The Healthy Cooking Challenge
Suggested age
5-11
Award - Cooking healthily
Design and make a healthy main meal dish that uses foods from at least three of the Eatwell plate food groups.
Getting started
- Get the children to sort foods from a shopping bag into the Eatwell plate food groups, ideally onto a large Eatwell poster.
- Look at pictures of different dishes, identify ingredients in the dish and say which food group they belong to. For example: In a potato salad the main ingredient is potatoes which belong to the bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods.
- Demonstrate how to make a dish with foods from at least three of the Eatwell food groups, e.g. a pasta or potato salad.
Activity ideas to meet the challenge
- Make foods for a school picnic or sports day that promote healthy eating for themselves and their parents/carers.
- Make a quick healthy dish that could be eaten with a friend at home during the weekend, e.g. jacket potato fillings, toasted sandwiches.
- Make foods for a school barbeque to celebrate the summer term, e.g. vegetable kebabs, meat or veggie burgers, breads, salads, fruit based drinks.
Resources on the website to help you teach the challenge
Chinese New Year
Recipe and activities
Rainbow stir-fry recipe - Part 1 / Part 2
Rainbow stir-fry filo pastry shapes recipe
Links
Food - a fact of life - Lots of support for teaching about healthy eating and cooking; recipes; photographs of food, equipment and ingredients; video clips; PowerPoint presentations.
Eatwell - the FSA website
Foodlink - support for food hygiene work in school
British Heart Foundation - support resources for schools , recipes , information and resources for including meat as part of a healthy diet
Active Kids Get Cooking June 2009