The Dinner Lady: Change The Way Your Children Eat Forever
£3.20
As a highly experienced dinner lady, Jeanette has long been at the heart of Jamie Oliver’s revolution to change the bad eating habits of our children both in and outside school. As part of her campaign to improve children’s diets, she has written a unique family cookbook full of tasty, healthy, inexpensive and appealing recipes that are easy to make and can be enjoyed whatever age you are! She believes in simple, traditional dishes with a modern twist, made with the freshest local and – where possible – organic ingredients. All the recipes are big hits from Jeanette’s kitchen and are accompanied by personal anecdotes and comments from the children at St Peter’s, the school in which she worked for years as a dinner lady. They include Pasta with Peas and Bacon, Meatballs in Tomato Sauce, Real Chicken Nuggets, Cowboy Stew, Toffee Cream Tart, Apple Cobbler and Muffins.
This beautifully illustrated book also tells the inspirational story of how Jeanette became Britain’s most vocal campaigner for good food for our kids. It includes her advice (after years of experience)on cooking for children at home, ideas for getting (even the fussiest!) children interested in and excited by food. Also practical tips for busy parents to make life in the kitchen easier with notes on nutrition and advice for making meal times an enjoyable occasion. Plus a list of resources and suppliers.
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | Bantam Press, First Edition (1 April 2005) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 288 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0593054296 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0593054291 |
| Dimensions | 19.3 x 2.87 x 24.64 cm |
by Enjay
I guess I must have bought this, but I cannot remember doing so. I bet it was a gift for someone, or bought on someone’s behalf. There was this one dinner lady at school who always used to give me extra custard. She was the mum of one of my friends. I don’t suppose the book is about her.
I’m only reviewing it because Amazon requires a review to dismiss items from my items to review list and it’s getting cluttered with things that don’t really need to be reviewed but there is no other way to dismiss them. I did ask if they could add a feature to remove irrelevant items but they don’t seem to want to go down that route. I’ve just spent hours reviewing items. đ
by Arachne202
I have three children, and so far I’ve made and eaten 20 of the 100+ recipes in the book.
It’s designed for both home cooks and dinner ladies, so the recipes have quantities for 4 people up one side, and 96 up the other. The first third of the book is a history of school dinners in Britain, how the author became a dinner lady, and her own campaigns to keep the council from cost-cutting the food into rubbish. I enjoy food history, and this was an interesting read. She also mentions that the kitchen head who trained her passed on what sorts of foods children like to eat, in a sort of dinner lady lore, and so now we parents can get the benefit of that passed-down wisdom.
The ingredients are generally inexpensive and easy to find – except chicken mince, for some reason. (I used turkey mince instead.) Use of time is not as well-thought out as it could be – a school kitchen has three hours to get a main and a dessert cooked and on the table; a busy working parent wants it closer to one hour!!, and I’ve been streamlining various stages to make them quicker. There is lots of use of fruits and vegetables, which the author is very passionate about, and some vegetarian options.
The author has reduced the sugar levels in all the desserts to as low as possible; in a couple of cases, too low, and I have topped them up slightly. (Don’t tell the dentist.) With the savoury dishes, she generally avoids all seasonings apart from the odd bit of curry powder. This can make the food taste bland and institutional, and if you prefer some tang, treat the recipes as a base and add your own seasonings.
So far my family have had:
Chicken Meatballs with Tomato Sauce – Sausage Casserole – Pork Balls With Spaghetti – Toad in the Hole – Fish Cakes – Cheesy Yorkshire Puddings – Macaroni Cheese – Rainbow Salad – Cornflake Tart – Apple Pie – Apple Crumble – Gooey Chocolate Pudding – Jam Tart – Rice Pudding – Chocolate Muffins – Chocolate Chip Cookies – Cherry Shortcake – Gingerbread – Chocolate Marble Sponge – Dave’s Date Slice.
I will continue to work my way through the book.
by Miriam
Useful book to have. Good, healthy, filling meals for the family on a budget!
I am using it to cook for the families in our âmessy churchâ.
by shiner840
Great recipes, but way too much prelude, takes up near half the book !
by K. Muir
I had high hopes for this book. My eldest child loves school dinners, but not my cooking so much. I dreamt of sitting down with him, perusing the book together, looking at the yummy pictures and choosing meals we could make at home.
The reality is a book with very few photographs of the actual dishes, which means neither of us know what it is supposed to look like, so can’t decide if it’s worth cooking in the first place.
So far I’ve made the chicken nuggets, fish cakes and gooey chocolate pudding – all 3 of which my children have refused to eat as they were too bland or just not to their liking. And I had to agree with them. I’ll stick with Rachel Allen Home Cooking thanks.
by Zak
i recieved the book today and there are lots of good, solid what i would call ‘man food’ recipes. I tried the cheesy yorkshire puddings and the fish crumble. It was my first time making a yorkshire pud and also cooking any type of fish and the kids loved it. Have to admit that i added spices here and there otherwise the food would be too bland. But the author says that she likes plain food.
Also some of the measurements were out for the two recipes i tried but while i was cooking i saw there would be a problem and compensated, eg, i was making the fish crumble for two people but had to use te quantities she gives if you are making for four peoples for the milk, peas, flour and butter.
There is a lot of history given before the recipes start which i found interesting. So far im liking the book
EDIT: its now been a few days since my last review and ive made the aussie pie and the cornflake tart. Both yummy but i shouldve halved the amount of cornflakes. There was loads left over which i have stuck in a container for when i need a sugar fix.
by LCY
I absolutely love this book, and as a result, I’ve bought the second one. I was sick of buying books where you needed to make special trips to the supermarket to buy ingredients. I only needed to buy a couple to supplement the ones that were already in my fridge and cupboards and I’ve found I’ve used many of them repeatedly in different recipes. I was particularly pleased to discover how to make school dinner style chicken curry and my friends were very complimentary about the very simple and healthy chicken nuggets I put out in a buffet. My daughter’s 18 – but I still like to cook hearty and healthy meals for her and her friends.This book does the job.
by Tracey Ann baker
was recommended to me as a catering manager in a school very helpful for menu planning best buy for me