Our winter menu

[sarah707]

We've spent ages pulling this together...

We have up to 9 children on some days for tea including our own so it has to be affordable.

We're committed to buying best quality produce as we want our own children to eat the best and don't feel that the mindees should have to compromise either... nearly all of the menu is made from scratch.

Things we buy like the Frankfurters are best quality, sausages come from the farm, the pie, fish etc is home made... occasional compromises like spaghetti hoops are made to ensure everyone has something similar on their plates. Ok having a partner who is a chef helps here!

We can't have nuts or artificial colours because of allergies and if someone doesn't like the whole meal we will always do a cheese or ham or something toastie and fruit.

What I really really hate though is waste... when I know how much it has cost and how hard we've worked to get it all on the plate and they just sit there and look at something that was their favourite last week and say yuk :rolleyes:

[ajs]

oh sarah you always make me feel so rubbish
i don't even bother cooking at the mo i am so tired after work
tonight my kids had fresh pasta a bought sauce and swedish meatballs.
i know it's not a bad meal but i had planned a nice fresh cooked meal then couldn't be bothered after they'd all gone

ps i don't give tea to any of mine i make them go home hungry

[crazybones]

See you Tuesday :thumbsup:
Yummy!

[katickles]

Sarah - seriously when do you get the time to do all that you do :eek:

[Pudding Girl]

yum, can you put me down for monday please?


and tuesday...


and wednesday looks good..


oooh Thursday!!


heck, might as well have Friday too for good measure!!



( ps meatballs and rice is one of my mindees favourites :) we sometimes have couscous though)

[angeldelight]

oh sarah you always make me feel so rubbish
i don't even bother cooking at the mo i am so tired after work
tonight my kids had fresh pasta a bought sauce and swedish meatballs.
i know it's not a bad meal but i had planned a nice fresh cooked meal then couldn't be bothered after they'd all gone

ps i don't give tea to any of mine i make them go home hungry


Thats silly Mandy

They are simple meals here

I know you do some lovely food too because you have told me before

Guess what I did not cook for my lot this evening either they had chinese - but do I care NOPE haha

I like you was tooooooo tired

Angel xx

[LisaH]

I'm definately coming to your house for tea in future!! Will bring mindees and family too. Lol

[miffy]

Very wrong to show me that when I'm sitting here eating beans on toast :laughing:

Can we see spring, summer and autumn too?

Miffy xx

[Twinkles]

Yummy ! think I'll join the queue too :thumbsup:

[LOOPYLISA]

mmmmmmmmmmmm me too!, we have had a strange tea tonight dd had chicken curry, i had packet flavoured rice and hubby had fish pie, i just couldnt be bothered tonight ive had a toothache the last couple of days:mad:

[sarah707]

Can we see spring, summer and autumn too?

Miffy xx

I only have 2.... summer and winter! :D

Summer is hand written. Sorry!

[Tatia]

Simple yet nutritious, kid-friendly (and cost effective!) meals, Sarah. Well done to you and Nigel!:thumbsup:

I hate doing dinner for mindees (not doing it at moment thank goodness) so I am always impressed with those who not only serve it but who do home-cooked. I definitely have nights when I don't feel like cooking and knock up a pasta but generally, I serve lovely, high quality dinners to my family.

Do you also offer a hot lunch or breakfast? Just curious. I offer breakfast but only 1 mindee is having it at the moment and she only ever wants toast, an apple and milk. I always feel a bit mean as my DD will be having porridge, egg on toast, waffles, cereal, you name it. Mindee is obviously welcome to it but is a very fussy eater. Oh well, her mum is happy so I guess it's not a big deal.

Lunch is a mixture of cooked meals with sandwhiches, wraps and bagels thrown in here and there, too (and the odd take away when it's just me and 1 mindee, hehe).

[sarah707]

Breakfast is a mixture... usually 3 items from a choice of cereal, bread products and fruit, plus fruit juice.

Lunch is usually some kind of bread (5 different types through the week - brown, white, rolls, slices, baguettes, bagels etc) with filling or spread, fruit, milky something (yoghurt, smoothie, fromage frais etc).

Snacks vary depending on what they have had through the day in other meals - either fruit or bread products or cheese sticks or dips, things like that. I do try and balance it.

Nutritional guidelines vary for under 5s, this is a useful link -

http://www.thpc.scot.nhs.uk/wordfiles/under5s.pdf

[melanieabigail2004]

Hey sarah

Love the menu - very similar to mine. It does help having a trained chef around. My hubby is one as well so I asked him to plan a menu that was cost effective, easy to prepare etc. They do have their uses! :)

Mel

[Tatia]

A proper chef would be great! My hubby just fancies himself one.:rolleyes:

[tomthumb]

wow! This is good. I have been trying to design one for ages with what we eat as I tend to cook a big family dinner in the evening but lately I have been really inefficient! I am so tired!
What I find more difficult is to also cook a lunch meal. I run out of ideas!

Elodie XX

[Chatterbox Childcare]

and hubby charges how much to make and ship this to me?????

[Alibali]

Yes please:)

One interesting thing I noted though was that you have fish on a Monday. I've always been told that we should never have fish on a monday as the fisherman don't go out on a sunday so it may not be fresh. Infact most traditional fishmongers close on a monday.

I know things are different nowadays with freezers etc, but it's just a useless piece of information that my Mum passed on:)

[breezy]

do you do meals on wheels?:laughing:

[sarah707]

Yes please:)

One interesting thing I noted though was that you have fish on a Monday. I've always been told that we should never have fish on a monday as the fisherman don't go out on a sunday so it may not be fresh. Infact most traditional fishmongers close on a monday.

I know things are different nowadays with freezers etc, but it's just a useless piece of information that my Mum passed on:)

Traditionally, Catholics have fish on Friday and if requested, I would certainly move it around.

We buy from the fishmonger whenever it's cheap or on special offer and like you say, bung it in the freezer.

The main reason we do it this way is one of the mums likes to complement what we give at home and her boys come Mon, Tues and Thurs... so we can safely say they will have fish, chicken & beef each week... :D

[vix84]

Sounds yummy! When I return to minding I am going to stock pile some home made lasagne, shepheards pie etc. for the freezer, but Im also going to use the slow cooker to make sausage casseroles/stews etc. as I have more time in the morning to prepare things.

Im thinking about asking the parents to bring in a packed lunch (but give it to those at tea time as parents kept coming as I was serving up and I was annoyed at wasting the food). Do you all think its beter to give a cooked meal at lunch time? Although not sure the slow cooker will have it cooked in time for lunch so maybe I will slow cook mine and oh's evening meal so Im not cooking in the evening!


Thanks Sarah for making me forward plan - will design my menu soon!

[mum22]

The one thing that is good about the winter is my slow cooker comes out - i love stews and can get it done before mindees come in morning.:thumbsup:

[Heaven Scent]

Cook before the mindees arrive????? What time do you lot get up? What time do mindees arrive? My first ones arrive @ 7,30 and I set my alarm for 6.30 and that is early enough I take ages to come to, then I need to shower and get dressed and then I need to watch GMTV while eating my breakfast if I get up on time I also have to drag my DS out of bed and then I have to help him find all the things he needs for school each day despite him looking me in the eye each night before he goes to bed and telling me that he has everything ready for School all that before the mindees arrive and he is allowed to have his breakfast when he casually announces that he has lost his bus pass or he needs a note for one reason or another and the bus is allowed to leave the stop and at the same time I'm yelling up the stairs to get DD out of bed so she can be ready for School on time - Is it only me or are things similar in other peoples homes.

Fish on a Friday comes from Medieval times but I cant remember why I think it was a ruling from the King or something and the church adopted the idea somewhere along the line - It was also to be eaten on Wednesdays and the Church adopted that also. Until I left home my mum never served meat on Wednesdays or Fridays if we didn't like fish we had eggs.

I usually cook for the family in the evening and chill or freeze it for the mindees the next day or at a later date and this usually works well for me. If we have something like Fish and Chips or sausages or Omelette or Pizza I will cook that freshly at lunch time for them but if its a casserole or Spag Bol etc or Roast dinner its easier to warm it up for them the next day or freeze it for them for anothr day in the near future.

I provide breakfast if required, dinner at mid-day and tea at 4.30 Usually sandwiches, soup etc. Plus they have 2 snacks 1 is fruit and the other is somtimes fruit or breadsticks and dips or chopped fresh veg etc etc.

I do try to ensure that F/Timers have their 5 a day and most of my meals are cooked from fresh ingredients and don't usually use bought sauces unless organic or that don't have addetives or added sugar and artificial sweeteners. - but that is rare I've been brought up to be quite fussy about the quality of food I eat and have tried to pass that on to my children and hence the minded children have no choice but to eat the same way. - I'm not saying when it comes to baked beans, flour etc I won't try shops own brand or value brands but if I think there is a marked difference I will not buy it and go back to the brands - I will only give it to the mindees if I would feed it to my own family.

I must admit I am a bit lax about writing up actual weekly menu's and parents rarely ask me what the children have eaten through the course of the day and if I forget to them then they have no idea - I think that is very strange - I always asked that when I picked my children up. I don't think that even if I put a menu up they would bother to look at it. Also I'm not sure that I would be able to keep to it as my almost 13yr old dusty bin (DS) would probably have half the ingredients eaten and I'd have to change it on the day - It often the case with my mental menu. Also I've got enough stuff up all over my house to do with my miniding.