Are you watching Jamie Oliver's school dinners?

[MunchedTooManyMarsLady]

Jamie's being given a run for his money. Loving it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Caligula - you can make chicken nuggets quite easily with chicken, breadcrumbs (homemade) egg and flour. You just give them a different name - chicken crispies.

Caligula I have been hardcore in the past and it's not worked. I've ended up scraping food into the bin (of course when one won't eat the rest often follow suit). So I compromise with cpt birdseye and lots of veg. But I don't give pudding if dinner isn't eaten (to the of many of ds's friends who often don't think I'm serious!)

Ugh. They look like something you'd see under a microscope.

Twizzlers, I mean

I make my own nuggets - minced chicken, garlic, cheesy breadcrumbs, bake in the oven - lovely!

My faith in Bird's Eye fish fingers has now been shaken! will check out M&S from guilt... did try to make them myself but gave up and just do foil-baked salmon instead (ooh, get you, poncey middle class mother).

sorry, talking to myself again, I never keep up with the posts - am very impressed by the home-made nuggets.

Good on you muminlondon...not sure what is poncy about baked salmon, though.

Wouldn't want to put you off completely MinL, the factory I was at was Findus not Birdeye. On the birdeye ad when they cut into the fishfinger there is fish flakes - if they look like this in real life then I wouldn't be as worried

have done home made nuggets, in fact they were the nigella ones with ritz crackers and the girls wouldn't eat them, but they did eat other ones i did coated in crushed cornflakes.

well, I buy organic fillets so it's £5 for 2 which we have between 3 of us so it's not cheap

Talking about chicken - I thought those chicken kebabs he made with the children last night looked yummy and the kids were tucking into them! Might have to try those at home.

On an other point - I wonder what the parents are going to make of it all when their little ones come home from school having eaten all the 'poncey' food. Do you think it will make them raise their game or do you think they'll just take the view that if they've had one healthy meal a day then why bother in the evening???

Hmm, ...but tasty though

Can you freeze your home made chicken nuggets? (egg?)

And how do you freeze home made chips without them going black? (This is a question I've asked on another thread but no-one answered so I'll try again - I'm trying to avoid starting a new thread on it!)

My dd is only two but it scares me to think about her having playdates and me having to feed other people's children and other parents feeding her. I was most annoyed that so many of my NCT group bottled out of hosting two year old birthday parties and held them at a soft play area where the party food is sandwiches on white bread, crisps, chicken nuggets, other deep fried stuff and lots and lots of chocolate cakes.

We don't have a hope in hell of getting my dd to even eat a sandwich once she has cakes right in front of her. So, if these people were happy to go down this route at age 2 it does not bode well for the future.

SB, as muminlondon has pointed out about the salmon, it could be about cost for those parents.

I suppose if you have not much income and a larger number of kids, would you be able to afford to cook such food every night?

Easier to do less poncy, but equally nutricious stuff, such as Jacket potatoes, home made oven chips, etc.

Re cod, I dont eat that anymore or give it to my family after that cod worm thread on MN (yuck).

Caligula - I haven't made homemade chips before but I sometimes do potato wedges. I just slice them up, chuck them on a baking tray and cover them in olive oil. Not really much more bother than doing oven chips.

I wouldn't know about freezing the chicken nuggets as I have not made them before... I just recently found a receipe which looked so easy.

soapbox, i've got his school dinners book so can dig out the recipe for you if you like.
beatie, what you're talking about are occasional treats though, at a party, and i don't mind at all my girls eating just cake once in a while (dd2 just sucks off the icing). i think being too rigid about food is just as bad as dishing up crap all the time.

Think you could be right about the parents, soapbox. The looks of boredom on the faces of most of them when JO was doing his talk made me think the same thing. Just goes to show it is as much about educating the parents as anything else.

Well said, bundle. The exact point I was making about DS and bicuits, chocolate, etc.

Beatie - we have children from DD and Ds's school home for tea each Thursday evening (different one's each week) and I now always do 'choosing plates'. I put out cherry toms, carrot sticks, humous, cucumber, ham, cheese on sticks, apple chunks, tangerine segments and a choice of yoghurts and any other bits and pieces I have lying around. Always have some kind of cake for dessert - often make these with the kids when they are here (crispy cakes or muffins easiest to do).

The little darlings can then help themselves to what they want and DH and I tuck into the left overs as nibbles in the evening! The children like it as its like a party tea - but without all the crap!

caligula, can't say I've tried it, but I did read a recipe for homemade chips where you freeze them in foil - presumably you don't cook them too much before you freeze them.

I've made my own burgers, meatballs and fishcakes, but not since I went back to work.

Oh bundle - yes please

Thank you!

Bundle - I have the same haddock issues - Sainsbury's and tesco only seem to stock cod atm!

And isn't there a salt /hydrogenated fat / sugar problem with ritz bics and cornflakes?

can't win!

beatie, do you leave the skin on the potato wedges?