Jamie's School dinners

MrsTinks

kiwichick wrote:

I have a friend like this, she was taken quietly to one side last week by the head teacher at her daughters nursery and told that they thought her DD might have a hyperactivity problem. Turns out that the poor kids had been given 2 jam doughnuts for breakfast that day!!!

Dunno about a kid that weighs probably 1/5th of me on 2 jam doughnuts... but if I ate them I'd be pretty hyped up too!!! OH and I haven't got kids yet and aren't planning any for a few years to come but when I watch things like Jamies SD etc we usually end up discussing it. I do have a role model in one of my friends who is vegitarian (her whole family are but the kids can choose for themselves, if they want meat she'll cook them organic meat). Her kids are healthy and lovelly and not hyper active or over weight. She is VERY OS and I hope I can be like her when I have kids Sweets are a treat and very rare. Fruit and healthy snacks are actively encouraged (raisins, seeds, cereal etc) and the difference between her kids and seeing friends kids when they're all together is obvious. They look healthy, they aren't hyped up on refined sugar (actually have to say you should see them if someone DOES give them a sweet... it's probably the kiddy eqivalent to an E! Sugar hit!) and they just come across as wholesome

Jam doughnuts for breakfast? My mate would have a fit :rotfl:

beachbeth

Will Monday night's programme be repeated on Sky anywhere? Im so annoyed that I missed it. I think Jamie Oliver is doing a great job and applaud him for it. I have booked tickets to go to the Good Food Show in November and to also see him cook - can't wait! (I would heartily recommend going, there are lots of free tasters of all sorts of food and wine!)

Someone earlier said what about when your kids go to parties and all there is to eat is junk. Well, Ive been told that when Jamie Oliver's kids go to parties, they take their own party food with them!

MrsTinks

Linda32 wrote:

When I was at school during the mid 80's and we bought our own lunch in the school canteen, our school had a rule that if you had chips then you had to have fruit or yogurt for pudding.
If you had salad for dinner you could have cream cake for pudding.

Anyone else remember anything like this?

I've been to 8 different schools in my life (I blame NATO for moving us about) and the are spread across 3 countries. I never went to an English "public" school but a private one and the meals there were pretty good although I seemed to survive mainly on rice or pasta (occasional jacket potato) with grated cheese and ketchup...
Oddly I don't recall much about lunches in the other schools (well 2 had NO lunch other than packed lunches and this was in a very affluent area with very rich people in Oslo) other than starting my early addiction to white chocolate with desicated coconut made into little tops I still make them now and OH is addicted too

Churchmouse

beachbeth wrote:

Someone earlier said what about when your kids go to parties and all there is to eat is junk. Well, Ive been told that when Jamie Oliver's kids go to parties, they take their own party food with them!

I do hope this is just urban myth!! I'd hate to think he's so arrogant and ill-mannered as to believe other parents wouldn't provide anything suitable for his children to eat. Also it's teaching them to be arrogant and ill-mannered too!! They'd need a long catch-up course at manners school!!

Whenever my children went to parties there was always a choice of sandwiches (marmite, peanut butter, etc) cocktail sausages, cheese cubes etc. as well as the crisps, cakes and sweets. One of my children did not enjoy fizzy drinks, so would have milk if the hostess could spare it, and water if not.

But then again I'm VERY sceptical about the number of children who had half a glass of orange squash three years ago, and are still badly behaved because of it!!!! ( Before I'm shot down, I do realise SOME children do get a bit hyper after certain foods, but I have heard parents say their child has not been the same since that bag of crisps or whatever several weeks ago)

I do not advocate feeding children junk, but I do worry that when I was a child, sweets and cakes, were an occasional treat, but didn't send us all into these uncontrollable behaviour states. It seems that children fed on healthy diets 99% of the time are equally susceptible when given a bit of sugar.

thriftlady_2

Don't know about Jamie Oliver's children but my dd takes her own food to parties precisely because there might be peanut butter in the sandwiches She's allergic, so I'm sure everyone would agree that's reasonable, but you're right Churchmouse that is arrogant and ill-mannered. And after all a party is not an every day situation, I think the food should be different and a chance to have a bit of rubbish

Churchmouse

thriftlady wrote:

Don't know about Jamie Oliver's children but my dd takes her own food to parties precisely because there might be peanut butter in the sandwiches She's allergic, so I'm sure everyone would agree that's reasonable, but you're right Churchmouse that is arrogant and ill-mannered. And after all a party is not an every day situation, I think the food should be different and a chance to have a bit of rubbish

That's entirely different, thriftlady!!:D Everybody then knows you're not making a judgement on them and their catering skills, just protecting your daughter from what can be a really serious condition. I assume she takes a certain amount of "safe for her" junk to eat!! So she's still getting a treat!!:D

If DGS doesn't grow out of it, we'll have similar problems because, it seems, he is still allergic to cow's milk! ( We had thought he'd grown out of it, dietician gave him the all clear, now he's reacting again!!)

Penny-Pincher!!

Personally, I feel that all foods are ok in moderation. DD loves choc spread sarnies, but she may have one a week.

We eat well and 99% of the time have a hot dinner in the evening. Its normally a staple meal: shepards pie, toad in hole, roasts, curry, fishpie, spagbol, chops, stews etc etc. All meals are served with veg and is balanced with protein, carbs and veg. Every other week we have oven chips, beans and fried egg:D

PP
xx

Churchmouse

Do agree Penny-Pincher!! Mine eat healthily, most of the time, but also enjoy some so-called rubbish!! Jamie Oliver, I'm sure must use sugar etc in his cooking, but it is always junk ( empty calories, no nutritional qualities) regardless of what it's mixed with!! As any dentist will tell you, avoid sugar ( in all its incarnations, including fruit sugars!!) totally and you won't get tooth decay at all. Bet Jamie wouldn't want to stick to that one!!

sarahs999

I just wanted to add a thought to this thread that I think is very illuminating. I was talking to a friend of mine last night who works at the commision for children. They have just done a report on Europe-wide practices regarding children and food. We came bottom out of 25 countries in some really alarming things. THe most appalling, to me, was that we are the worst country in Europe for sitting down and eating with our kids. I think a lot of what has been talked about on this thread and a lot of our problems in general in this country stem from this kind of approach to mealtimes and eating.

In lots of countries in Europe, people sit down regulalry to meals made with fresh, local produce. IT's engrained deeply in their culture, unlike here. There's not a great amount of variety, but everyone is used to it, and more importantly, loves it, because that's what's fresh, cheap, and delicious, and they know how to cook it. THey love to cook. THey have an identifiable national cuisine, something which this country is terribly lacking in. We tend to borrow from other cultures, meaning that we've come to expect that every night of the week we can eat a different kind of food - indian one night, chinese another, italian another, japanese... you get the idea. I really think that we've spoilt ourselves with so much choice, and that we've lost touch with what foods are in season, how to grow them, and how to cook them. I'm so glad that cooking is going back on the national curriculum because I really believe that's the only way to bring it back centrally into our lives.

I know I'm probably preaching to the converted on here but it really saddens me when I keep hearing about people who can't cook, or don't know what to cook, or stuff chips through the railings at their childrens' schools! Something's gone really wrong and we're paying the price.

Churchmouse

Abimay, I did start my post with I hoped it was urban myth.

Being a great and inspirational cook would not excuse him from the common decency of good manners.