To celebrate National School Meals Week (NSMW), from 8th to 12th November 2021, we have sourced sexciting activity sheets to support this week’s school menus.

• Monday: Mix it up Monday: Awaken your taste buds and enjoy the taste of vegetarian dishes. Click here to download Monday’s activity sheet.

• Tuesday: Food for Fuel Tuesday: Stay for school lunches that will provide you with the energy to learn & play! Click here to download Tuesday’s activity sheet.

• Wednesday: The Great British Roast Dinner: What will you choose? Meat or vegetarian? Click here to download Wednesday’s activity sheet.

• Thursday: Plant-Based Thursday: Celebrate plant-based options on the menu. Click here to download Thursday’s activity sheet.

• Friday: Take on the lunchtime challenge to find out where the dishes on your menu come from:
  • Are they grown above or below the ground?
  • Are they animal or vegetable? Click here to download Friday’s activity sheet.

Please feel free to share this with parents and students for further engagement with the meal provision at your school during this exciting week.

What is meal planning?

Its organising meals you would like to cook yourself for the upcoming days or week, whether that be breakfast, lunch or dinner. Personally, it’s one of my favourite things to do at the weekend ready for the following week. I find it easier to ask myself “what’s for dinner” for the whole week, instead of every night!

Why Meal plan?

• Help keep costs low- only purchase what ingredients you need. If I don’t plan I am guilty of picking up extras on my shopping that I don’t need that are calorific with no or low nutritional value.
• Improves eating habits – spending time each week to plan your meals on your own or with family can increase the variety of foods you are eating as well as its nutritional quality whilst decreasing the amount of less nutritious foods you consume.
• Helps you reach goals – such as wanting to eat more wholemeal grains, introducing one meal free meal a week, eating seasonally or watching our weight.
• Promotes cooking at home– helps reduce the number of takeaways we might order, but gives us peace of mind in regards to what we are eating. We know exactly what ingredients are going into our meals, no hidden- salt, fat and sugars. Gives families a better opportunity to get everyone involved in cooking and learning new skills!
• Reduces the amount of food waste we produce– before I started to plan my meals, the amount of food I had to throw away at the end of the week because I had completely forgotten about it was unreal. Let’s protect our planet more.

Where to start?

Meal planning can seem overwhelming and hard work, but planning what you want to eat for the week means you are far more likely to eat in a way that will make you and your family happy compared to what you would if you didn’t plan!

Follow 3 simple steps to get you started:

Selecting recipes

• Choose meals that will leave you with some leftovers- the gift that keeps on giving- lunch tomorrow is now sorted.
• Choose recipes you know and love but mix it up by throwing in one recipe you’ve always wanted to try! Why not travel the world through your kitchen, try out different flavours and cuisines.
• Choose recipes that have common ingredients- helps saves money but also helps avoid food waste.
• TIP! Don’t forget to look at your calendar for things scheduled that week and think about the weather. You don’t want to be eating a stew or casserole when it’s beautifully warm and sunny outside

Shopping for ingredients- Start by making a master list of ingredients you will need for the week. Once you’ve done this, shop in your kitchen and cross off the ingredients you already have!

Prepping your meals – This is more optional… If you have a spare hour on Sunday- get batch cooking, save yourself time in the week by chopping and dicing herbs, garlic and vegetables ahead of time.

Give it a try! Happy Meal Planning 🙂 

Pancake Day- Tuesday 5th March

Pancake Day is possibly one of the best days of the year.

Nothing more rewarding that flipping that pancake and catching it in again, without getting it stuck to the ceiling or on the floor.

Now for the important part, getting creative and choosing your topping…  But what toppings do we choose?  Are we going to go for the more balanced route or just completely naughty- nothing like treating yourself- right!?

Did you know as a nation our favourite toppings are?

• Maple Syrup
• Lemon & Sugar
• Whipped Cream
• Chocolate Chips
• Strawberries

Personally, I have such a sweet tooth and if you’re anything like me, one or two pancakes are definitely not enough! When you include all the toppings (especially those aimed at us with a sweet tooth), it would send us into sugar overload- I try to opt for a healthy topping.  Here is my favourite pancake recipe (check out below) and toppings;

This Recipe is high in fiber, but low in fat: Banana Pancake Recipe

Toppings:

• Sprinkle of Cinnamon- acts as a natural sweetener as well as adds flavour.
• Yoghurt & Berries – Preferably plain yoghurt, as the berries especially when ripe add natural sweetness. My favourite berries have to be a mix of Strawberry, blueberries and raspberries.
• Mango with Low Fat Coconut Yoghurt (make sure you watch out for the sweeteners in the yoghurt).
• Fresh squeeze of lemon- Such a classic.
• Fruit with Honey

Sugar is constantly on the news, as a nation we do consume more than the recommended amount….  It has been suggested that the average UK adult consumes 30kg of sugar in a year, and this isn’t just on confectionary items, but in foods such as bread! To break it down further, weekly us Britons consume up to 140 teaspoons of sugar per person…

We really need to start understanding our sugars and where they might come from. Unfortunately, a lot of the sugars we consume are actually hidden sugars, also known as “Free Sugars” or “Added Sugars”.

What are the types of Sugars?

Natural Sugars

• These are sugars that are naturally found in foods such milk, fruit and vegetables.

Free Sugars (Added Sugar)

• These are sugars that are added to your food and drinks such as biscuits, chocolates, fizzy drinks or Yoghurts.
• These sugars may also be added at home, by a cook/chef in a restaurant or café or other foods that are manufacture red such as jar sauces or fast foods you can microwave or throw in the oven.
• Sugar in syrups, honey, unsweetened fruit or vegetable juices and smoothies are also counted towards free sugars.

Recommendations:

Note these are for FREE SUGARS only- these free sugars should be no more than 5% of our energy intake daily.

• Adults should have no more than 30g of free sugars a day (Approx. 7 Sugar Cubes)
• 7-10 Year olds, no more than 24g of free sugars a day (Approx. 6 Sugar Cubes)
• 4-6 Year olds, no more than 19g of free sugars a day (Approx. 4 Sugar Cubes)

Sugar & Nutritional labels:

Sometimes looking at the amount of sugar on the front or back of food labels can be very deceiving, and what is considered as high or low?

On the back of food packaging, the nutritional labels you might see “of which sugars” underneath carbohydrates, this is the total amount of sugar from all sources- Free Sugars and Natural. For example, in natural plain yoghurt, the label might state it contains 8g per serving, however none of these are free sugars they are natural as they come from milk.

Products are considered to either be high or low in sugar if they fall above or below the following categories:

• High: more than 22.5g of total sugars per 100g
• Low: 5g or less of total sugars per 100g

On the front of food packaging you may come across a “traffic light labels” are also a handy tool to help us decide whether certain food items are healthier than other. These categorise kcals, fat, sugar & fat into red, amber & green colour coding’s.

• Red – high (more than 22.5g of sugar per 100g or more than 27g per portion)
• Amber – medium (more than 5g but less than or equal to 22.5g of sugar per 100g)
• Green – low (less than or equal to 5g of sugar per 100g)

These coding’s are based on reference intakes, for total sugars for adults its 90g a day, which includes 30g of free sugars.

Not only do we have to understand how sugar is represented on the food label but sugar can be disguised within the product ingredients list, here is a list of different names for added sugars you may come across when reading product labels:

• Sucrose
• Glucose
• Fructose
• Maltose
• Fruit juice
• Molasses
• Hydrolysed starch
• Invert sugar
• Corn syrup
• Honey
• Maple Syrup
• Agave Nectar.
• Treacle

Why is sugar so bad for us?

The scariest thought is that we become addicted to sugar, and by replacing it even with sweeteners, this addiction doesn’t go away, we will continue to crave it. Best method? Is trying to cut sugar out of our diets completely without making swaps to sweeteners in hot drinks like tea or fruit squashes. It becomes a very viscous cycle.

Consuming excess sugar isn’t just bad for our health but our children’s,  can lead to a vast range of health conditions due to build-up of harmful fat around our organs , this weight gain which can increase the risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Stroke, Heart Disease, some Cancers and tooth decay. It has been shown that tooth decay amongst 5 to 9 years is the leading cause of hospitalisation.

What we are doing at HES Catering:

Within primary schools we have done workshops with the students, helping them understand what free sugars are and where they may be found, comparing different products that might see in supermarkets.

To help our young customers make better choice in regards to sugar consumption, we have published sugar awareness posters to show what we provide as a service compared to external outlets what secondary age pupils can access at lunchtime

 

Another project we are working on currently in secondary schools due to the wide range of choices, is making sure that the traffic light systems can be accessed by pupils to help them make a more informed educated decision on choosing better healthier choices whilst at school. This includes “traffic light labels” for each dish which we serve on a daily basis. We are aiming this at secondary school pupils as they have a vast range of food to choose from on a daily basis as well as access to outside food chains for the older years (depending on the schools). This will enable our young customers to access more information, including dietary information such as allergens on their phones and other platforms from after February half term. This information can be accessed from a from a QR code on the bottom of their schools menu and the website.  We are rolling this out initially at  Frances Bardsley and then to our other schools- watch this space!

To find out more about sugar, please visit the following links:

• https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/food-facts/sugar
• https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/food-facts/sugar/sugar-calculator
• https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/carbohydrates-and-diabetes/how-to-cut-down-on-sugar

Thinking about what I looked forward to and enjoyed during the summer holidays, was mainly going to the local seaside having ice cream and doughnuts as we walked along the beach! Or  even occasionally having fish and chips along the seafront. Looking back at it now, it wasn’t the best way to help promote healthy lifestyles or  teach me about what I should be eating. Really in the end, as a kid I thought of summer holidays as one big TREAT!

I don’t think much has changed!

In the obesogenic environment we now live in, we are more likely to adopt sedentary lifestyles. Perhaps, instead of being active and playing with siblings or friends, the good ol’ days when we could happily play out in the streets without a care in the world, children are finding video games and watching TV more appealing.  Alongside this, Studies have shown that during the summer holidays children are likely to consume as much as five times as much sugar during the summer holiday than any other time of year… with the rate of tooth decay rapidly increasing among 5 to 9 year old, this is HUGE!

So, I have come up with some tips to help keep our children healthy during the school holidays…

 

Healthy Treats

I know as soon as you say healthy, sometimes it’s not appealing, but trust me! Healthy can be just as delicious. I will hold my hands up, I am guilty of wanting an ice cream in this weather, but we can make healthier alternative! You may even come up with others yourself…

Frozen Watermelon Wedges, Smoothie Ice Lollies, Frozen Bananas dipped in chocolate, Frozen Yoghurt coated Strawberries. Swap Crisps for Rice cakes or even Apple Crisps… (See Below for Recipe)

Allowing your children to be independent.

I think letting your children choose or make their own snacks can help teach them about healthy lifestyles as well as their cooking skills.  By making sure that fruit bowls or vegetable sticks are more at eye level or in sight rather than high energy dense snacks will help encourage these healthy habits. If you are going out, why not let them help making lunch or choose what they want to include within the packed lunch or picnic  (within reason and of course, a little bit of guidance).  Such as, Crudités with dip, or wholemeal wraps with protein fillings.

Limit Sugary Drinks

As we know, the amount of sugar we consume through our drinks is a lot higher than the recommended daily amount we should be consuming.  WATER, WATER, WATER. Always the best form of hydration, but I agree it can be boring, ways of combating this could be… Novelty ice cubes, you can get all kinds of shapes these days, or even try adding fruit to your ice cube, making our drinks look more interesting and colourful. Think of alternative drinks you can enjoy as a family. I really enjoy fruit infused water… for example: Watermelon & Mint, Cucumber & Lime… why not get the children to come up with their own combinations to try.More amount hydration and sugary drinks please see the following link: https://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/hydration/hydration-for-children.html

Meal planning for the holiday.

Why not get the kids involved with planning what meals to make at home… homemade is always the best option. Not only do you know there are no hidden nasties such as high levels of sugar and salt, but an opportunity to help the children develop their cooking skills, knowledge and a lovely bit of bonding time!

Dealing with Fussy Eaters.

I think the best option is… “What they don’t know won’t hurt them”. Lots of children don’t want to try new things because they like routine and are creature of habit. Not only that, but if their friends don’t want it or like it, they certainly won’t either…Being apart of HES Catering, I think I have mastered the act of smuggling in vegetables into dishes what children enjoy and wouldn’t notice.or example… our homemade tomato sauce, pretty much used at the bases of a majority of dishes packed full of lentils and vegetables. And our homemade pizza has grated vegetables such as carrot and courgette into the base! Try it at home.

Thinking about it another fun activity I loved during the holidays with my family was going to a pick your own. I think it pretty much helped me to appreciate and learn about where my food comes from.  Not only that but we got to eat them as we went around picking the fruit!  Why not have a fun activity once you’re at home, make a fruit salad with what you have made or incorporate the goodies into other recipes! Get everyone involved.

Hope you all have a lovely summer!

As a borough, Havering have dedicated the month of May to help educate and support its staff with Mental Health.

We all have good and bad days, however, on these bad days its more than often we reach for “Comfort Foods”. These foods cause our brains to secrete Serotonin, boosting our mood and gives us that feel good factor,  highlighting that there is a link between the food we eat and our mood.

To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. 

― Buddha

Consuming a healthy balanced diet can actually improve our moods, as well as our sense of wellbeing! But knowing what foods can help our mental health can be confusing like more information out there, it changes regularly…

So what can you do to help improve your mental health and wellbeing?

Eat Regularly

• Kick start your day with a hearty breakfast- especially porridge or overnight oats.
• Avoid foods that are high in sugar, as this can lead to a rapid increase in blood sugar and then a drastic drop.
• Eating little and often ensures that your blood sugar levels stay stable, if these blood sugar levels drop this can cause the feeling of tiredness, irritability and depression. This can be achieved by choosing foods that provide a slow release of energy, such as wholegrain foods, protein foods, oats and seeds.

Eating your 5 a Day

• Vegetables and Fruit contain vital Vitamins and Minerals that keep us physically and mentally healthy.
• We need to eat a variety of fruit and vegetable, plenty of different colours to ensure we are consuming a vast rage of vitamins and minerals.
• Cooking methods can alter the quality of the vitamins and mineral we consume, boiling vegetables can reduce the amount of vitamins they contain, steaming or consuming them raw are your best options to reduce the amount of vitamin loss.

Keep Hydrated 

• Not drinking enough or staying hydrated can cloud our concentration or thinking.
• Try to drink at least 2 pints of water a day- I was never a fan of plain water, but a way to mix it up is doing fruit infused waters. My favourite combination is watermelon and mint!
• Avoid Alcohol or Sugary/Fizzy drinks.
• Don’t consume too much caffeine – too much can cause you to feel anxious, depressed and can also disturb your sleep.

Protein Consumption

• Protein is a good source of amino acids which help balance our blood sugar levels when consumed, helping us regulate our thoughts and feelings.

Consuming the right Fats

• Our brains need fatty acids to help regulate its function, such as Omega 3 and 6- which can be found in oily fish, poultry, yoghurt and nuts.

Hopefully these tips will help us develop and maintain good mental Health and wellbeing.

For further help and tips please visit the below link…https://www.mind.org.uk/

When dishing up or preparing your meals throughout the day, we tend to believe we know what portions sizes should be consumed compared to what’s recommended.   However, we often end up eating more than we should. Example of this is in restaurants, when we eat out, we are in the habit of serving or opting for the “super-sized” or “go-larger” meals. Actually roughly 40% of us are unsure on what portion sizes we should be consuming.

Concerningly, this increase in large portion sizes are becoming the norm and are encouraging us to over-eat, contributing to obesity. If we think about it, within the last several years more energy dense foods been made into share packs i.e. crisps, chocolates and other confectionary items- but honestly who actually shares these?

So what can we do to reduce the portion sizes we are consuming?
–  Look at Food Labels
Food packaging now displays the serving’s sizes on them, especially on ready meals or good that’s “grab and go” when you are in a rush. You might be surprised that some are actually for 2, rather than one! (I’m definitely guilty of this). This means we are also guilty of consuming double the amount of calories we should be (Opps…).

– Use smaller plates.
With larger plates we are encouraged to serve ourselves larger portions to convince our brains that we have plenty to keep us full, using smaller plate’s doesn’t only trick our brains into thinking we are eating large portions but we are actually reducing our consumption at the same time.

– Compartmentalise.
Visualise that your plate is broken up into compartments.

First half should be filled up with tasty, colourful veggies. The other half!? Divide that into two for your protein and carbohydrates… that way you have plenty on your plate and it’s healthy too. (See below regarding what foods help us feel fuller for longer).

– Snack from a bowl.

Empty any snacks from the packaging into a bowl when feeling peckish.

This is because you are more likely to consume 50% more if your food is hidden from your sight i.e. in packaging (evidence of this is popcorn at a cinema, how many of us say we couldn’t finish large popcorn whilst watching a movie… yet we still prove ourselves wrong).

Top tips for feeling fuller for longer:
– Choose wholegrain or high fibre carbohydrates, these release energy in our bodies slowly, increasing our satiety, rather than quick bursts of energy resulting into further snacking.

– Consume foods that are high in protein, but ate low in fat (trim visible fat or take the skin of any poultry), these tend to also have a longer lasting effect on our satiety compared to foods higher in fat or carbohydrates.

Obesity is constantly on the news and generally is a massive topic that’s brought up to us all, no matter our age.
Why? It’s becoming more of a concern, which we finally are working as a nation to reduce its prevalence.

Nowadays there are more and more factors that can contribute to the development of obesity, with the obesity awareness week being this week, I thought it would be a great idea to look at Change4life recommendations that came out recently on children’s sugar intake!

Did you know, children in England have three times the amount of sugar compared to that recommended. These recommendations are:
– 4-6 year olds, no more than 19g of free sugars a day. ( 5 Sugar Cubes).
– 7- 10 year olds, no more than24g per day (6 Sugar Cubes).
– 10years and older, 30g per day ( 7 Sugar Cubes).

As we know too much sugar leads to many complications not just obesity, diabetes but tooth decay too. Public Health England have found that half of our children’s sugar intake is actually coming from the consumption of snacks and fizzy drinks. As a result, Change for life are launching a campaign to help us choose healthier snacks, and tips such as “Look for 100 calorie snacks and limit to just 2 a day”. This is an 8 week campaign, where if you sign up you can receive money-off vouchers towards healthier snack items.
https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/food-facts/healthier-snacks-for-kids#vPDZjoCtEUSy5MjL.97 – Please see for further details.

This week we have been working at James Oglethorpe Primary…
With the years 5 and 6, we made foods equate to 100kcals and looked at example to help the kids understand calorific values and what are healthy snacks or swaps they can make at home this included Banana Wraps, Salad bundles and Pizzadillas. At first the children didn’t seem too sure, but by the time they tried the snacks we had made they were more than keen to take the recipes to try at home.

Organic September.

As a catering service, we work alongside the Soil Association to ensure our meals are locally sourced, sustainable and honest food cooked by our Kitchen staff. The Soil Association in September will be promoting why we should all buy organic produce, and why should we?

Well…
• Fewer pesticides
The pesticides in non-organic food production can pollute our waters and the environment. Many pesticides used in this production do not just kills weeds, but can impact our wildlife too. Organic farms only use natural substances from plants rather than chemicals to prevent pests and diseases, using less energy and are more respectful to wildlife and our environment.

• Better Animal Welfare
Organic meats mean that our animals are a lot happier and healthier!
This means that their feed is as natural as possible and they are not fed food in order to bulk the animals up for their meat. There is plenty of space for the animals to live and grow, to reduce the amount of stress and disease.
Organic Farms help look after our wildlife, on average plants, insects and bird life is 50% larger on organic farms, and are they home to 30% more species.

• You’ll know what’s in your food
Organic food means our produce is more natural and was produced in a strictly controlled environment, therefore you should be able to trace it from the farm right to your fork.

• Nutritionally different to non-organic farming
Studies have found that… Organic milk and meat containing around 50% more omega-3 fatty acids than non-organic and slightly lower concentrations of two saturated fats. Organically produced such as grains, fruit and vegetables crops have been found to have up to 68% more antioxidants than non-organic.

• Fights against Global Warming
Organic farming helps a healthy living soil that is more resistant to drought, floods which impacts climate change. We have to protect our soil as it’s a non-renewable source; therefore it needs protection for food security and sustainable sources of food in the future. Not only this, but healthy soil is a major store of carbon for example, it can contain three times the amount of carbon that’s in our atmosphere.

As a catering service we care about our environment and where our food comes from. We believe that foods we consume should be traceable. Currently in our school meals, we use a range of different organic ingredients on our menu which range from, Beef, Pork to pasta, carrots and much more. We don’t only supply your children with organic produce but other foods certification to ensure our menu is sustainable such as MSC fish, Fairtrade Bananas and Free Range Eggs.

Happy Organic Eating!

Hi All!

First of all, thank you for all your lovely comments.
Its great to hear that we have been able to change a few peoples perceptions of school meals! Our meals have come a long way from Turkey Twizzlers, Pink Custard and Semolina.

We had a great day meeting you all! As requested, please see below a few of our recipes we shared with you on the day!
I hope you enjoy making these and sharing them with your friends and family. (Maybe test out their taste buds by trying the guessing game with them too!)

Currently, we are working on getting these recipes into the tea pantry for all to buy! ENJOY 🙂

Lime & Courgette Cake
Cherry, Sultana & Coconut Flapjack
Chocolate, Orange and Beetroot Cake
Mango & Coconut Muffins