Are you watching Jamie Oliver's school dinners?

[MunchedTooManyMarsLady]

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

HM!! Ham Sick!! Yeughhhhhhhhh!!!!

We made tuna sick rather than ham sick. Involved tuna, condensed mushroom soup, breadcrumbs and cheese iirc. And we also had cookery baskets we had to lug to school every week.

Most of the stuff was great though - made puff pastry from scratch, sponges, pancakes, lemon cheesecake (lost the recipe sadly but my mum still says its the best one she's ever eaten!).

Looking back, I wish I'd continued with it instead of taking Latin!

Watching JO makes me glad that I've started to teach my children how to cook. They help with all the cake baking, but more importantly they help with and can make evening meals. DS1 can cook about half a dozen meals, including puddings. DD1 can cook a couple. They are perfectly competent when it comes to using the oven or the hob. They can bake as well. DS1 rushes home from school on Mondays so that he can cook the evening meal. He makes a lovely jerk chicken, rice and peas. I'm about to teach them how to make soup, leek and stilton being my favourite. My aim is to spend more time on mn whilst the kids cook and clean. Am I wrong? lol

It was called Domestic Science when I was at school First thing we made was cheese on toast. Second was fruit salad. I was cooking roast dinners by myself at home by then (age 11).

Remember my brother making a cheese and potato pie. We had to eat it for dinner and we were ploughing through it without much enthusiasm when my Mum said "it doesn't taste very cheesy - you took half a pound of cheddar with you this morning." Turned out he and his friend had eaten the grated cheese while waiting for the potatoes to cook - so the "cheese and potato pie" was actually just a dish of mashed potato!

soapbox ...have just seen this thread -t hanks for the compliment - although i struggle to live up to it. its definately more expensive and time consuming.

after chucking away my microwave and chip pan i wondered what i was going to do for a while. but thanks to the power of mumsnet i discovered how to make a good meal with mince - and a little packet goes a long way - i chuck sweetcorn and peas into a pan with chopped tomatoes, bit of tomato paste - garlic and serve it lots of ways - put two lots of chopped tomatoes in with some water serve with pasta or rice - or simmer it down and buy either pittas or flatbread and stick it in with some salad - or chuck it in a bowl and let the kids get all mucky filling their own flatbread cones or pittas. they love love love it. another cheap recipe is a cooked chicken strip it down and mush it up into tiny strips with a fork - suddenly theres enough to feed 4 big people ( which my dh and kids are) cook some rice again with the sweetcorn and peas stick the chicken in mix it all up stick it in a bowl - my lot love it. - plus my kids were getting arsey about having the brown meat off the chicken so if its all mushed up they dont get arsey.

those meals are relativley cheap as own brand pasta or rice is ded cheap.

another cheap one is noodles. 8p per pkt from tesco - chuck the flavouring away either add in a bit of your own or leave it without. i usually serve noodles with sausages or meatballs all cut up into little pieces. you can make your own meatballs ( i dont) kids love it.

also a cheap option is soup - my kids as big as they are love a big bowl of soup with a pile of bread in the midle to fight for, yum yum

glad J.O. has brought the issue of school dinners to light - my lot are in senior school they never had a school dinner option in junior school - all brought packed lunches. but the shite absolute shite they were easting at school was horrendous. my three are on packed lunches now which on its own in senior school can make them social outcasts. but they cope. and i am more liberal from the sounds of it than a lot of Mnetters. mine get an own brand choc biscuit and a bag of crips with their ham sandwich and bottle of water! - still this is better than £2.00 being spend on a jumbo sausage and sweets - not even a drink and this was their constant every day.

and another thing that got on my nerves was they have vending machines in senior school. VENDING MACHINES!! my 15 year old used to buy a can of coke and a choc bar and have nothing left for dinner time and was starving when he got home.

sock it to 'em jamie

We have just got rid of the vending machines, we have one that only sells milk and one that still does coke (curses). Trouble is these make money for the school and we are very short of cash. By getting rid of them the school helps the kids diet but has less money for other things. Shitty isn't it?

Good on you Hunkermunker - what a brilliant idea; wish I'd thought of it first!!

Also, maybe we should email this conversation to JO - does anyone know how to?

There are forums on his website

Email Tesco too, BL - the more the merrier

Hmb I'm so so disgusted by the vending machine thing, I just don't think junk food vending machines have ANY place in schools.

I fully agree. As I said, we have at least stopped selling sweets and chocolates in a vending machine and that now sells milk. The canteen still sells sweets though. They also sell some junk foods, but they also cook real food.

Some kids eat nothing but crap and will continue to do so until we take the choice away from them.

Some kids cannot eat with a knife and fork at the age of 14. Presumably because they only ever eat junk food at home that they can eat with a knife and fork. And the table manners would shame my five year old. They will walk out of the canteen, eat what they want and simply throw the food on the floor. This is atracting rats. It is just so flipping sad and annoying.

I watched this last night (taped, we went to bed at 8 on Weds) and it made me cry again. I don't know why I didn't know it was this terrible, it is such a scandal that children are being fed this stuff. I really liked JO, agree with you all about the baby blue front door, nice, and thought poor Jools. Good on him for saying eff off to Clinton. And shocked too at the constipation clinics and children not pooing for SIX WEEKS! Awful.

I live in Co. Durham surrounded by communities much like Peterlee at first I felt awestruck that I had no idea that people all around me ate so badly. When the woman said '6' I expected her to say 'days' of constipation.

My chin hit the floor. I would think someone would DIE if they hadn't had a cr*p for 6 weeks. Many schools in this area have over 50% of the children on free school meals. They deserve at least one square meal a day. I have no doubt that Trimdon, just down the road from Peterlee and Tony Blair's constituency, share all of these issues.

Of course, this does not let the parents off the hook. But if there has never been a healthy eating tradition in a family, it has to begin somewhere.

Vending machines also get my goat. I did training in a school when they were introduced. Not only does the extra sugar wind the kids up, they then try to eat in class and use the bl**dy machines between lessons. All of which staff was then expected to control!

At that point (6 weeks) children will ofen start to vomit faeces.

hmb, really? OMG, that's so awful, it's so cruel to put them in this position, adults and schools should know better.

campaign website for anyone who hasn't seen it or signed the petition

custardo, power of mumsnet alright! I have just realised how easy it is to make your own ovan chips after reading this thread and we will be doing this tonight. My ds can't wait to put the potatoes and oil in a bag and shake them. I do lots of home cooking, but I just hadn't cottoned onto that idea (not a big recipe reader, me).

I personally find some of the views on healthy eating are a bit extreme for me (nearly posted something on this yesterday then decided not to)My children have packed lunches quite a bit like yours, custardo.

As long as my children get some healthy foods, I am ok about them having less healthy food in moderation. Not having tiny children with small appetities, I am used to my sons eating a lot - meat and two veg at supper, big packed lunch, sandwich snacks when they come home from school - so feel if some biscuits and crisps creep in that's ok as they do not replace proper meals.

FYI Greenwich Council is now raising the 37p school meal allocation to 50p, partly as a result of the Jamie Oliver programme.

oh terrible, happymerryberries - do you know if this has actually happened to children you have taught?

I agree - vending machines freely selling sweets and fizzy drinks all day have no place in school. If they must be there, can't they be locked, and only open for very limited times of the day?

No, but dd had bad consipation as a child (not based on diet I hasten to add!) so I read a lot about it!

I vaguely remember that after a while they put the machines on a timer so that it would only work for specific time periods.

Still, it doens't stop a child from buying 5 pieces of junk and taking them to class.

Tigermoth, I wondered if the extreme views you were refering to were mine for example?
I agree that I feed my kids very healthily but why is that extreme? Why is it seen or percieved as extreme ? Whilst my kids hardly ever have crisps or biscuits (maybe once a month and it would be organic),.... they get plenty of treats, I make pop corn, we bake cakes and pancakes very often (yes I tend to cook very much with very little sugar).... or I make my own ice cream.... because I love cooking.
Yesterday we went somewhere (friends) where they had savoury biscuits and I let kids have some and they even had a fruit shoot.... not my cup of tea at all but I made no fuss.... it was OK...

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So, turkey twizzlers are banned?

here

If it was you, you were not the only one, velcrobott. I think there were quite a few people who seemed to give their children 99% healthy stuff.

I don't know how old your children are as I have only skimmed this thread. I can more easily see the point of this for toddlers and very young children. If your child would get full up on a couple of biscuits, say, and then not want to eat their supper, it makes sense not to give them biscuits. My 5 and 10 year old often have a couple of chocolate digestives and a glass of milk after school, but then go on to eat a meat and 2 veg supper later on. So for me, virtually stopping all crisps or biscuits is definitely on the extreme side.

As you say you love cooking, I must seem like little sacrifice to fit homemade treats into your day (they sound delicious too ) dh and I do lots of home cooking but I hate cooking and only do it because we are a family.

Our family rule is 'if you are hungry, you must have proper food' and that's the main rule I want my boys to learn. Junk food and convenience food is part of everday life and I don't believe my boys will fall ill or suffer any serious damage if they have some it in moderation. I don't want them to find it mysteriously attractive because they never have it at home. I'd rather they try it, but know what is nicer (ie dh's and my cooking!). I don't care if they like junk food sometimes, as long as they don't always see it as a meal substitute.

How absolutely horrifying about kids vomiting faeces. Surely even the most benighted and uninformed parent would get the message at that point?

And OMG, what long term damage is that doing to the digestive organs? Surely by the time you've got to puking up shit, your body has already sustained some serious long term harm?