Learning Points & Reflection

With the changes made to the recipe, I have made sure that my dish is healthy and from this project I have acquired many vital skills which are important in life. 

Firstly, from this project I have learnt the importance of eating a healthy meal and I learnt that a healthy meal is a meal in which it is balanced. I have also learnt to use the many tools provided for us to use in the Health Promotion Board that will aid me in having a nutritious meal and allow me to know the composition of the meal I am having. This will create a self awareness in me as to what food is healthier than the other.

Secondly, I have also learnt the importance of budgeting. During this project I have encountered problems of not meeting my budget of $10 dollars. However, as the project progressed I have learnt the importance of budgeting and its future purposes. 

Lastly, I have also learnt a very vital skill, a skill that even us as students need to know. That is the importance of time management. Time management not only plays an important part in the one-hour, time constrained cooking test, but also it is important in doing the project over the course of the entire time given for the performance task and not just waiting to the last minute doing everything. 

Method of Making Toffee Apple Cookie

Method of making Toffee Apple Cookies

1. Preheat your oven to 170 c or gas mark 5
2. Using a whisk (preferably) beat together butter and sugar until pale and creamy
3. When creamy stir in the two egg yolks, ground almonds, toffees, and sieve in the flour gradually.
4. When the flour has been sieved into then mix, gently fold in the dried apple. And roll into little to medium sized balls and squash gently in the palm of your hand.
5. Space the balls out on a non-stick tray, or baking sheets. Wash with milk (using a brush) and bake for 10 minutes until golden brown.
6. And leave to cool. Store in a air tight box.

This method of cooking is one of the healthier methods as compared to others which needs large amounts of oils for it. 

Recipe of Toffee Apple Cookie & Changes Made to Recipe

ORIGINAL COPY OF RECIPE:

• 40g butter (at room temp)
• 35g caster sugar
• half egg yolk
• 10g ground almonds
• 25g toffees (chopped)
• 20g dried apple chunks (roughly chopped)
• 45g s.r flour
• 2 tbsp milk

EDITED AND HEALTHIER VERSION OF RECIPE:

• 35 of Unsalted Butter
• 28g of Brown Sugar
• Half Egg Yolk
• 10g of ground almonds
• 17g of toffees (chopped)
• 25g of Dried Apple Chunks (roughly chopped)
• 45g of Self-Raising Flour
• 2 Tablespoon Magnolia Milk

From the original copy of the recipe, I have made changes to the recipe as to make it a healthier and more nutritious dish.   The following points would show the changes made to the recipe and why I chose to do it. As butter and sugar are at the top of the food pyramid which I have taken into consideration, this shows that we should consume the least amount of sugar and butter than any other food products. Therefore, I have altered the recipe to have reduced butter and sugar. At the same time changing the butter used to unsalted butter as salt is one of the other food products at the top of the food pyramid.

Unsalted Butter

Comparing the two labels of butter, it can be seen that the normal butter is unhealthier than the unsalted butter due to its higher amount of total fat. As stated in the edited version of the recipe, I have also reduced the amount of butter used too, to ensure the dish to be healthier.

Butter 

 

Caster Sugar

By comparing the use of brown sugar and caster sugar, you can see that caster sugar has more calories than brown sugar and also the amount of carbohydrate is lesser in brown sugar than in caster sugar. I have also reduced the amount of brown sugar used and replaced it by adding more dried apple as the natural sweetness of the apple would be healthier than the sweetness from sugar.

Brown Sugar

Health Promotion Board Tools

The Health Promotion Board Tools

Action Plan

Food and Nutrition Blog

Done By: Geraldine Lee

Action Plan

Firstly, for any task or project that we have to do, we always should have an action plan as a guide for us through the process of the task. For this Performance Task, I have used the Richard Paul's Wheel of Reasoning to organize an action plan of how I intend to carry this project out.

In Paul's Wheel of Reasoning, there are eight elements of thoughts which I vital for critical thinking. They are: Questions at Issue, Evidence/Data, Purpose, Inferences, Implications/Consequences, Assumptions, P.O.V., and last but not least Concepts.

In this case, the Question at Issue is to be able to plan out a meal within a budget of $10 for a meal that is two servings.

The Purpose of this task is to be able to prepare a simple nutritious dish, which can be a main course, dessert, snack etc.. The ingredients used has to be below the budget of $10 and these ingredients can be obtained from the neighborhood supermarket.

For Evidence and Data, it will be shown through my research throughout the performance task, by gathering information on the dish that I will be making. This evidences and datas would include the nutritional value of the food, through the breakdown of its ingredients and its amount of sugar, fat, saturated fat etc.. This facts would come from trustworthy sources like the Health Promotion Board to ensure that the data collected would be correct and accurate.

As the Framework of Task is to cook a simple nutritious dish for both my younger sister and I, the assumptions that I will make is that none of us are allergic of abstain from any kind food. However, I will also be assuming that all the food products or ingredients used for my dish would be Halal.

My course of action would be:

1. Go and search for nutritious dishes and their recipes
2. Choose a dish based on its nutritional value and the time it takes to make it
3. Checking out if the ingredients are found in Singapore and are below the budget of $10.
4. Next, take a look at the recipe again and see if the ingredients given in the original recipe can be substituted with a healthier and more nutritious ingredient.
5. Take a trip to the supermarket and buy the ingredients that you need for your dish.
6. Try having a test run of the recipe at home to give myself more practice making the dish and will give myself familiarity towards the steps of making the dish.

What I had Done
I had looked into the many cookbooks and recipes that I owned and at the same time refer to healthy and nutritious recipes that were available online. When looking through these recipes, I had taken into consideration the duration it too to make that dish and its ingredients used. As the purpose of the task was to cook a nutritious dish, it was needless to say that the ingredients used to make that dish must be balanced and healthy. There was also a time constraint of one hour in making the dish as stated in the Performance Task and that one hour comprised of cleaning up, preparation and cooking the dish itself. After I had selected my dish, which is Toffee Apple Cookies, I thought of alternatives of swapping some ingredients of the Toffee Apple Cookie with another ingredient that is healthier. With the changes I made to the recipe, I made my way to the supermarket and checked if the ingredients were available in Singapore and if the total pricing of the ingredients was below the $10 budget. Lastly, when all my ingredients were bought, I then tried the recipe out too give myself more familiarity towards the steps of making the Toffee Apple Cookies.