Economy Gastronomy - new budget cookery programme; BBC

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donnajt wrote: »

I thoroughly enjoyed this programme and can't wait until Weds, I cook mostly from scratch and enjoy teaching my DD to cook.

Two comments which have probably been raised several times
1. top shelf ingredients used - scope to save $'s ie chopped toms
2. lol at store cupboard ingredients

We have made the mac cheese and the bucket chicken - both of which were amazing and will def appear regularly on our menus

BTW the mac cheese recipe is huge (remember she had 2 on the table on Weds night) I halved and froze for another day

Am planning on making the chilli tomorrow...just wish i had the cottage pie recipe - anybody know when the Recipe Book is being published?

the recipe for shepherds pie is in this months good food magazine

mouseymousey99

Its geed me into storing cheese properly. I wrapped it up in greasproof paper and it'll now live out of the fridge, meant to do that for ages.

thriftlady_2

donnajt wrote: »

Am planning on making the chilli tomorrow...just wish i had the cottage pie recipe - anybody know when the Recipe Book is being published?

Wednesday 12th August Details here

lillibet_dripping

I have read, with great interest, the comments about food technology in schools and would like to make a few points.
1) Food Technology - it is called this because, unfortunately, the government (wouldn't do them the courtesy of giving them a capital 'G':rotfl:) insist that cooking must be 'cross-curricular' i.e. the kids learn in IT how to do a spreadsheet/budget for a recipe. Art comes into it when they have to design the packaging. The designated 'topic' for that year group, set by said govt., has to be all things to all subjects. My new year 4's will be studying World War II so we will be looking at ration book cookery.The new year 2's have to 'eat more fruit'..... the year '5's have to study multi-cultural bread recipes ....


2) My second point is that, yes, you did read correctly - my students are in primary school. I have the best job in the world in what I think is the best school in the world. We have children right from Foundation up to year 6. The head is very forward-thinking and during some recent building re-designing turned over her original office to ..... A FOOD TECHNOLOGY ROOM! I have a fully equipped kitchen to take small groups of 6 children at a time. The Foundation children have a 20-minute lesson every week for their first year at the school. We start off with some very basic biscuit recipes to get them used to weighing, measuring, rolling out, cutting etc. By the end of their first year with me they have progressed to mini-frittatas, tuna turnovers, fruit kebabs etc. I teach 60 children on Mondays!
The rest of the week is given over to the rest of the school. Each year group gets a 45-minute lesson each week for a term. The first half of the term is spent on 'basic skills' like learning to use sharp knives safely (the 'bridge cutting' method and the 'claw cutting' method) so we prepare soups, fruit, smoothies etc. The second half of their term is given over to their 'topic'. My new year 3's will be looking loosely at tomatoes/pizzas. We will start of by making a basic Roasted Tomato soup. Then we will make passata and freeze it for the following week when they will make their own pizza. We move on to Calzones, Turnover, variations on pizza bases. I also try to incorporate 'festivals' into my timetable so something tomatoey (sp?) around Halloween will be 'blood-curdling salsa'

3) The first time a new year group comes into my kitchen we discuss how much, if any, cooking they have done at home. I am sad to report that only a very few have cooked with mum, but encouraged that many have 'cooked cakes with grandma' - a whole generation have missed out because they think cooking happens in a microwave.

4 My final point (if you are still reading this far:rotfl:) is that we also have a school allotment. Each year group is responsible for a raised veg bed. I have designed a planting plan based on what veg we need in the kitchen (year 4 - wwII have plenty of carrots, onions and potaotes ready for September) so that the children understand the cycle of grow, cook, eat.

All of 'my' children love coming to their food technology lessons - even the ones who are 'challenging' in class. So many have asked me if they can cook 'proper meals' (remember, we are restricted by the govt) that I am in the process of setting up my own after-school cookery club so that they can learn shepherd's pie, chilli, how to roast a chicken (and make it into 'rubber chicken':T) how to make their own bread etc. etc. I am also hoping to run 'family classes' so that if mum/dad isn't confident in the kitchen they can all learn together.

I realise that our school is quite unique, in this area at least, but I hope that my passion for cooking will rub off on my kids. It is a drop in the ocean, but it is a start.....

Phew, haven't written such a long post before - I will get off my soapbox now and put my beef on to slow-roast for Sunday lunch:D

cw18

:T All credit to you, your head, and your school :T

The local primary my GDs attend has a couple of raised beds, and some pots in another playground. According to elder GD each class (certainly in the infants) grows one crop - I know that in the raised beds one class was Rhubarb and another was Strawberries - but not clear what the other group was (there are 3 mixed classes, plus one of just Reception age - plus the pre-school - due to the intake numbers)

I help out in the pre-school on a Monday morning, and one week (just before the Summer hols) we had a couple of small bags of baby new potatoes turn up - had to ask a TA what they were for, as clearly not the 'take home' snacks I have to wash as part of my role.

Turns out they were "what the pre-school and Reception children helped to grow" (I'm still stunned that having harvested them they had to send them off to be cleaned, sorted and packed in pre-weighed bags before being returned to school for use !!!), and they were then boiled up (and smothered in margarine) by the TA for the children to taste at snack time.




I have to confess I never involved my children much in cooking at home - I worked full time, and did all the shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc. DH and I had many a fight about what the children should be expected to do (even things like keeping their own rooms tidy), with me wanting them to help and him claiming it was quicker, easier and quieter to do it all ourselves (I used to send the boys up to tidy a shared room, only to find DH up there within 20 mins doing it for them as he got sick of listening to the messing around and fighting!!) But when my DD (and then elder DS a few years later) started to steal groceries at the age of about 15 - and it was stealing in my eyes - such that no-one else in the house ever got chance to have puddings/treats I came down heavy on them.....

What I did was to "allocate" them the amount a single person would get on Income Support (on the younger adult rate), and then make deductions from it for essentials they'd have to pay if living on their own (like water rates, gas, electricity, TV licence, launderette costs, and contents insurance that I've always classed as essential however strapped for cash I've been). The rest they were given to feed and clothe themselves (other than school uniform and equipment required for school). This meant they had to learn to make the money last a week, how to cook (they had to do this for themselves, though I was normally around if they got stuck), and how to 'tweak' recipes so they could afford to make them. It was a struggle in the first few weeks, but they soon grasped the concept and came to appreciate why "Mum went off on one" about all the missing food

DD (eldest) has been known to say that she wouldn't manage to balance her books now (not that I think she's doing it as well as she could, but that's a different matter :rolleyes2 ) if she hadn't gone through this, and elder DS says he'd never have survived in the hostels he ended up in (after being invited to leave home for a lot of other reasons) had he not had to do this...... in fact it wasn't long after he ended up in the first hostel that he phoned and asked me to take him shopping, as he knew I'd be able to advise which of the cheap labels were OK and which I wouldn't advise down-shifting too!!

So yes, I think a lot of it has to come from home - and I'm as guilty as lot of other people in not passing on the skills as readily as I probably 'should have' Having said that, my Mum prided herself on involving us - but other than baking cakes I have no recollection of doing anything apart from preparing veg (and washing up) until after I had my daughter

My DD is now in the same boat with my GDs (6 & 4), in that she's too tired to want to involve them - so I'm planning to help out by doing cookery with them at mine after school at least once a week during term time, especially as I'm intending/hoping to have them for at least the next school year (after when it becomes urgent for me to find an additional income, so may not be around to spend that time with them). I know they bake cakes (though often from packet mixes) probably one weekend a month, but the elder one has been asking to help with other things so now seems to be the time to start involving them

redmel1621

lillibet_dripping wrote: »

I have read, with great interest, the comments about food technology in schools and would like to make a few points.
1) Food Technology - it is called this because, unfortunately, the government (wouldn't do them the courtesy of giving them a capital 'G':rotfl:) insist that cooking must be 'cross-curricular' i.e. the kids learn in IT how to do a spreadsheet/budget for a recipe. Art comes into it when they have to design the packaging. The designated 'topic' for that year group, set by said govt., has to be all things to all subjects. My new year 4's will be studying World War II so we will be looking at ration book cookery.The new year 2's have to 'eat more fruit'..... the year '5's have to study multi-cultural bread recipes ....


2) My second point is that, yes, you did read correctly - my students are in primary school. I have the best job in the world in what I think is the best school in the world. We have children right from Foundation up to year 6. The head is very forward-thinking and during some recent building re-designing turned over her original office to ..... A FOOD TECHNOLOGY ROOM! I have a fully equipped kitchen to take small groups of 6 children at a time. The Foundation children have a 20-minute lesson every week for their first year at the school. We start off with some very basic biscuit recipes to get them used to weighing, measuring, rolling out, cutting etc. By the end of their first year with me they have progressed to mini-frittatas, tuna turnovers, fruit kebabs etc. I teach 60 children on Mondays!
The rest of the week is given over to the rest of the school. Each year group gets a 45-minute lesson each week for a term. The first half of the term is spent on 'basic skills' like learning to use sharp knives safely (the 'bridge cutting' method and the 'claw cutting' method) so we prepare soups, fruit, smoothies etc. The second half of their term is given over to their 'topic'. My new year 3's will be looking loosely at tomatoes/pizzas. We will start of by making a basic Roasted Tomato soup. Then we will make passata and freeze it for the following week when they will make their own pizza. We move on to Calzones, Turnover, variations on pizza bases. I also try to incorporate 'festivals' into my timetable so something tomatoey (sp?) around Halloween will be 'blood-curdling salsa'

3) The first time a new year group comes into my kitchen we discuss how much, if any, cooking they have done at home. I am sad to report that only a very few have cooked with mum, but encouraged that many have 'cooked cakes with grandma' - a whole generation have missed out because they think cooking happens in a microwave.

4 My final point (if you are still reading this far:rotfl:) is that we also have a school allotment. Each year group is responsible for a raised veg bed. I have designed a planting plan based on what veg we need in the kitchen (year 4 - wwII have plenty of carrots, onions and potaotes ready for September) so that the children understand the cycle of grow, cook, eat.

All of 'my' children love coming to their food technology lessons - even the ones who are 'challenging' in class. So many have asked me if they can cook 'proper meals' (remember, we are restricted by the govt) that I am in the process of setting up my own after-school cookery club so that they can learn shepherd's pie, chilli, how to roast a chicken (and make it into 'rubber chicken':T) how to make their own bread etc. etc. I am also hoping to run 'family classes' so that if mum/dad isn't confident in the kitchen they can all learn together.

I realise that our school is quite unique, in this area at least, but I hope that my passion for cooking will rub off on my kids. It is a drop in the ocean, but it is a start.....

Phew, haven't written such a long post before - I will get off my soapbox now and put my beef on to slow-roast for Sunday lunch:D

:TThat is an excellent post, truly inspiring - Thank You:A

attentionseeker1

mumto1 wrote: »

I've posted in here before and left because of the attitude I got about buying organic/freerange/veg deliveries/not buying the cheapest of everything - that I wasn't doing things right, was spending too much +wasting my money - my decisions not anyone elses.

.

Sorry Mumto1 but I think you are completely wrong on this. I also buy free range, get organic veg delivered etc but I don't feel that I have been judged for this- OS is about working within a budget that works for you, not wasting food etc.

In fact, I have asked for and received useful advice on making the most of my veg box and using it up etc, without any criticism on spending my money in this way. The problem with the family on the programme was that they could not afford their large budget anymore and also that they were feeding their children junk food.

I think you need to realise that a lot of what old stylers post can be very tongue in cheek and light-hearted- there is always a good community spirit in here, that is until people start trying to find negativity in everything posted...

tracyk

So I went shopping with 'my list' :money: yesterday..... but my Morrison's only have smoked lardons - will these be OK for the Macaroni Cheese recipe or should I just get some unsmoked streaky bacon & chop it up?

thriftlady_2

tracyk wrote: »

So I went shopping with 'my list' :money: yesterday..... but my Morrison's only have smoked lardons - will these be OK for the Macaroni Cheese recipe or should I just get some unsmoked streaky bacon & chop it up?

Lardons are pieces of chopped up streaky bacon, so yes you can use bacon. It really doesn't matter whether it is smoked or not. Which do you prefer?

You could also use ham or anything that takes your fancy, smoked mackerel would be nice too;)

tracyk

thriftlady wrote: »

Lardons are pieces of chopped up streaky bacon, so yes you can use bacon. It really doesn't matter whether it is smoked or not. Which do you prefer?

You could also use ham or anything that takes your fancy, smoked mackerel would be nice too;)

Mmmm - I quite fancy the smoked mackerel...

I didn't want to spoil the dish by putting in smoked lardons if it was going to make the flavour too strong so I think I'll make it with unsmoked streaky bacon this week & then, if it's a success, I'll try the smoked lardons & then the mackerel....ooh my mouth's watering.....

Thank you