GCSE Summer 2020 - Thread 11 Carry on Corona Cohort - Starting New Terms and Settings

Shimy the cauliflower curry is really easy. But I choose to use a Pataks paste and add coconut milk and a tin of Passata.

Cut up a sweet potato into cubes and roast in oven in dash oil, salt and pepper.

2 cauliflowers cut up, with onions and mushrooms in a bit of oil in big frying pan/wok.

Add Pataks paste, coconut and passata. And later add the cooked sweet potato. And a drained tin of chickpeas.

Easy.

Our textbooks are all online. Paper textbooks seem to be a dying breed.

I think DS's text books are all available on line now.

Yes I think so re the textbooks - doubly so this year when they cant reuse them. We have had to buy textbooks in our DS' school since the start of GCSE.

Monkey, I will buy the quorn ones, Ds2 probably won't even notice!

They all turn up their nose at vegan options, despite me cooking lots because both my best friends are vegan.

I cook spiced butternut squash or pumpkin quite a bit. And sweet potato, paprika, mustard, radish, avacado, onion, tomato, white sesame seeds. Tasty.

Is it normal for a sixth form college to provide no textbooks at all and expect the parents to buy them instead?

‘Hear’.

@Oblomov20 That is a cracking list you’ve got there and I likewise dream of being rich enough to have a permanent chef. He/she would cook a variety of healthy and nutritious meals for each day and store them, ‘labelled up’ in the fridge. Everyone could then eat whenever they wanted.

I am not ashamed to say I have copied and pasted ‘your meals’ oblomov , to add to ours, only problem there are a few I don’t know how to make e.g. the chick peas were a disaster last time I tried but I’ll try them definitely. They sound delicious.

@Piggywaspushed Sorry to here everyone’s on tenterhooks now a Covid case has now been discovered. Would it be unreasonable to think we should all prepare ourselves for Covid reaching all bubbles eventually or is that too pessimistic?

Monkey we love those Quorn chicken southern bites and cook them for fajitas and they taste yummier than the meat ones. Our DD went veggie for lent one year and we discovered all sorts of meat alternatives and try and eat meat free 2-3 times a week. Lentil cottage pie and stir fry being two firm favourites as well as the Quorn fajitas. We had a vegan friend over for lunch yesterday and we made a tabouleh salad, with roasted seasoned chick peas and roasted purple cauliflower. So yummy.

Love the 'pink tie' look Oblomov your DS looks so debonair.

DD has her first day of lessons and informed me she has a morning of frees then a two period dance lesson then another free. Think she's going to love Fridays! Frees have to be spent at school and she'll self study in the library area in the 6th form I guess. Wednesday is also a whole day of frees but again she has to be in school. I believe they will be starting some enrichment so perhaps it'll be on those two days. DD wants to do a first aid qualification, BSL and driving theory over her 6th form time.

On testing, I think there are a lot of "worried well" getting tests, which is easy because they are free and there are no controls. I know people who got the whole family tested because their son went to a party and a week later found out that the grandmother of person whose party it was had tested positive. She was not at the party and the birthday-boy had no symptoms, they should have waited until the birthday boy's family had been tested before getting tests themselves. They were not vulnerable. One of them has now had 3 tests, he had a cold, but it was a snotty cold with no cough. The tests are meant to be for people with symptoms and maybe their close contacts.

@Oblomov20 that is a much bigger list than my DSs went for when in Y12/Y9!

For your DS2 have you discovered quorn nuggets? A healthy (and more expensive) version of chicken nuggets which tastes very similar. We were veggie Monday to Friday during lock down and discovered new things.

Scary (but inevitable I guess) to hear of all these positive cases!

Impressed how much some DC are doing out of school - my 2 are not doing anything out of school at the moment (combination of them deciding to drop thing and clubs not actually restarting since lockdown). Just going to school and back again seems to be enough at the moment! DS (not up yet) is clearly relishing no lessons until 11am today!

DS has taken up riding his bike to school rather than being given a lift part way there. He has to go to morning registration every other week although didn’t have to yesterday. So he set off for 8:55 registration at about 8:50 I think. I am trying to be more chilled about this although finding it hard!

Peas are too small and too green for me

How's your DD @Alsoplayspiccolo?

In a moment of paranoia earlier this week (my youngest had a cold) I checked test availability and yup, IOW was what was offered, we’re SW London based Luckily I didn’t need to take it any further as he is fine but that is an insane option to offer! I mean fair enough if you’re in Portsmouth or similar but London?! How realistic is that going to be for most people?

@Oblomov20 you are a woman after my own heart. If I never had to cook again I’d be so happy! Mind you then again if mine would eat half the meals on your list then I would also be happy I need to get a bit more adventurous with my cooking I think but there is zero motivation to try new stuff when you know that it will be rejected.

Hope everyone has a good Friday, and as relaxing a weekend as possible. Sorry to hear about positive cases being confirmed, let’s hope they can be contained. Such strange times we are living in.

Case at ds’ school earlier in the week but not his bubble. Every day they both go in feels like a bonus right now!

Oblomov19 I sympathise with feeling bored of the meals but you have more on your list than we do I think, although we do have Thai curries quite a bit. Dd is the fussy one in our family now. As a baby/child/tween she absolutely loved food, she was quite heavy although with not much fat and would eat huge amounts. Last couple of years she’s had teen body issues on and off although never managed to keep up bad habits as she loved junk food too much. But this last year she just seems to have lost her love of food. Takeaways/chocolate etc hold no excitement for her and she just doesn’t seem to like any meals. She’s eating so I’m not too worried but it’s a bit joyless!

I had to take a test for the zoe tracking app this week and also got offered IOW. Apparently people are going over on the ferry to take tests.

@FlyingPandas - neither of mine will eat peas. I always think of them as being a completely inoffensive vegetable - apparently not! The love broccoli though. And cabbage.

Oh that is just pathetic. Sort it out, Hancock!! Stop victim blaming!

Rant over...

2 teachers in our school (central London) had symptoms last night.

Website gave them Ventnor (I of Wight) as their nearest available test centre...

@Piggywaspushed - positive case confirmed at DD’s sixth form college too (fortunately not in her bubble).

Pink tie Friday ?
Wtf is that?

Ds1 has just announced that its 'Pink tie Friday'!!

That picking bits of food out drives me crazy too. Both of mine complain about mushrooms and onions. But I put both in every chilli, spag Bol, curry, etc I cook I say!

My 2 eat what they are given! Despite objections.

I can't keep up with how much they eat. Ds1 is doing boxing 3 times a week again. Ds2 football. I'm spending copious amounts on cooking 48 meatballs for spaghetti and meatballs that got wolfed down, with 2 garlic breads.

I'm buying extra: Yoghurts, grapes, bananas, pineapple, chicken breasts, part baked French sticks, tins of tomato soup, baked beans. For snacks. Costing me a fortune. I'm sure I'm spending £400 on food some months!

Like crazy, shimy, monkey, mine are totally into fitness and eating. Ds1 has protein shakes. Although Ds2 eats a tonne of shit aswell. Ds1 told me off the other day for how much processed food we eat, when I bought Aldi minted lamb kebabs, with beef kebabs, (new potatoes and steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots) .

I get fed up of eating the same meals. I stand in the middle of Sainsbury's or Aldi and think what am I going to buy for our next 2/3 meals. I can bear/bare? To eat the same meal yet again.

All we eat is:
Chilli, spag Bol, lasagne, I make cauliflower sweet potato and chick pea curry aswell, jacket potatoes, fajitas, enchiladas, roasts, salads, steak, chips and home made curry sauce , steak pie with steamed veg, fish and chips, sausages and mash, quiche and salad, home made chicken kebabs, burgers, beef casserole, shepherds pie, lamb shanks, gammon, pulled pork, paella, risotto.

If I never ate any of those dishes again it would be too soon. So boring.

Ds's won't eat salad. So when Dh and I have steak and salad, Ds2 adores chicken dippers. Which is basically his favourite food. Which has to be the epitome of food shit doesn't it?

When I win the lottery, or my Ds1 becomes a billionaire entrepreneur - I'm going to hire a chef, so that I never have to cook, nor supermarket food shop ever again.