Mark 17 May in your diary…

We are going to be part of Jamie Olivers Food Revolution Day to celebrate real food, where it comes from and how to cook it!

I will be running an afternoon cooking session at 4pm 17 May on this site.  It will run pretty much like our school holiday cooking program and will be a short, sharp and seriously fun session!!

More details will follow – but  I will have you cooking up a meal that your family will LOVE – I am thinking of something that is totally iconically Kiwi!

This will be our second year of supporting this day!

Wow I’ve done it – I have my first book in the iTunes Apple iBookstore!

I’ve spent much of my university holidays working on a series of new publications for you – this first one is now available.

You are going to love this – for any of you are iPad fans this is so so cool! This first book is summer stuff – light summery food, barbecues, salads and in of course there are some sweet treats too!

I have five review copies to give away – if you would like a free copy to review please email  glenda@foodsavvykids.com and she will send you a code.

Click here to see the blurb etc in iTunes…

Teenager Claire Gourley shares her food discovery journey with easy, quick recipes and tips to get kids food savvy. For kids aged 9 – 16, this book reflects Claire’s food motto – “I don’t do complicated” and is all about making cooking fun and achievable.
Claire recipes work, taste great and are really really easy. If she didn’t find them reliable, tasty and easy, she ditched them! She has added lots of photos, tips and things kids will probably want answered as they are cooking… for anything a bit tricky she links to her YouTubes.

Claire wants to know enough about food to take good care of herself. She figures lots of kids are the same as her – they love eating food but they’re always busy with friends, school and sport, so they can’t really be bothered spending too much time cooking – but that doesn’t mean want to settle for average food!

It’s My Turn To Cook takes kids on Claire’s food journey as she has worked out what she needs to know to get food savvy! She has gathered quick, easy recipes made a lot of YouTubes, and asked a lot of questions. She intertwines food and nutrition tips so that while kids are cooking they also get skills to make good food choices.

Many cookbooks are written by adults for adults and while they may look beautiful they are often boring… Claire doesn’t do boring!! This informal chatty approach has much appeal with kids of all ages.

The other two titles are now finishing off are

• It’s My Turn to Cook Quick Food and
• It’s My Turn to Cook Bread

This is the perfect time of year to clean up your lifestyle and start fresh. (I know January is over – but I am only finishing my holiday!) I’m  into goals because they help me move towards achieving what I want.

Life is all about setting goals and defining who you want to be. Dream your goals, then do them. Martin Luther King said a ‘I have a Dream’ speech not an ‘I have a Plan’ speech. Similarly you don’t need to plan out every step of the way in order to achieve your goals. Take each day at a time, start small and then build big.

The healthy living experts say it takes about 21 days for your New Year’s resolution to become a new habit. So, if you actually do want to do it, you have to stick to it. Don’t try to hard, just do it. Surround yourself with positivity and believe in yourself. “Whether you believe you can or you cant your probably right.” Henry Ford So I dare you, take out a pencil and sheet of paper right now and just dream.

Do you want to be a better cook, try more foods, eat healthier, create masterpieces, experiment more or become a chef? Whatever you decide, ACT NOW. Look around my site – I can help you!

Hey I have just finished the holiday program… it was heaps of fun and I am really pleased how much everyone liked my new eBook – the Christmas edition – you can download a copy here if you want one – it will give you lots of great of recipes to make over summer.

But kick back and what this little snippet of what kids got up to! hope you can join me next holidays!

I had the most amazing time in South Africa, learning about and tasting exotic foods.  One of my foodie rules is a try new foods – don’t be boring –  by eating a little of lots of different foods  your body will get everything it needs.

Well I took this very literally and seriously in South Africa. On day three I tried my first ever Crocodile carpaccio, its finely sliced raw Crocodile meat served with rocket and a mango chutney. Sound bizarre? I promise you it was one of the nicest things I have ever tasted!! Thumbs up for Crocodile!!

Another new thing for me was the waitress who served me the crocodile all dressed in traditional costume, painted some African art on my arm. So cool!!
On day five I visited a school on the outskirts of Pretoria, South Africa. Here they were serving chicken feet for the children for lunch. They were cooked in a large pot with spices. Luckily for me they went cooked yet so I didn’t have to try one – I think I would have struggled a bit!!! However, as said don’t be boring – so I have to do what I say…  if they were , I would have mustered up the courage to try one.

Closer to home and a lot more ‘normal” in the last School holiday Cooking program I issued a challenge to all the kids to try new-to-you foods. Wow I was blown away with how some kids totally got into things and tried foods which they had never tried before…

I am totally convinced there are hundreds of potential favorite  foods out there just waiting for each of us to find…  and even if you have tried something  a long time ago and didn’t like it then you might just like it now! ( see my blog on Mushrooms!!) A lot of kids take up to 12 times tasting a food before we like  a food!!  So don’t  give up!!

I am just back from an amazing trip to South Africa… I went with my mother to promote this project and share what we have been doing. So while I was there I got to do a cook-off with some local farmers and celebrities, I did some radio and TV interviews. They liked my ‘I don’t do complicated’ theme!

A highlight for me was that  I got to visit schools and talk to groups of kids about healthy eating. Wow – they were so friendly and hungry to learn!! It was was humbling, exciting and I learnt so much about how other cultures eat. All important stuff on my food journey. I got to eat crocodile (tasted a lot like salmon), discover biltong (the dried meat that they eat so much of!) – I even saw their school lunch of a pot full of chicken feet – phew it wasn’t ready for me to sample!!!

AND I got to go to game park, see some zebras up close and ride an elephant!!!

And as you can see from the photo the elephant was so close when he lifted his trunk and blew out my hair went everywhere… very funny!! I love elephants!!! but just look at this cute meerkat  - he sat on my shoulder!!!

I will share more from my trip with you over the coming months!

I am often asked why I am doing this project and it’s always good to reflect on what drives you – so I decided it was time to update you on this!

Hey it feels great to be part of something bigger…for those of you on our last school holiday program who joined us to celebrate Food Revolution day it was great to be a bit ‘global’ – we will look at working  on other projects with the JO Foundation from time to time now… this is fun!! Check it out if you want to see it in context – or I have pasted what was written on below!!

Teen showing the way for kids to become food savvy

If you are a teen the last thing you need is another adult telling you what to do and how to do it… that happens enough at college and at home. There are a lot of kids out there who want to know more about food who want to hear about it from someone like them.

Claire Gourley, 18-year-old New Zealand teen, is sharing her food journey with other kids. Claire is not motivated by a desire to cook or a thirst for nutrition knowledge. No. She just likes great tasting food and wants to look and feel good. She has worked out that she needs to know enough about food to be 100% responsible for her own health.

Claire has developed swag of resources to inspire and motivate other kids. She has a website itsmyturntocooktonight.com, some cookbooks, done lots of media work and has recently added a school holiday cooking program to help her share her ideas with other kids.

When she started this project she could cook about four or five meals. She is a typical teenager because she’s not a ‘foodie’ and she doesn’t want to be a chef. She loves food but like most kids her age she is always busy with friends, school and sport and can’t really be bothered spending too much time or effort on cooking. When it comes to food – she’s interested … but really only in eating it!

However she doesn’t want to settle for average food – she likes great tasting food that is good for her. Her byline is ‘I don’t do complicated’ she has always thought that if she can do it, other kids can too. Simple and quick is good!

Like most kids, Claire doesn’t like her parents hovering around like a helicopter when she is learning something so whatever she does has to include the answers to questions that most kids are thinking – before they have to ask – like ‘How much water to put in the pot?’, ‘Does it matter if it is hot or cold?’, ‘Which vegetables take longer to cook in a stir fry?’, ‘What do they mean by stock?’ So Claire builds these answers into both her recipes and her YouTube’s. She thinks you are best to assume nothing!

When it comes to nutrition Claire has been inspired by the message that you don’t need to know how a light bulb works to get the benefit of it – so similarly she doesn’t have to understand all the science about nutrition and food either to reap the benefits. By keeping to simple things like eating a wide range of foods, knowing most portion sizes are about as big as your fist, that fruit and vegetables are really good for you and that high fat, high sugar foods are treat only, she has been able to adopt excellent nutrition practices without getting hung up on the details. Like most kids she thinks nutrition can be boring and is too negative and bossy. It has been her goal to keep her tips positive and get kids to understand that if you do pig out on some high fat, high sugar food – which they no doubt will – then you need to swing things the other way the next day or pop on your running shoes and move!

Bio: Claire Gourley is an 18-year-old New Zealander who loves to eat and talk. She has worked with her mother, food educator Glenda Gourley, to combine both these passions to create a program to inspire other kids to become food savvy. You can find our more about Claire at itsmyturntocooktonight.com

This made me laugh?!?

Our first program in April was such a blast we are doing it again.

The 2 – 4 October program will be even more action packed than our first one – it will be full of fun, participation, challenges and competitions… exact details will be posted when I work them out!! (soon I promise!)

We are all about learning new food skills,  sharing ideas, eating together, being creative, doing random acts of food kindness, doing kitchen experiments, movie making, learning to use technology and just plain fun.