Are you watching Jamie Oliver's school dinners?

[MunchedTooManyMarsLady]

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

Out of sight, out of mind. My dd1 gets all sorts at grannies that wouldn'tsee the light of day in this house.

Haven't got the time to go through all posts but does anyone else think those Turkey Twisters on last nights show looked like something a dog would produce? Bleurrgh.

Cod.... I said THANK you to my friend and didn't make a comment...... I am only illustrating something following a discussion I had with Bundle a while ago.

I think you have to be prepared for your kids to eat crap occasionally at friends' houses and the like, otherwise they'd never go anywhere. Sad but true. I generally try and feed my son's friends reasonably healthily if they come to tea, but they usually get sausages and my 'delicious home made chips'! And baked beans of course. where would we be without them. At the end of the day you have to copromise somewhere between what you would love them to eat (grilled aubergine and salad??!!) and what they would like (chicken nuggets, smiley faces, crap crap crap). Otherwise you'd end up feeding them nothing and feeling a failure .

Spaghetti Bolognese goes down a treat with most kids.

Why do the kids have to eat off those horrible plastic comparmentalised tray things? Do any schools have proper plates anymore? I would hate to eat my dinner from one of those.

Soapbox, she had never eaten avocado before - and thought that you couldn?t eat basil, it?s just leaves.
I found that aspect of it truly depressing tbh, tho I do think it can?t be that bad everywhere. I?m sure DS1 knows what a leek is (he?s not keen in fact, but he has tried it, and likes most other veg) and surely so do lots of primary school kids, don?t they?
I don?t think our primary dinners are this bad, they do pick the worst egs for this sort of show, but yes, it is truly a telling indictment of what we are happy to feed our kids.
Agree with snafu that I would never serve the kids stuff I wouldn't eat. How could you do that? (muminlondon, there's nothign wrong with cod fish fingers (look at the packet, it's all good stuff) and certainyl nothing wrong with frozen peas, packed with vits)
So should those of us who opt for school meals be feelign guilty?

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Yes - but watch the fish finger and sausage content. Also cheap beans seem to have some horrible additives in them (colourant) which gives my children awful allergic reactions - so find out whether they are heinz

have decided to improve my dinners as a result of this show what a typical weeks dinners for you all, looking for ideas

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colouring in Birdseye cod fillet fish fingers is annatto and curcurmin (turmeric) - both natural spices

I buy Birds Eye fish fingers, they're not that bad are they? I know we're not supposed to eat cod (har har) sustainability and all that but apart from that issue I can't see the prob with them.

Cod - wasn't meaning to lecture you on your shopping list

I thought you were doing a kind of hypothetical school lunch menu

And I am amazed at the crap kids are given in general. They get something healthy if they come to tea here but often turn their noses up because they want chips/crap. Ds's lunch box is a healthy one, he tells me that most of his friends have junk in theirs.

Primary School is definitely the place to focus. When ds1 started the children were given 3 choices of 'meat' (I use the term very loosely), 2 or 3 choices of potato/carb option, 3 choices of veg, and about 7 choices of pudding ... It was inefficient, expensive, wasteful, and intimidating for 4 and 5 yr olds.

They changed a yr ago to offering one single choice meat/potato plus 2 or 3 veg, with a jacket potato option as an alternative. At first there were a few protests from kids and parents, but the take-up rate has remained pretty static (about 55% which is quite high I think - 500 children in school).

The quality of the food is still quite poor (horrific in places), but they are working on it. Now that the children are used to not having choices and just eating what's given, they are starting to make what's on offer more healthy.

My boys have school dinners every day and I don't feel guilty; overall they do have a healthy diet despite school dinners!

Thats what my kids eat pretty much all the time.

what about :

sheperds pie
chili (mild obv but with tortillas to roll up in)

can you do rice things or too dodgy?

WWW - i've complained bitterly in the past about the mums at my kids school. They all stand around wittering in horror about people who give their kids sweets or crisps - never supply anythign as gross as these for the end of term parties etc. You know the 'my darling Petronella would never dream of eating such sugary high foods'. When same kids come to visit or my DCs go to their houses - its a free for all with all teh junk food of the day.

Grrrrrrrrrr!!

Had dd1 friend to tea yesterday and gave her chicken and pasta bake and broccoli, then we made cakes, they ate it all.

Have another friend today and am doing Enids Homemade Chicken Nuggets (TM - ), green beans, broccoli and then pancakes with choc spread and ice cream

all easy and cheap

dd1 really really wants cheese strings and peperami in her lunch box and I wont give in but am worried she'll be a pariah, what do you think?

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dds will eat anything if their friends eat it

pancakes rule

Up to you enid but I let ds be a pariah, I don't care, he aint having crap in his lunch box. Not while I have the money and am buying the food. He will leave home and eat crap for 20 years I'm sure. We do have chocolate and treats at home sometimes too though, just not all the time.

WWW - I didn't mean that it was okay to give crap in lunch boxes (just realised my post is a bit ambiguous) but that the same mums who moan about their being chocolate and crisps at the end of term party are the one's who feed their children cheese strings, babybels chips and chicken nuggets!