands for, not just the recipes and knives he sells through Sobeys. My plan is to try and cook/bake one of his recipes at least once a week, along side looking up his various foundations he has created/support, his biography and what inspired him to not only cook healthy meals for a living, but also try to make this a global food revolution!