On Friday, 26^th October 2018 there was a healthy food workshop at our school, Prva gimnazija Varaždin. Although healthy food isn’t really popular amongst teenagers, there are many alternative diets which are very popular. The workshop was held as a part of the Erasmus+ project „Amazing race“ and its aim was to promote healthy food and healthy lifestyle. The participants of the project came from Finland, Spain, Lithuania and Croatia. All the participants were very excited for the workshop.

The workshop was opened by Dorotea Solomun, an EU project manager who has been promoting healthy style of life and doing healthy food projects for 15 years. When asked whether they shop at supermarkets or flea markets, most of the students said that they shop both at supermarkets and flea markets.

The participants of the workshop were divided into 5 groups and each group made a different type of a healthy meal using various groceries which were purchased directly from the flea market.

The aim of the workshop was to use traditional Croatian ingredients, so one of the groups had fresh homemade whole wheat bread, cream cheese, pumpkin seed oil, sprouts, lemons and pumpkin seeds. They made cream cheese spread mixed with pumpkin seed oil which they spread on little pieces of bread and topped with sprouts and pumpkin seeds. Both pumpkin seed oil and pumpkin seeds were homemade.

The other group had so-called “superfood” which are plums, dates, oatmeal, maple syrup, chia seeds and cocoa. They mixed all the ingredients together and made truffles which they rolled in shredded coconut.

The third group had water, bananas, cocoa, chia seeds, coconut nibs and cinnamon which they mixed together in a blender and made smoothies. Another aim of the workshop was to promote healthy smoothies which are becoming more and more popular among teenagers and young people.

The fourth group had apples which they cut and topped with walnuts, cranberries and pistachios. Their aim was to show that healthy food can be both delicious and look nice.

The last group had oranges, pomegranate seeds, carrots and lemons which they blended in a juicer and made fresh juice.

After finishing their meals that they were making, they presented what they made. One group filmed a short commercial, two groups acted out the commercial for their meal and the last two groups talked about the meal they made and the groceries they were using. When all the groups presented their meals, members of all groups were allowed to try other groups’ meals.

At the end of the workshop, all the teachers and students were pleased with what they learned from the workshop and couldn’t wait to try all the delicious meals that students have made. They really enjoyed making and tasting meals.

Written by Alitas Narančić