Nanny and cooking meals

[Yogibearx]

After some advice if anyone can help please!

Have been a nanny for around 7 years with various families. I’ve recently applied for a role through an agency and they have now asked me to fill out a meal plan form to send to the family.

I would say this role is more of a formal position as where the rest of the families I’ve worked for were much more laid back/relaxed as there were no agencies involved.

The thing is, I’m an “ok” cook. Average I would say but definitely not amazing. I don’t pretend to be a fantastic cook and I’m always honest with potential employers about it. I don’t want to lie, as I’m sure they’d find out anyway.

I can do basic meals such as spaghetti bolognese, chicken curry, tomato sausage pasta, sausage and mash etc. You get the gist. I always fill my meals with plenty of veg though.

I’m just wondering, would those types of meals be considered “healthy” and “nutritious” or would they put you off if you were a potential employer?

The families I worked for previously were always happy with fish fingers or a pizza so it never occurred to me to practice on my cooking skills, plus I live on my own so I eat a lot of “convenient” food shall we say!

I have a friend who is a fantastic cook and she’s offered to give me a few lessons and tips so that’s a big help.

Before I send the form off with my examples, I’d love to get your opinions. Thanks!

Surely it’s up to them to give you the meal plan and food shop and you just feed accordingly.

I think that's fine, but you should probably explain how they have loads of veg and aren't from packets with loads of sugar/salt (e.g. Sausage and mash seems unhealthy to me as there is no veg and gravy is salty). Not because it would bother me, but then I wouldn't ask for a meal plan either.

It's a rota role working 24/7 when on duty so I imagine I'd be responsible for doing the food shop whilst the children are in school.

Thanks for the tip - I'll make sure they know I make the meals from scratch and not just from a jar/tin.

Thanks for the advice! Will have a look over the form before sending it off

I'd also point out that you flex it according to the families' preferences. To be really nutritious I would include a fish meal, so something like roasted salmon, veg and potatoes - or fish pie. I'd also have something like chicken and vegetable noodles. Just shows a bit more variety. Out last nanny was Italian and made a wonderful array of pastas, homemade pizza, and soups!

Thanks @catsinahuffagain, I will definitely make sure I put a little note in about preferences, dietary requirements or allergies. It's just a bit difficult at the minute as I have no idea if the kids have any of the above or not.

When I got chatting to nannies, they all told me children generally stick to spag bol, pizza, sausages, pasta and suchlike.

On the other extreme, I now know that one of these very nannies, 20 years later cooks Ottelenghi style for her current family, having worked for a pescatarian one prior to this!

I would mention that you’re aware of intolerances and you’re conscious that allergies exist, that you’re keen to learn (if you are?) of particular meals they like.

How about choosing a red meat, white meat, white fish, oily fish and a carb-based meal to cover all aspects?

I imagine that if they’re asking for this they are looking for someone who will provide healthy home cooked meals but equally it’s unreasonable for them to expect you to be an amazing chef.
I’d just include a variety of simple but healthy meals such as spag Bol, some kind of fish dish, a casserole of some kind, a veggie based dish.
All of these things you could easily learn to cook, the kids ellas kitchen book has loads of recipes that are very simple and nutritious that I tend to get my ideas from.

I used to do this for the whole family in my last two jobs. Happily I'm interested in cooking so Pinterest had my back and I have 1000's of options
I don't cook with salt and made sure there was 'kid salad' if they didn't like the more adventurous stuff.
Always made sure to mix up meat and fish days same as carbs and did lots of veggies sides. And did homemade takeaways on a Friday.
Fingers crossed for you!

Yes on a cm thread sausage and mash and beans wasn’t a healthy meal as sausages fatty and no veg

Personally I think nothing wrong with the above meal

Anyway - I like the idea of red meat - chicken - pasta etc

Lasagne or spag bol

Risotto

Chicken or steak pie

Salmon new pots veg

I R.E.M. years as a nanny and mum complained about a meal that didn’t have enough veg in it. I said I use what’s in the fridge

Sure whatever you decide will be fine

I think these sorts of meal plans are to show that you have a good working knowledge of what constitutes a balanced diet for children, so make sure you are offering all the main food groups and plenty of fruit and vegetables throughout the day.

I would do things like home made pizza (lots of fun for kids to help with), you could do home made chicken or fish goujons rather than fish fingers or nuggets.

I do a rough meal plan for the families I work for, with a mince, a fish, a chicken, a veggie and a red meat dish each week, I have a repertoire of four or five recipes for each and a shopping list for the ingredients needed for each recipe, so planning and shopping is pretty easy.

They probably don't need to be fancy 'dishes' - you can just do the old-fashioned meat/fish with two veg i.e. grilled salmon with broccoli, green beans and potatoes. I used to do a lot of that sort of thing as a nanny.

I'll be honest, I would expect better than carb heavy pasta and sausages on rotation. The families who have 24/7 nannies will be expecting brown rice, quinoa etc. Maybe one a week something with potato wedges but lots of veg etc is key, and the posher kind.

Thanks for all the tips guys - I'm still editing my meal plan before I send it off, I have all weekend to do it so no rush.

Yes I appreciate they may want posher meals @stucknoue. As I said before I've only ever worked with more relaxed families so it's definitely a learning curve for me and I'm sure I'll get use to it if I'm successful with getting the job.

I think I'd expect more too @stucknoue

Are there any nurseries locally that have sample menus on their website? There was one I looked at for DS where I wanted to go just based on the food!

That's a good idea I'll have a look at nursery menus, thanks

The last nursery I worked in served beans on toast and sponge cake most days so I definitely won't be looking at their menu lol.

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat not in my jobs. I take over all the kids meal planning and do the ocardo order.

have a look here op

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/healthy-kids

lots of healthy ideas - kids meals and snacks that aren’t too difficult!

Annabelle Karmel still doing the rounds? Try her books.

Geez they sound like a nightmare family tbh! Even if you don't get that job or don't want it, try getting gold of the baby led weaning cookbook. Loads of ideas and works well for older kids as well. I gave my nanny a copy and she lives it because easy prep and kids eat all of it.

I agree that one pasta one meat one fish one veggie. Honestly it doesn’t have to be fancy but if my nanny feeds the kids pizza pasta chips and fish fingers all week then it leaves me no room to have one slack meal at the weekend (particularly if there is a party). I want us to be a team and part of that is balancing out the easy meals with more healthy options.

You can easier show willing by specifying veg to go with certain meals eg crudités of carrot, cucumber and pepper with hummus to go with chicken and pita bread or peas and sweet corn to go with fish. It doesn’t have to be fancy but you have to have thought about it.