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:
Salsa Salad
This Salsa Salad recipe has got a burst of vibrant colours and flavours! This is a great activity that can makes vegetables fun and exciting and here is how you can link in some of the Startwell characters.
Fay 5 a Day
- This recipe contains sweetcorn, beetroot, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, sweet pepper and carrots
- Explain that these are vegetables and in turn tell the children what they are called
- Look at and compare the different shapes and colours of the vegetables.
- Sweetcorn – these are small, yellow and round
- Beetroot – these are medium, round and purple
- Iceberg lettuce – these are green and look like leaves
- Tomatoes – these are medium, round and red. They are soft on the inside
- Cucumbers are long and green
- The sweet peppers look like bells
- Carrots are long, thin and orange
2 Snacks Max
- Talk about the different vegetables (see Fay 5 a day for ideas about how to talk about each vegetable)
- Explain that you are going to chop them up, mix them together and then taste them
- Explain that you are having this as one of your 2 Snacks per day
Sammy Skills
- This recipe requires chopping a range of vegetables that are different in shape and size.
- Encourage children to tear the iceberg lettuce
- Children could also deseed the peppers
Sandwich Shapes
Making sandwiches are a great way to involve children in preparing their own meal, they are simple in method, they involve using a range of skills and can involve children making choices about their filling. Try our Sandwich Shapes recipe as a teatime activity and if you can, try to make it a regular activity!
Fay 5 a Day
- Explain to children that a healthy sandwich filling should always include salad! This recipe has tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce
- Encourage children to try a bit of each or they can make their own choice
- Explain that salad counts toward one of our 5 a day and protects us from getting poorly
Micky Me Size
- As this activity involves children making their own sandwich there is lots of opportunity to talk about me sized portions!
- As they are spreading margarine, explain that it should just be a thin spreading
- As they are filling their sandwich e.g. cheese, tuna explain that you don’t want to overfill it because it will be too much
- Explain that there needs to be enough space for the salad
- If the sandwich is overfilled it will be too much for their tummies
Sammy Skills
- This recipe has listed the cooking skills into basic, intermediate and advanced skills so that they can be easily transferred to the group of children you are doing the activity. Click on the recipe for more details.
Have fun and show us how you get on by tagging us on Facebook @startwellbham !
