Going about it all the wrong way...

In the UK, they have really been pushing healthy eating in the schools, with them providing more healthy options in the canteens, getting the children to fill out food charts to see if they are eating their five a day etc.

But when it comes to the cooking classes, that's where they fall down.

Pickle, my oldest son, started high school last September.  We have a brand new Campus that was built in our town about 4 years ago.  It is state of the art and I was very impressed with it.  The three favourite rooms that Pickle liked the most (and me) was the music room with individual sound booths so they can record their music (he takes after his father there).  The canteen, where no money is accepted, I put his lunch money in an account online, and Pickle just gets his thumb scanned so there is no bullies stealing kids cash or stealing their cards. And the cookery class room.  They have individual cooking stations, even with a computer attached to each to show step by step recipes!

Pickle said he wants to be a Chef like his cousin. So I was looking forward to what came out of those classes.

So far, the first was fruit salad.  Ok, no cooking involved, but teaches them to cut up fruit, and is very healthy.  Then came rock cakes and pizza, and last week, flapjacks.

Now something else that gets my goat, is the kids have to take in their own ingredients.  Now I don't bake, because I like to live a healthy diet, after all, it's my business.  So I have to buy ingredients I don't use, for just a little of it to be needed! Have you ever tried packaging up a PINCH OF SALT???? It cost me £10 for the ingredients for the bloody flapjacks....since when have strawberries and white chocolate been some of the ingredients?  Why can't these ingredients be purchased by the school, and charge us for what is used?

So Pickle went off with the ingredients for these flapjacks. Instead of taking just the 50g of golden syrup, he took the whole brand new tin with him.

When he came home, he told me the flapjacks were ruined because the teacher's aid who greases the paper didn't put enough butter on it, and you couldn't remove the paper from the flapjack.  When I went into the kitchen to inspect them, I found Pickle hadn't place the lid back on the syrup tin and the entire tin had leaked all over the container the flapjacks were on and leaking out of the bag!  Not one drop was left in the tin.  After cleaning it all up I inspected the flapjacks to see what could be salvaged.  Pickle was right, you couldn't remove the paper...and they were BURN'T!!!!  I asked him why they burnt, as they shouldn't be in a timed cooking class.  He said he had to place his in the top part of the oven as he was sharing it.  So of course they burnt!  Well THAT was a waste of £10, you couldn't even eat any of it!!!

What I'm really disgusted about, is all these kids seem to do is bake, and nothing else.  These sort of foods they shouldn't be learning, because they are fattening and shouldn't be included in an everyday diet!  I spoke to another mum who has teenagers in the same school, and she said over the years, it doesn't get any better, they still keep baking and not much else.

These kids should be learning to make dishes like a stir fry, or an omelette!  Everyday meals that's quick and easy and healthy for them.

It's great the school SERVE healthy options, but they are falling down with TEACHING them how to make them. 

This isn't going to help obesity in children, because they aren't being taught to cook properly and just enticing their sweet tooth.