We had to do a board on sugared drinks and we focused on five drinks: Ice lemon tea, vitasoy, fuji apple, pink dolphin and grape yoghurt

Second Practical- Macaroni Soup (:

For today's practical, we made macaroni soup. our ingredients were macaroni, chicken, garlic, carrots, mushroom and soya sauce for flavour. we diced the chicken and carrots, chopped garlics and sliced mushrooms. threw everything into soup and served with parsley on top (:

We served into two bowls as there was not enough space to fit both.

This is Table 3's

And this is Clara's cute face! :D

Thanks for reading (:

Yoghurt Drink :D

Hi everyone! Remember th yoghurt drink we talked about in the previous post? Yeap! Photos here! 

Thanks (:

Our results of browning of fruits

The photos are finally up! These are our results of Browning of apples experiment. We have found out that salt preserves the fruit best (: 

Types of food and the food pyramid.

The food Pyramid. Different age groups have different requirements, for this post, I will be focusing on teenagers. 

Rice and Alternatives. 6-7 servings per day and one serving of multigrain.. One serving can range from half a bowl of rice/noodles, two slices of bread and etc. They provide carbohydrates as the main nutrient. It gives you energy. Mainly complex carbohydrates, vitamins and proteins. They also aid digestion. Complex Carbohydrates( anything that contains starch) include: Bread, Pasta, Cereal, Potatoes and others.

Examples of rice and alternatives include:

-Bread

-Noodles

-Pasta

-Bagels

-Potatoes

-Dumplings

-Pancake

-Wheat Products

-Dumplings

Examples of Multigrain include:

-Brown rice( the one with the brown layer of shell)

-Oats

-Wholegrain cereal

And here are some pictures of the examples:

This is a model of a wholegrain. It consists of three parts: The Endosperm, The bran and the germ. They are more nutritious than the non wholegrain food. 

Fruits and Vegetables

Two servings of each per day. Saw my post on fruit salad? Thats only ONE serving. 

Examples of Fruits & vegetables include:

-Apples

-Oranges

-Cherries

-Grapes

-Corn

-Spinach

-Brocolli

-Lettuce

They provide dietary fibre for bowels to be easily perched out. They also protect your body against diseases and aid body function.

Meat and Alternatives

2 servings per day, with additional dairy products.

Meat and Alternatives help the body with Body growth, Cell renewal/repair and muscle growth. It mainly provides the body with proteins. 

Examples of Meat include:

-Fish

-Beef

-Duck

-Pork

-Chicken

-Prawn

-Crab

-Oyster

Examples of alternatives include:

-Eggs

-Black Beans

-Lentils

-Chick Peas

-Dhal

-SoyaBeans

-Dried Seeds/Beans

-Legumes

Examples of Legumes include:

-Beans

-Peanuts

-Lentils

Examples of dairy products include:

-Milk

-Cheese

-Yoghurt

Recently, My school brought in some new yoghurt drinks. they come in 2 flavours, original and grape. They are nutritious and delicious (: I will post th photo another day (:

Proteins Build up your body, repair worn out body parts and provide energy.

Lastly, Fats, Oils, Sugar and Salt. These are to be consumed sparingly and are optional. Its main nutrients are fats and simple carbohydrates, which is anything with sugar. Its role is to Keep your body warm and protects your organs from falls. They are also energy reserves and keep you warm.

I will post th post on our apples experiment another day. Sorry!! ><

Browning of Apples (:

We had to do a research on the browning of apples. I did a little research and got this:

When an apple is cut (or bruised), oxygen is introduced into the injured plant tissue. When oxygen is present in cells, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzymes in the chloroplasts rapidly oxidize phenolic compounds naturally present in the apple tissues to o-quinones, colorless precursors to brown-colored secondary products. O-quinones then produce the well documented brown color by reacting to form compounds with amino acids or proteins, or they self-assemble to make polymers.

One question that often accompanies yours is, "Why do some apples seem to brown faster than others?"

Well, nearly all plant tissues contain PPO, however, the level of PPO activity and concentration of substrate--here, the phenolic compounds--can vary between varieties of fruits (say, Granny Smith versus Red Delicious). In addition, a tissue's PPO level can vary depending on growing conditions and fruit maturity. One approach the food industry employs to prevent enzymatic browning is to select fruit varieties that are less susceptible to discoloration—either due to lower PPO activity or lower substrate concentration. This approach, however, may not be practical for the home "culinary scientist."

In the home kitchen enzymatic browning can be prevented by either reducing PPO oxidation activity or lowering the amount of substrate to which the enzyme can bind. Coating freshly cut apples in sugar or syrup can reduce oxygen diffusion and thus slow the browning reaction. Lemon or pineapple juices, both of which naturally contain antioxidants, can be used to coat apple slices and slow enzymatic browning. In addition, both fruit juices are acidic and the lower pH that they bring about causes PPO to become less active. Heating can also be used to inactivate PPO enzymes; apples can be blanched in boiling water for four to five minutes to nearly eliminate PPO activity. (Be warned that cooking will affect the texture of the product.)

Enzymatic browning is not unique to apples. PPO—a mixture of monophenol oxidase and catechol oxidase enzymes—is present in nearly all plant tissues and can also be found in bacteria, animals and fungi. In fact, browning by PPO is not always an undesirable reaction; the familiar brown color of tea, coffee and cocoa is developed by PPO enzymatic browning during product processing.

Thanks(:

First Practical- Fruit salad :D

For out first Home Econs Practical, we made fruit salad. (P.s. If you see this picture on other blogs, its because I gave them permission to use this picture.) Its a simple yet healthy and delicious dessert, especially after our recess. This is only ONE serving of fruit.

To start off, we had to do an experiment on the browning of apples, the photos I will post another time as I have not gotten them yet. Then, We used the apples which we used for the experiment to make our fruit salad! <3

Our fruit salad was simple to make. We diced up papayas and apples, and cut up the pineapples before arranging them neatly onto the plate, then drizzling the yoghurt over. :D