I wasn't very hungry at lunchtime because dad made drop pancakes for breakfast and I had loads. They are quick and simple to make and very nice with homemade jam.
The hot dog is made from pork and chicken but it's hard to describe what it tastes of. Maybe it's because I smothered it in tomato sauce. I love mashed potato and so I love croquettes too. I ate my salad after I had finished my hot dog and croquettes. The muffin is one of my favourite puddings because it's sour in your mouth when you first have a bite of raspberry and it makes you suck your mouth in!
Food-o-meter- 7/10
Mouthfuls- 31
Courses- main/dessert
Health Rating- 5/10
Price- £2
Pieces of hair- 0
Wristband- Orange
I found out next year the price is going up to £2.05.
We are now going to Corryong College, Victoria, Australia (19 seconds). They say,
'We are a Grade 5 and 6 class at Corryong College,in the northeast of Victoria, Australia. Last year our school created a kitchen garden program as part of a number of schools across Victoria. Each week students in Years 3 to 6 spending about one hour working in the garden. We also have a 2 hour block of time where we cook meals that use the products from the garden. Any food scraps are taken out to our chickens. Each week is a different meal. This week we cooked a ricotta and venison pizza and apple crumble.
We even made the ricotta cheese ourselves. We have been following your progress over the past week and are simply in awe of what you have been able to achieve. Well done, and keep on with your blog.
Cheers
Students and teachers of Grade 5 and 6'
I really like reading about schools that grow their own food, keep chickens and cook. We have venison from our smallholding but I have never put it on pizza. I have had nettles though!
The blog will start travelling on Monday and is going to Wales first! Please keep sending in your pictures and ratings. Exciting!
VEG
And thanks Corryong for your kind words about my blog.
ReplyDeleteVEG
heya VEG, I have a blog and have added you on the Blog Roll (list of a bloggers fave blogs)! Keep on going with it, u r awesome!
ReplyDeleteI am really enjoying your blog, Veg - and I especially like that students from faraway schools are sending in their lunch photos, too.
ReplyDeleteHi Veg and Family!
ReplyDeleteI came across your blog a few weeks ago, but I was in the middle of university summer finals and could not read your posts. I have read them all today and I am amazed of all the support that you have! You are definitely contributing to a good cause! Thank you for that!
I just read your post today and I was wondering if you had any desire to post recipes of your cooking adventures? (More specifically, your dad's drop pancakes!)
Enjoy your summer off and I look forward to future posts!
I've never liked hot dogs. My friends would eat them and I would have a salad.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE croquettes. I know it is not healthy, but it takes so good!!!
That pizza looks amaging, but I want that crumble right now. I wish that American schools would opt for growing food and cooking meals. It is a wonderful idea!
I can't figure out how you kids survive on these tiny lunches, but I'm a grown up man so maybe my perspective is off.
ReplyDeleteAgreed - at that age my daughters would eat three helpings that size and still come back for more. (And they're both very fit, healthy and lean.) We do serve a lot of salad and veggies though, and I guess that fills the plate without overloading the calories.
DeleteI'm really enjoying the blog - it brings back all those memories of my little knitted blue purse with 50p lunch money inside (for the whole week!) in the mid-70's.
Hi Veg,
ReplyDeleteI think that your blog is cool,intresting and inspirational.
(I go to a small primary school so there is not much of a cafateria.)
Keep up the good work!!!
A fan from Belize, Central America(How many seconds?!)
What is a 'smallholding'? And drop pancakes? Are they different from Canadian pancakes, or are they the same thing called by a different name?
ReplyDeleteHave a good holiday! :)
A smallholding is a small plot of land that people can use to grow stuff like fruit and veg, and drop pancakes are pancakes cooked in a hot frying pan where you get a big blob of the mix and drop it straight in!
DeleteDear Veg,
ReplyDeleteI love your blog and really enjoy reading it. I thought your school lunch yesterday looked lovely and that your meals had really improved but today's lunch looked disappointing and quite sparse. I am glad it tasted ok though.
I work in the NHS on a big hospital site in London. We have a hospital shop which sells jacket potatoes and sandwiches that they make up for you with whatever you want. My favourite is jacket potato with cottage cheese and salad. It costs £2. BUT our hospital shop is being closed on Friday and the only other place to get food is the canteen but that is a long way away on the other side of the hospital. So I will be taking in my own lunches from next week but I will miss my yummy potatoes.
Enjoy your camping holiday and your school holidays. You deserve a good break! I am looking forward to reading the guest posts. Congratulations for all your amazing fundraising.
Sharon, Surrey, UK
Hi Martha
ReplyDeleteMe again! Just a little suggestion for you to find places. Have you ever used Google Earth. If you haven't it's a computer application that's a bit like an electronic globe, only you can zoom all the way in to towns and villages so close that you can see houses, trees and cars. You can even see my brother's dog! It's free to download and you'll have hours of fun with it. That way, if someone says they come from somewhere like Meekathara in Australia you will be able to find the town and even possibly the school! And if you can't find a place straightaway you can type in the name and it will whiz straight to it! It also has photos you can click on. It's brilliant.
Anyway, I hope to be able to send you some pics of my lunches sometime soon - can you tell me how I do it?
Bye for now,
Stu
For those wanting to participate in Veg's "Porridge Party", here is the recipe for authentic Likuni Phala, courtesy of Mary's Meals.
ReplyDelete(Yes, you'll have to make yours from scratch, rather than a mix like Veg is doing but, in most places, you'll be able to find all the ingredients in stores...if you look.)
1. Grind one cup (8 ounces) of cooked soya beans and four cups (32 ounces) of maize kernels into flour (or use soya and maize flour).
2. Use 1.5 cups of water (12 ounces) for 0.5 cup (4 ounces) of flour mixture. Bring to the boil for about 15 minutes.
3. Add fruit/milk/groundnut flour or other nutrients/flavours.
Veg:
ReplyDeleteTwo steps forward, one step back! Your lunches for the past few days have seemed to be an improvement - and now THIS.
Hot dogs - even low fat varieties - depend on rather a lot of salt and nitrates to stay pink, which makes them not so good for us. The potato croquettes are not so terribly nutritious, either. And the portion size is back to dismal.
If your school wants to serve hot dogs as the occasional treat, I would want to see baked beans (fiber), coleslaw (more fiber and vitamins), and fruit cup or something else with fruit in it. There is no reason we can't have the odd treat, but for Heaven's sake, put something nutritious with it!
MichelleH:
ReplyDeleteA 'smallholding' is a farm of compact size, smaller than a typical farm but larger than an allotment (which is a garden plot). Fifty acres is a usual size. Smallholdings can be leased or bought, and can be worked independently, or as part of a cooperative, where several smallholders join together to raise cash crops on a larger scale than is possible on one smallholding.
Veg's Dad is, therefore, a farmer (and a well-educated one, judging from his emails and posts here), which is why Veg knows so much about food, and raises some of her own. It is also one of the reasons she is getting such a good education - her Dad is there with her more than many fathers get to do. Veg's Mum is a doctor, which makes Veg's family a very modern one - a traditional, independent businessman for a Dad, a liberated, working Mum, and a very futuristic daughter who knows how to use the Internet to change things that need changing!
MichelleH - a small holding is a mini farm, usually grows veg, has chickens, maybe a goat, some pigs etc No idea what drop pancakes are sorry.
ReplyDeleteVeg - my girls are 5,6 and 7. They'd starve on those portion sizes. They take packed lunches because I'm not impressed with the way school meals are handled I.e too much choice so my daughter chose mash and pasta once, no veg/salad at all, Deserts are eaten first, dinners are barely touched and sometimes left altogether, better monitoring/rules could improve this. I'd like to think that there are some important people reading your blog and things will change.
Keep it up you clever girl :)
I hope you made your Lukini Phala - did you have it by itself? Over here in our country we often have the choice of having meat, vegetables or salad with our meals - and I wonder if you know whether the boys and girls in
ReplyDeleteMalawi have their Lukini Phala with anything else?!
Wednesday's hot dog lunch looks yummy, but a bit small! Maybe that's because you only wanted a smaller lunch after Dad's pancakes!
The countdown to your adventure continues!
Nick
Is there only half a sausage in the hot dog?
ReplyDeleteCongrats to the 100,000 £! You changed the world a bit!
Hi Veg, your dinner doesn't look so good today and that's reflected in your scores I think. I think it's the way the hot dogs are presented, if they gave you a good quality grilled sausage in a nice bread roll it would look so different, still fun but better quality. Still there will be ups and downs and yesterdays was great, keep up the good work x
ReplyDeleteHi Veg, I'm going to miss your posts over the holidays; I hope you're planning to resume your lunch pictures and reviews in the Autumn.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to seeing the Likuni Phala and reading your description and views on it. I hope it tastes nice, but I suspect it might not! Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised. I'm sure it's very good for you though.
Countdown: So only 1 more sleep, and I hope you are getting really excited, I love camping, my favourite type of holiday.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your Likuni Phala, and as you will be Head Chef and chief taster be safe in that kitchen and make sure your commis chefs behave and follow your instruction.
Enjoy!!
Veg. I'm a 35 year old, married but with no kids, journalist from Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. I read about your blog here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/15/world/europe/uk-school-dinner-blog/index.html
ReplyDeleteI think what you are doing is very cool and it's awesome that it has gone viral. I hope it doesn't feel like a lot of pressure, with all these people reading your blog and commenting, though. Just remember, a blog should be fun!
I bet the hotdogs are made from mechanically recovered meat (MRM), which shouldn't be given to children by the authorities... It's the chicken in the ingredients that is usually a giveaway of that.
ReplyDeleteA hot-dog frankfurter (especially one served by government to children) shouldn't be made of cheap meat to cut corners, and chicken should NEVER be in a frankfurter :-/
Loving your blog but I wish the authorities could stop giving you manky processed stuff, (I know Westlers proudly sent you the ingredients but it doesn't stop it being cheap processed mush that doesn't belong in a school!)
Enjoy the Mary's Meals porridge and your camping trip :)
What a sad looking lunch VEG! A few sticks of carrot, wafer thin cucumber and a hotdog that looks like its seen better days, and you have to pay £2 for it.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with a hotdog, but at least the school could give the kids appitising ones!
Hi, I'm an adult and don't eat school diners now. But I used to when I was a kid :). I am from Spain but lived in UK for a few years, and I think kids meals in UK are very unhealthy (lots of fried stuff, burgers, hot dogs). In my nursery school, there was very little money because it was mostly for the poor. But they had a nutritionist, so even though we didn't eat meat (apart for meatballs) we had beans, cabbage and pasta soup and then we had chocolate mousse for calories and a piece of fruit. In primary school, meals were better, but meat was still scarce. However, fresh soup was always in the list usually followed by a stew of vegetables and potatoes or rice with small pieces of meat/fish. Money should not be an excuse for bad unbalanced diet, ever.
ReplyDeleteHope that extra 5p means you get better meals! This mean doesn't exactly seem all that great. it seems every so often they give you something good and then suddenly you get something like this. It's crazy, hope you weren't left hungry after eating it all!
ReplyDelete