LINCOLN – Diane Edes doesn’t do so well with cutting up onions, but she’s a whiz with carrots.

Shortly after school let out Thursday, Edes was in the home economics classroom at Mattanawcook Academy, skinning, slicing and dicing the orange roots like a kitchen pro. The creamy soup she helped prepare was a taste of some of the healthful habits she hopes to bring to the cooking she now does for herself and her husband.

“I thought if ever I could learn something healthy for him, this would be a good place to do it,” she said.

Edes is one of four women participating in Basic Shelf, a pilot program put on by Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln that involves cooking – and eating – nutritious, economical meals from a basic set of ingredients.

Based on a decade-old Canadian cookbook of the same name, the free six-week course stresses the importance of cooking with raw foods like rice, canned beans, fresh vegetables and skim milk powder. The course relies on “from scratch” cooking, which is starting to fall by the wayside in this era of fast foods and convenience foods, according to Dietitian Lorraine McKelvie, who facilitates the program.

“With the inception of frozen food and microwaves, that’s become a home-cooked meal for some people,” McKelvie said. “It’s easier to cook frozen french fries than it is to wash, peel and cook a potato.”

Funded through PVH’s Healthy Maine Partnerships money and held in facilities provided by the high school, the program focuses on food management, budgeting and purchasing, as well as nutrition and preparation. In her work at PVH and Millinocket Regional Hospital, McKelvie has started to see a trend in people who lack the basic “life skills” of cooking healthful meals.

Diabetes, obesity and heart disease are the leading health problems with McKelvie’s adult clients, and she has encountered a growing number of children with obesity and high cholesterol problems.

“We’re seeing a trend in our health as a result of what we eat today,” McKelvie said. “A person’s health can really be improved by putting more time into menu planning and getting back to basic food preparation.”

Each week in Basic Shelf, participants choose a healthy, low-cost meal that includes an entree, vegetable dish and nutritious dessert. Each class also includes an educational segment on topics like kitchen safety.

While chile con carne and spinach lasagna were big hits in recent weeks, the women Thursday opted for pasta bean casserole to accompany their carrot soup. With egg-free oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert, the cost of the meal worked out to roughly $1 per person.

After 50 years of cooking, Dora Carr of Lincoln was glad to have a chance try something different. In the last five weeks, she’s prepared food with less fat, less salt and a lot more vegetables.

“When there’s just the two of you, you don’t experiment a lot, especially after your kids are gone,” Carr said. “But we’re always willing to try new things.”

Organizers for Basic Shelf hope to offer the program again after Jan. 1 and are interested in expanding it beyond Lincoln. For information, contact McKelvie at 794-3321, Ext. 120.