Busy with midterms and finals, students struggle with time management &- especially when it comes to food and eating right.

Sleep, study, go to class and repeat. The only time students have for food preparation would be the line at the drive-thru.

To help students make healthier decisions, the Cove in the Health Center is hosting a series of free cooking class for students. Usually offered twice a month, these cooking classes are sometimes led by registered dietician Shauna Shultz.

“In these classes, we are showing students how to prepare foods in a healthy manner by offering new meal options and recipes, “Shultz said. “Students will learn how to prepare something they never knew how to cook before or often times foods they’ve never even heard of.”

On Thursday, Shultz led the “cooking green” class to a group of about 10 students. With a St. Patrick’s Day theme, the class focused on cooking with green vegetables. For Thursday’s class, Schultz used kale, a type of cabbage.

“Not many people know how to eat kale since its texture tends to be pretty rough and sandy,” Shultz said. “But with easy preparation, kale is quite tasty and is one of the most nutritious vegetables out there.”

In her demo, she served kale raw in a vinaigrette sauce as a salad, and she also cooked kale with olives.

“The kale leaves just really soften up from the acid in the vinegar,” Shultz said. “Both of these meal options are super easy and very healthy for you.”

One student who attended the class, junior business major Katherine Grandez, said she never heard of kale before attending the demo.

“Not a lot of people, including myself, use greens in their meals,” Grandez said. “The kale was really tasty and flavorful. I plan to try this recipe later at home.”

Besides recipes, Grandez said she also learned about new techniques and cooking tools that could help her with her meals.

“I had no idea about the inexpensive tools out there like the “mister’ Shauna showed us in the demo,” Grandez said.

The “mister’ is a tool that allows the cook to prepare food with fresh oil spray, rather than the canned canola oil cooking sprays.

“I hate using PAM in my meals. It smells funny and I have no idea what they put in that can,” Shultz said. “In the “mister,’ you put in your own oil that you have at home and this device mists it for you.”

The next cooking demo, “healthy dinner solutions,” will be hosted from 5 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 7 in the Cove, located on the first floor of the Well. Since space is limited to 15 people, students may reserve a seat in advance by visiting the Cove and signing up with their student ID number.

“The best part of the demo is the sampling – the students get to try the tasty foods we prepare for absolutely free,” Shultz said. “Utilize something the campus offers the students. These cooking tools and recipes really come in handy.”

Erin Rogers can be reached at [email protected]