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

Wow, what an amazing week its been!

That's my little brother William on the cover with me!

If  your parents are thinking you should learn to be food savvy  - here is the thing I have co-wrtten a book for parents  with my mother.  My mother looks at the serious things ( nutrition, self esteem, eating too much junk food, food skills etc )  - I bring her back to earth so she remembers how kids think and operate…Together we have something that is really realistic!

 Life love food kids is a book is about a couple of journeys…

 There is my mother’s food journey – from when she was a little girl to now. It’s about what happens when childhood memories, the science of nutrition and the teaching of cooking get mixed up with family and life. 

 My part in her journey is about me getting ready to leave home and wanting to know enough about food so that I can look after myself. 

My favorite saying is ‘a journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step’. This is really true about food – each time I have learnt a fact or how to do something has been a step towards my independence.

I think the lessons from our differing perspectives will help your parent to  help you travel along the same path as I have. It feels good to know I know enough about food to take good care of myself. 

Claire

PS – it will be on sale in about 4 weeks – watch this space!

There are a couple of things that come to mind – funnily enough it is the same for everything I do under pressure. You need to have practiced lots and be super organized!

You do have a very defined time so practice enough to know exactly what you have to do when. You have got exactly an hour, so in your head know what you should be doing after 15 minutes, 30 minutes and 45 minutes. Not realizing you are running late until you get to 45 minutes is scary! (Believe me this is like any exam so it’s a good habit to get into)

Ask your teacher for tips, is there anything you could do in advance or steps that aren’t 100% necessary?

I think it is a really good idea to have all your ingredients well labeled and easy to access. So as you are unpacking make sure everything is placed so you don’t have to waste time looking for it.

Make sure you arrive in plenty of time so you are not worried about being late and you have enough time to have a look around the kitchen so you feel relaxed.

And I know you know this – BUT MAKE SURE YOU BRING EVERYTHING!!! Make a list and tick it off as you pack it.

A horrible tale – I was once doing a food demonstration in Rotorua. We arrived in plenty of time because I wanted to see the kitchen. As we were unpacking the car we realized the beautifully packed food was still in the box on the kitchen bench in Tauranga (40 minutes away and not time for a return journey). NOT a good look. A massive panic, a massive dose of stress but I will NEVER do that again!! Learn from my mistake.

Once you know you are well  prepared so you can do your best, it will be  a lot more enjoyable. Have fun!

Check out burger competition for more info.

I reckon it’s a good idea to cook your burger for a few friends and get their HONEST feedback – better still if you know a chef who you can cook it for, do it. Chefs love to be asked for professional advice especially if it about recipes for kids or kids cooking!! You are bound to pick up a couple of tips that just might give you the edge. They may offer advice with seasoning too.

There are some AWESOME tips on the  Beef + Lamb site so make sure you check them out!! Go here.

These are a few things I think are really important…

• Food looks better on white plates – stay safe. You can make things a little more interesting by using a different shaped white plates, or a white plates with a ‘self texture’. This lets the food be the hero not the plate.
• Your garnish has to be ‘related to the food’ – in other words if you have one herb in your pattie don’t introduce another herb as the garnish.
• Colour is good – green, red and yellow foods are excellent contrasts to cooked meat and bread – use them to your advantage. Remember beef and lamb has to be the hero so don’t hide it too much!!
• Garnishes are nicer if they are edible.
• You need a sprig of garnish not a tree – don’t go over the top
• Clean up slops and smears on the plate if you drip anything while serving (you know that!)

And my last tip – make sure your burger looks fresh and appealing – you don’t want it to look like it you have played with it for ages to get it ‘right’!

Have a look at what kids did last year…

ahah – this is in the latest edition of NZ Womans Weekly …

I am just back from Wellington where I did some filming for the Small Blacks TV Show for next year…

We did 25  easy recipes for kids for 25 weeks of shows… a bit of a marathon but it was lots of fun and it will show you how easy it is to cook! I worked with the amazing  rugby player and All Black Richard Kahui (Kaks) – he can cook too! Like me, he likes food which is really easy to make. I  look  forward to telling you more about the show when we get screening details…

The recipe in this picture is a quick and easy dessert based on custard – just make it a bit more fun by adding stuff to make a face…

Custard is made from milk so has lots of calcium in it – great for bones and teeth – but you don’t need to worry too much about that – all you need to know is that  it tastes good and is easy to make!!