How to Use the Startwell Characters in Startwell Recipes
The Startwell recipes are designed to be healthy, simple in method, and cooked on a budget. They are also very versatile as they can be used in various ways. They can be used with children for cooking activities in setting and at home, they can be sent home for families to try and they can even be used on your menus.
The Startwell recipes should be linked to the Startwell Characters to extend children’s learning. Here are our spotlight recipes for this month and how you can link them to the characters:
Spinach Quiche
Spinach is a bitter green leafy vegetable and may be a vegetable that children struggle to take to because of its bitter flavour. Doing cooking based activities with these vegetables will help children to become more familiar with them and they will be more likely to taste and try them. Try this simple Spinach Quiche and here is how you can link in Fay 5 a day and 2 Snacks Max.
Fay 5 a Day
- Look at the shapes of the leaves. Compare it to a leaf off the tree and explain that spinach leaves are edible leaves but leaves off a tree are not
- Taste the raw spinach, explain that they will taste a bit different when they are cooked
- Explain that spinach protects us from getting poorly, we can call them one of our protective foods
2 Snacks Max
- Talk about the ingredients that will be used in this recipe and explain why they are healthy
- Spinach and an onion – explain that these are vegetables and Fay 5 a Day says eating vegetables is good for us
- Low fat cream cheese – milk and dairy foods are our ‘building blocks’ because they build strong bones and teeth
- Eggs – these help us to grow and look after our muscles
Oatmeal Cookies
Oatmeal Cookies are a healthier alternative to shop bought cookies. The recipe uses healthy ingredients and you can control the amount of fat and sugar you use. This is a lovely baking activity that can incorporate 2 Snacks Max, Sammy Skills and Micky Me Size.
2 Snacks Max
- Explain that these are going to be healthy cookies because you are going to be using healthy ingredients
- Talk about some of the ingredients and why they are healthy
- Flour and oats – these foods give us energy and help us to concentrate
- Raisins – Fay 5 a day likes us to eat fruit because they are good for us. Just remember that dried fruit shouldn’t be eaten by itself at snack time as they can stick to teeth.
- Milk – this is good for us because they build strong bones and teeth
Sammy Skills
This is a great Sammy Skills activity because it incorporates a range of skills for children to practice and develop. This recipe incorporates the following skills:
- Measuring
- Mixing
- Fine motor skills to shape their portion of cookie dough
Micky Me Size
- Give each child a section of the cookie dough and encourage them to roll into a ball to see if it fits into their hand.
- Explain that Micky Me Size wants the dough to fit into their hand because that will be the right amount for their tummies
- If it is too big then that’s too much and take some away; if it is too small then they can add some dough
Have fun and show us how you get on by tagging us on Facebook @startwellbham
