October 2006

As promised in last month's BLOGs, here is what the group did in Weeks 3 and 4 of the Cook and Eat sessions.

Week 3
We made tuna pasta bake with salad and chocolate brownies for pudding, I really enjoyed today's session, as it all went smoothly and according to plan. All the ladies got involved with the cooking, and everything came out perfectly. It all smelt and tasted delicious. Today's session was a big hit, as everyone liked the food they had made and most of them said they would make it at home. The chocolate brownies also include apples, so they are a healthier option. Some of the ladies said they would have liked custard to go with their chocolate brownies, but I said maybe next time we could have some low fat yoghurt or low fat ice cream instead of custard (the healthier option!!!).

Week 4
I based this session, just like all the other sessions, on what the ladies wanted to cook. So I had prepared my lesson plan and Low Fold staff had ordered all the ingredients. But when I had originally visited the ladies in September, we had not realised that it would be Ramadan and the ladies would be fasting. Originally I had planned to make chicken balti curry with rice and fruit salad to follow, but as most of the ladies were fasting we could not cook for them. But they said they would still come in and cook for their children, which I thought was very kind and noble of them. I decided to still make the fruit salad for pudding, but for the main course we made vegetable pizzas. We made the dough base from scratch and I feel the ladies were really interested on how the pizza base was made. The children all enjoyed their pizza and the fruit salad (Some of the ladies, who were not able to fast said they enjoyed it and would make it at home with their children). Even though we had to change the plan for today's session, it still went really well. At the end of the session I gave each of the ladies a little recipe booklet, which contained all the recipes they had made in the four weeks. They did say they would make them at home.

Speakeasy
This month I have also been on a course called Speakeasy, which is run by the Family Planning Association and it is aim at parents, who want to be able to talk to their children about sex, relationships and growing up. At the end of the course I will be able to facilitate a seven-week course on these subjects.