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!

I love it when I find other people who are on the same mission as me!! Next week the NZ Nutrition Foundation’ s Food Week 2012 runs. I am totally supporting the  Just Cook concept so will be on TVNZ U at 6pm on Tuesday the 8th May to encourage everyone to Just Cook !! This is really supports  my It’s My Turn To Cook Tonight Bosch School Holiday Cook in Program.  I want all of the kids who were on the  holiday program are  to get in behind Just Cook and rustle up at least one family meal. We know after their week on the School Holiday Program they are absolutely able to! And if you weren’t on my program (haha I know you will be next time cos the prizes were sooooo good!!) then you should give it a go too – I got such good feed back how much you enjoyed the challenge/ chance / opportunity to actually make a whole meal…so rise to the occasion – you may surprise yourself!

Food Week’s  theme is  Just Cook. Just cook a family meal and sit down and enjoy with your family. But hey – I think it is fun to cook for your friends too!

Just Cook runs a couple of competitions too  - so check out www.justcook.co.nz and see if you can get involved!

I had a really good chat with the breakfast team when I was interviewed this week on Breakfast TV. I took in some of my bacon and egg pie and some berry cupcakes (both recipes in the book) which were pretty popular with the crew! My book has been named as a finalist in the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards and the fact that I am so young and that is the first time a cookbook has got this far was what they focussed on.  Please remember to vote for the book because I am really keen to get votes in the readers choice award – at the moment I am battling it out with a book on sheep and another on dogs!! Can’t have a that – Please vote!!  Click on image and you will see me grovel to get votes and explain to Coran what the book is about!!

This week on Studio 2 Claire Cooks I made Fresh Fruit Platter with Toffee Caramel Drizzle.    This is very (seriously, completely, totally) simple and sweet enough to satisfy any sugar cravings! Try any sort of fruit with this – whatever is in season. It’s nice to have a combination of 3 or 4 different fruits. This is a healthy ratio of sweet to fruit. Check this out fi you really feel like something that is delicious, sweet, yet still a bit healthy…

Hey  these are my 5 top reasons I think you should  learn to cook before you leave home….

Hey check out my cooking slot on Studio 2 – this week I made Apple Crumble!

I’m on Studio 2 every second Tuesday – so I’ll be back with another yum recipe on Tuesday 20th July on after school TV2… give it a go apple crumble – just what you need these school holidays…

Hey I’ve been asked to be a judge for the competition that is helping year 7 and 8 kids  find out how much fun cooking nutritious family meals can be.

Twenty schools from each region have been selected to compete at the regional cook-offs in August. Each school is represented by a team of four young cooks. A panel of judges ( that includes me!!) will choose the top team from each region to compete at the televised grand final in September alongside a fourth wildcard team selected by public vote and judges’ discretion.

This is really cool and I look forward to getting involved and meeting the contestants…  I’ll be at the cook-offs in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch… have fun cooking up a storm!!

To find out more check out the Maggi site.

Had a blast last weekend when the Studio 2 crew arrived to film six cooking segments in our kitchen… I picked six of my favourite easy kids recipes and we made step by step clips how to  make them – I had a few friends pop in while we were filming too so you’ll get to meet them as well.

They are going to be screened on Studio  2 after school on  TV2 over the next few months – I’ll let you know when to look out for them …