Monday 2 July 2012

Fifi's week in the kitchen

Well this is the first full week of the (Scottish) school holidays and my daughter had promised Fifi that she could be in charge of feeding them all this week, Now this is a challenge and a half for any nine year old, but considering Fifi has to accommodate her brother in the feeding project then I think it would cause many of you a headache.

Fifi is fortunate that she loves to cook and bake, which is maybe just as well considering her brothers allergies are genetic and there is a possibility she will one day have a child of her own that will have some, if not all or more, allergies that her brother currently has.This learning to cook is an essential life skill that everybody should learn.  My dad was a chef to trade and back in the day that H&S had never been thought of I remember at ten and eleven years old going to work with my dad and helping out in the kitchens. I watched him cook and bake and some of the work he use to produce was artistically out of this world. I brought up all my children to be comfortable in the kitchen, and now my daughter is passing on that confidence and love of cooking to her children.

So at the weekend Fifi collected together her favourite recipe books, did a menu plan for the week, wrote out all the ingredients she needed for everything and then rewrote it into a shopping list so that all her fruit and veg were first, then the meat etc so that she had each written into categories to make the shopping easier.

So her plans for the week are

Monday - Minestrone Soup and garlic bread

Tuesday - Spaghetti Bolognaise

Wednesday - Roast chicken and all the trimmings including Yorkshire

 puddings ( these are non Bob friendly) Mummy will help with lifting this in and out of oven. this is a new one for Fifi - normally Mummy buys ready cooked frozen chicken pieces for Fifi to use.

Thursday Chicken salad with greens and salad

Friday - Chicken Curry with boiled rice with mixed veg through it

Saturday - lunch -  tuna and sweetcorn bagels (Bob will have Bob friendly rolls instead of bagels)

Saturday -  tea time - Minestrone soup and garlic bread again ( as this is Fifi's favourite food to make)

Sunday - Home made pizza ( not Bob friendly) and home made potato wedges


So as today was Monday when I picked the children up I also picked up a pile of ingredients to enable Fifi to make our tea tonight.

She makes this from a book called Munch Crunch 2 - Recipes for change - Produced by NHS Ayrshire and Arran. The book states " the recipes in this book are part of a pilot project used by Community Food workers across North Ayrshire. The aim of the project was to increase awareness and the benefits of healthy eating" You can see more about their project here 

Minestrone Soup




Ingredients
child chopping veg for soup
Fifi chopping the sweet potato

I tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion
1 large or 2 small carrots
1 stick celery ( we omitted this as we dont like it)
400g tin chopped tomatoes
half tin cooked beans ( Fifi brought baked beans)
half cup dried pasta ( we used Bob friendly)
1 cup frozen mixed vegetable
1 litre of vegetable stock
Minestrone soup recipe
adding to the pan
pinch of black pepper
quarter tube tomato puree
pinch of dried mixed herbs (optional if wanted)

Method

1) Peel and chop onion and carrot, wash and chop the celery. I did the onion Fifi did the carrot and we added a sweet potato as she has not tried them. I cut this in half to give flat edges for cutting on she did rest)
2) add oil to saucepan, and chopped veg and heat gently for about 10 mins stirring from time to time
all the vegetables in
3) Open tomatoes and add to the pot with the stock, beans and other veg
( I showed Fifi here that you can add stock cubes and then water to the pan rather than pouring a large amount of boiling water over cubes in a jug as she is not allowed to do that for herself for obvious safety reasons)
4) Bring to the boil, cook for 5 minutes and then add the pasta.
5) continue cooking and stirring for approx 15 mins until veg and pasta are soft
6) add puree and season with herbs and black pepper to taste

We put some shop bought garlic bread into the oven at the same time as we added pasta to the pan.



the best bit  - eating it


Bob gets a gluten free roll with home made dairy free garlic butter to go with his.

These sorts of recipes highlight that it is possible to feed a child like Bob with healthy eating, and even a nine year old can manage it as she has lived it all day every day for six years now and is probably much more aware of food groups than most children.



Here are a few other pictures of other nights cooking at home



9 comments:

  1. Well done Fifi!! Looks like you did an awesome job there xx

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  2. well done Fifi! Doing a great job there, keep up the good work! x

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  3. Fiona Smith Registered Dietitan3 July 2012 at 12:38

    Hi looks like you have both done a great job. It is our team that produced and indeed still uses Munch Crunch 2 as one of our core resources for teaching people cooking skills. It is great to hear that it is used effectively as teaching the next generation to Eatwell for good health using those valuable skills is part of our mission. The book is on the CFHS website publications page for anyone to access.

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    1. thanks Fiona, for anybody interested you can find them here
      http://www.communityfoodandhealth.org.uk/publications-library/

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  4. Fifi has done brilliantly here! It's so impressive that a child of her age wants to be so involved in the kitchen, and that she's obviously so capable too. At 16 I doubt I could have done as well. I hope she's very proud of her meals and continues to follow in her grandma and her mum's footsteps. :O)

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  5. That is such a great idea! Definitely going to put this on list of summer holiday to do list as they can get so much from each stage! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. yes it is a very worthwhile exercise, and a great learning curve, blog it, come back and link up if you want.

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  6. Brilliant - I need to be better at letting my two join in with the cooking - not that I'm scared of them with knives - just don't like the mess!

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    1. yes they maybe do make a mess, but like everything else they have to learn. look at the mess they made feeding themselves as babies, or when having fun painting as toddlers etc. Fifi is encouraged to clear up after herself.

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