I am a dreamer so it sort of follows that I dream, or visualize, about food too.

When I think about my meals I sort if hold an image in my mind about what to eat.    I ‘see’ my plate as being half fruit and vegetables or salad,  quarter protein (meat, fish, eggs or poultry ) and quarter carbohydrates or grains (rice, pasta or breads – here’s the good part  - I love potatoes and depending on who you listen to they can fit in two categories – veg or carbs!?)

When I put this image in mind I find it easy to help me choose how much of what to eat… it’s kind of fun trying to ‘untangle’ foods like fried rice too. It’s easy to fix if your plate gets distorted – sometimes the quarters look more like thirds –  ’cos lets face it, it is usually the fruit and veg half that gets the nudge – just eat a carrot, tomato, orange, apple or a handful of grapes and your picture gets ‘right’. (According to the health guys, about 2/3′s of us don’t get the half bit right – so that is why they are always going on about it!?! )

The other day I learnt another cool trick – it’s 20/20. As you are taking your food stop and and consciously take 20% more fruit and vegetables and 20% less of everything else. I gotta say 20%  more and 20% less isn’t hard at all – doesn’t make much difference to your meal but does to your skin and jean size!

So there you go – see a picture of a plate and play 20/20 – both easy…

PS:  No matter where you live,  you’ll have heard it –  mix it up, 5 to 10 a day,  go for 2 & 5, more matters or 5+ A Day - whatever your country is banging on about  my two tricks will just help you get there!!!

Most of us love chips or fries (whatever you call them – sort of depends where you live) but you know they have a bad reputation. Well here is the inside scoop (haha I am just studying for English and that is a good pun ?!?)

1. When a potato comes out of the ground it is just about fat free.
2. By time it leaves the processor it is around 3-5% fat.
3. By time gets on your plate it can be around 9% for wedges or thick cut ones and around 17% fat for skinny ones.

(But let’s keep this in perspective here – we need some fat. Even the skinny ones have less that most pies or chocolate cookies and neither of them have any Vitamin C  - so chips don’t deserve to be so maligned – problem  is we eat so many of them though!)

So it’s not the potato that is the problem – it is how they are cooked… but there are a few things to help …

• Go for chunky or thick cut – these have about half  the fat of skinny ones. Lots of the skinny ones can give you a big bum if you eat them too often – more than a few times a week. If there are only skinny ones then just go for small size  so you can still enjoy the yummy taste.
• Making chips at home can be great – there are lots of packets you can buy that are around 5% fat or less so that is a good choice. Read the label. They taste good too.
• And better still (cheaper and even lower fat) you can make your own wedges or roast potatoes – these are really easy  and seriously delicious.

So with bought chips and fries just make a decision to eat a little less so you can still enjoy them – my trick is to eat them slowly so you enjoy every morsel – that way you don’t feel deprived – if you feel deprived you’ll only pig out later…

But if all goes wrong,  your will-power does a runner and you succumb to a big serve – there is redemption. Go easy at your next meal, have a glass of milk and an apple, plus do a bit more exercise  to swing back into balance. Do that and it will all work out in the end and your jeans will still fit!?!?

PS; it’s the same strategy you need for chocolate.

Remember my foodie rule No 1:

All food is ok, but don’t do binge or excess – it’s how much and how often you eat a food… two or three chocolate biscuits are ok – a packet isn’t… a can or glass of coke is fine – 2 litres is over the top… Watch out for ‘portion distortion’ – a serve should be about the size of your fist.

A quick message for all you who have been participating and all those who are still participating…

As the Rugby World Cup gets nearer, rugby gets more fever pitch… just thought i’d let you know i am doing my bit to get all the kids excited about Rugby on my weekly Small black TV Show where I assist All Black Richard Kahui. in Cooking with Kaks.

Check out these two … Scrum Time potatoes – perfect to serve with a steak and some stir-fry vegetables …

Centers Chicken Wedges!

Wow that was a big day – I think I helped over 400 kids to make Vietnamese Rolls at Storylines in Wellington – very ably helped by the fantastic Storylines team. Lots of fun and a lot of Vietnamese Spring Rolls.

If you want to see where I learnt to make then follow this link.

We had hundreds of kids and their parents come to the festival to meet authors and have a book signing – it was great to meet so many fans!! Thanks to all those who stopped by.

Who can resist a tasty meaty burger…Not me!  And I love it even more if I know it’s healthy. Did you know there is heaps of awesome stuff hiding in your burgers too!

Lets start with the best bit-right in the middle. NZ Beef + Lamb is packed with iron which helps keep us free from the nasty winter flu. With your juicy meat patty keeping you in good health… The only thing standing in your way will be the other contestants! The bun (bread) makes up our best energy source in the form of carbohydrates. This stuff will keep you powering on in the heat of the kitchen. Finally the real goodness – the vegetables. This gives your burger that extra edge. No matter which ones you choose you can be sure they are full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. All things which keep the good stuff in and the bad stuff out!

So no matter what happens on the day, include these three things and your burger will be a winner. Best of luck!

Chennoah Walford (Tauranga Girls' College) and Claire Gourley (Bethlehem College) were named as the runners-up to the TrustPower Youth Community Spirit Award.

The Gourley Girls did really well at the Tauranga Trustpower Community Awards: Both my aunty and I won awards!!

Aunty Anne  won Health and Well Being Runner Up for her stunning work on the Let’s get Growing project! It is a community project where people have ‘plots’ and garden together – a really cool idea and the gardeners all learn form each other.

I won the Youth Community Spirit Award – Runner Up for my work mentoring junior girls at school, coaching sport and inspiring kids to cook.

Anne Gourley is awarded Health and Well Being, Runner up, for the Let's Get Growing Community Garden Project.

Burgers have got everything going for them – taste, variety and nutrition. I know most of us aren’t too worried about nutrition when we are teenagers – there is plenty of time to worry about heart attacks and things like that when we get older – but it is great when you find a food you love that is good for you as well!!

the bread is the carbohydrate – which is your bodies preferred form of energy. If you want it really healthy use a wholegrain bread because that has more fibre – a bonus… ( you need the fibre to keep you healthy on the inside and make you regular – if you know what I mean)

the meat - is the protein and lots of other goodies here. No getting around it your body needs protein to work! Beef and Lamb are loaded in iron which we all need to cart the oxygen around our body. Not enough of that and you will simply run out of steam! makes you go and go and go..

Make sure you use lean meat ( fat is not good – gives you yuk skin and a big bum!!) and take care not to add fat when you are cooking it.

the vegetables and/or fruit – this is the real good stuff – now I know lots of you will say you don’t like vegetables – get over yourself!! There are lots of different ones so there are bound to be some you will like – and just ‘cos you didn’t like it when you were little does not mean you wont like it now. I used to hate mushrooms, but now I can’t get enough of them! So even though you might have been a bit outspoken on what foods you like/dislike when no one is looking might be a good idea to have another taste!! You might get a mushroom surprise like it did!

Vegetables and fruit give you a range of vitamins and minerals as well as phytonutrients – these are the things that give the vegetables their color – so if you want to cover all your odds make sure you use vegetables of different colors –  that way your body will get everything it needs.  Using fruit in your burger is great – a bit less ‘ordinary’ and gives your burger a ‘wow’ factor You’ll get lots of points from a nutrition perspective too!

the sauce or chutney – this binds all the flavors together – if they are fruit or vegetable based the better ,  watch our for ones which are loaded in fat and/or salt. They are ok if you only use a little bit but if you want to smother the burger in a sauce go for the lower fat and salt ones…

Every year judges comment on the lack of seasoning, so the trick is to test your burgers to make sure you use enough.

Salt and pepper are the most standard seasoning but you could also use other flavours such as fresh herbs or spices to develop more depth. Rubs are great to use on the meat.

A few tips:

• Freshly ground or grated spices have a more intense flavor than stuff that has been grated or ground ages ago – this is true for freshly ground black pepper and freshly grated nutmeg.
• Play around with the different types and coarsenesses of salt. Coarse sea salt, fine sea salt, flaked salt and herb flavoured salts all work and taste differently.
• Dry rubs are combinations of dry ground spices and or chopped herbs. When applied liberally to a good piece of meat add a wallop of flavor. When cooked at high heat the rub will create a crust of flavor that locks in the juices and flavors the meat inside.  You can be quite generous with your layer of spice rubs because the intense flavour of the spices is mellowed by cooking

Wet rubs contain almost entirely dry ground spices, but they are then moistened to the consistency of a loose paste by the addition of small amounts of liquid, often water, wine, or stock.  Where dry rubs tend to be best cooked at high heat, and or seared to create a crisp outer crust, wet rubs are best cooked slowly, at lower heat.   So it’s most likely you are going to want a dry rub for your burger.

Finally, it’s good to experiment  - some strong flavors like mustard and ginger can swing from a great addition to a rub, to completely overpowering.  Try it first to get it right!

A chef taught me that

‘food should be a symphony of flavours working together in your mouth – not a food fight where many flavours are competing and you can’t work out what they are!’

I think that is pretty cool advice – simple is good!

You guys have to use mince so the biggie here is making sure your meat pattie is cooked properly. Not too hard but quite a few kids get this wrong so listen up!

The patties can’t be served undercooked, rare or pink. You need to make sure the internal temperature gets to 70^oC (minced meat and hamburger patties should be thoroughly cooked to an internal temperature of 70^oC.) You need to know how long it takes, at what temperature to get a pattie your size to that temperature. Check it when you practice.

btw – If you really want to impress the judges you will  likely get noticed for using a temperature gauge as it highlights your knowledge of cooking!!

The other trick is that the outer surface of the pattie looks and tastes best when it is caramelized to a gorgeous golden brown colour.

So the rule – fry rather than stew.

I have found if you put too many patties in the pan and don’t have it on a medium high heat then you get into trouble. Turns into a stew and is a sort of greyish colour. Not good.

FOR MORE TIPS ABOUT COOKING CHECK OUT BEEF + LAMB SITE