Making Family Meals Happy Meals!
Last weekend, I took part in an event at the Village Grocer's Cafe, Tropicana Avenue hosted by Now! In Season Malaysia. Since then, I have learned quite a fair bit about eating clean and how easy it really is with the help of Malaysian Celebrities Daphne Iking who emceed the event and Celebrity Nutrition Expert Indra Balaratnam.
First off, everyone was given the opportunity to try some fresh Australian Grapes. This was not the first time we at Everyday Food I Love have done so, with our Yoga Fitness Guru extraordinaire Angeline Ong trying their fruity goodness earlier this year. You can read more about that here.
DID YOU KNOW? The Now! In Season (#nowinseasonmy) is a global campaign developed by the Australian Federal Government, Horticulture Innovation Australia and the Government of Victoria to promote fresh fruits and vegetables from Australia. This year's Malaysian campaign was launched in mid-January at the Breakfast Thieves, and was officiated by Her Excellency, Dr Angela Macdonald, Acting Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia. The campaign aims at bringing nothing but the best farmed produce from Australia to the discerning palates here in Malaysia. You can find these premium quality Australian Fruits and Vegetables at leading retails outlets. Check out the Now! In Season (#nowinseasonmy) Facebook page to learn more about which outlets are offering the latest hand-picked harvests now.
Celebrity Daphne Iking was as beautiful as ever. I remembered meeting her for the first time at KL Sentral in solidarity of refugees at World Refugee Day 2010. She led us in the morning's programme effortlessly, and there were fun activities for the participants including a Treasure Hunt where they got to hunt for fresh produce at the nearby Village Grocer in-store.
Daphne Iking also took us on a short activity where she taught some children how to make an interesting non-cooked Grape Crumble, a delicious and healthy snack made from available fresh ingredients that took less than 5 minutes.
DID YOU KNOW? Australia has a thriving horticulture industry that is made up of farms that grow fruits, vegetables, nuts, flowers and turf, as well as other industries that support horticulture. It is understandably labour intensive and much growing of farm produce are seasonal, but the yields are rewarding and offered at competitive prices both domestically and abroad. For a long time now, Australia is also recognised as a renowned global supplier of premium safe food, mainly due to their highly commendable standards of delivery, starting from the farm itself all the way to the consumer. Watch this short video presentation on their FB page to learn more! Their level of innovation and willingness to adapt to new technologies and meet challenges that often rise from seasonal conditions and the ever-changing market demands are also contributing factors to their global success as a leading supplier of horticultural produce.
Celebrity Nutrition expert Indra Balaratnam on the other hand was so knowledgeable! With many years of experience under her belt as an expert on nutrition, she led the participants in an intensive parenting workshop where she spoke about how to manage the food intakes of children, the many types of food groups, their nutritional values and the best ways to convince them to eat their greens. She ended her part of the workshop on how to create a healthy snack.
After the workshop and activities were over, we were given the opportunity to grab some yummy foods prepared at the Village Grocer's Cafe using the very fresh ingredients much spoken off from Australia. There was Warm Potato and Onion Salad, Asparagus Cup, Grape Parfait, Carrot Hummus and Green Smoothie.
Winning participants were also given a walkaway hamper filled with fresh fruits.
Well, I had a very interesting morning to say the least! Thank you to the organiser Now! In Season (#nowinseasonmy) for the opportunity to participate and learn at a wonderful workshop. And also a heartfelt thanks for feasting us with some very healthy good foods.
If you are wondering when is their next activity, it is actually happening this Sunday at the Jaya Grocer, The Starling in Damansara Uptown at 2pm to 3pm with Indra Balaratnam. There will be prizes awarded to participants, if you are interested, do drop by!
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