Are you watching Jamie Oliver's school dinners?

[MunchedTooManyMarsLady]

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

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At the start of last term I had one little boy (5) round for tea and made roast chicken, mash and veg with gravy.

Poor little soul put his head down on the table and wept, real big sploggy tears because he didn;t like any of it Of all the food I had in the house the only thing that would stop him wailing was a jam sandwich (with butter at his insistence)!

Then blow me if I don't find myself apologising to his mother when she picked him up and explained he only ever eats fish fingers/chicken nugget and chips - I was so mad at myself afterwards

Guess who won't be coming home to play again!!

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hence my reason for saying crap food is not a class issue - these are all children in a private school.

I don't think that Jamie's experience of the independent sector will be quite as utopian as he suggested last night

my ds 1 likes roast chicken, mash and veg BUT he went to a friend's the other day and only ate the carrots - apparently the rest of it didn't taste right (only eats roast chicken if done with lemon and garlic)

mind you if she's done chicken nuggets he would have eaten them

No - not on the basis of his diet - but on the basis that the whole scene created by it was truely awful. The play part of the visit was ruined - my children were anxious and I was hassled!

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It's ok soapbox, I was have a general old rant, not at you! I had a boy to tea a while ago who seemed to be waiting for me to get to the junk food option when I was going through what he could have. I think he wanted plain bread in the end. Wouldn't eat pasta, beans, eggs (in any form), cheese on toast, veg, fruit, pizza, I went through the entire contents of my fridge and cupboard and in the end he said just plain bread. So that's what I gave him, wholemeal organic bread and he took one mouthful, spat it out and said 'that's disgusting' and refused to eat anything else. So he went home hungry. I just didn't have anything. Ooh, manners, don't get me started! Another boy said recently 'why are you only giving us a small bit of chocolate?' That's a treat in my house matey boy! It's organic, yummy chocolate and I only had 1 bar in, ok? Grr. What I actually said was 'I think you meant to say Thank You for the chocolate Ms www' Oooh glad I've got that off my chest.

My kids are pretty unfussy (though they're not as good as they were). But when friends come round to play we generally have something like burgers (nice butcher's ones) in baps and baked beans ... because I know that will generally avoid teatime hassle, because most kids will eat that. Then my boys always have a piece of fruit and a yoghurt, followed by a pudding - cake or ice cream or something. The guest will often refuse the fruit and yoghurt and just have the 'pudding'.

So when they go home do their parents think I always feed my kids (and theirs) junk food?!

You really can't judge another family's diet on what they feed your child on a single playdate, or what their child eats at yours on a one-off occasion.

Iota - makes me wonder what my kids turn their noses up at when visiting

havING not have a general old rant!

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Roisin - I know but when I expained why her DS was upset when she came to get him, the mum in this case actually said that all he ate was nuggets/fish fingers and chips. You wouldn't say that if it wasn't true would you??? At least I wouldn't lie about that

I don't mind at all not cooking say, lentil hot pot or anything slighlty unusual when other children are here but I can't believe I couldn't find a single thing he liked. Not even pizza or beans or tomato soup or eggs or cheese. I have no idea what he does eat, should have asked.

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Agree Roisin there is too much choice at school dinners. Our LEA publishes the menus a term in advance (think I mentioned this further down the thread last week) but there's always the get-out clause of 'chef's choice' which always SEEMS to be chicken nuggets!! I commented to a friend of mine with older children in the school that that couldn't possibly be the case and she said 'I wouldn't be so sure!!'. How depressing. As i said before. Kids will pick what their friends pick and if the ringleader picks nuggets then the others will as well. Most 5 yr olds won't stand up for something against peer pressure. If there was just one or 2 healthy choices kids wouldn't be able to pick the crap!!

har har cod

dd1's school currently exploring how they can opt out of their current school meals contract, along with another local school. i'll be delighted if it goes ahead.

DS loves fresh pineapple - but he won't eat it except with a cocktail stick to spear the chunks with.
Sigh.

personnally Im just buying shares in who ever makes Cheese strings. Went on school trip today and group of seven at lunch ALL had cheese strings-except dd who had bag of cut up apple and cheddar as I am evil mother and refuse to pay inflated price for processed crap.
Also dd's party last week, I made sandwiches cut into butterfly shapes, cheese or ham or tuna, white bread-nothing scarey and brown- and 4 out of 12 wouldnt eat any, saying "I only eat jam sandwiches"! needless to say I didnt rush to make them.
I do know the hell of a fussy child but that doesnt mean you have to give in and feed them floor scraping nuggets. There are plenty of healthier options.
Having just read "shopped"-visited grocer and butcher today. DD was fascinated when I asked for 6 chicken thighs and he produced 3 chickens and hacked their legs off in 2 strokes!

wordsmith - lol, 'chefs choice'

talking of what food is eaten on playdates...I have posted this before but we have an occasional playdate friend and big brother who would only eat chickcn nuggets (I made home-made ones and she wolfed them) but refused peas, carrots, even baked beans!
When we go there we always have turkey dinosaurs, potato smiley faces and spaghetti hoops, followed by biscuits or maybe a fromage frais.
Now I don't mind that kind of food now and then, but I assume it's what this mum always feeds her kids.
Funny thing is she's really nice and a "new Clarks shoes no pass-ons" kind as well (one of my acid tests). But the children are both very small. Wonder if that's coincidnece or a consequence of never eating any veg units at all???

What gets me is that if you tried to feed children this crap without all the powerful marketing that goes into it, they'd never swallow it (literally!). I'd love it if someone would put the money into marketing healthy things - but I've lived long enough to know that this is unlikely to happen.

Look at this article here - the shit served in the primary school JO visited was from Scolarest, mentioned in this article as actually refusing to include fresh vegetables or unprocessed meat or fish in their menus. What a dodgy outfit they are. Great to see what can be achieved but shocking that the processed rubbish exists at all.