Thursday 23 August 2012

Chicken and pasta casserole

Hei! Tänään ruokatunnillamme oli todellisia nälkäisiä lintuja. Käytimme
paljon energiaa kahdella liikuntatunnilla aamulla. Tänään pelasimme
jalkapalloa ja harjoittelimme pituushyppyä. Pisimmät hypyt olivat noin
3,5 metriä.
Kuuntelimme aamulla myös eilen tehdyt radio-ohjelmat. Ohjelmat olivat
noin 10 minuuttisia ja ne menivät hyvin. Saamme mahdollisesti linkin
niihin myöhemmin. Toimittaja kirjoitti myös jutun nettiin jonka voit
lukea täältä http://yle.fi/uutiset/arvostele_mun_kouluruoka/6265904

Tässä taas vastauksia muutamiin kysymyksiin:
Keittiössämme on neljä keittäjää. he ovat hyvin mukavia ja tiedämme
melkein kaikkien nimet. he juttelevat usein kanssamme kysyen esimerkiksi
ruoan mausta tai he kysyvät myös kuulumisia. Joskus he myös saattavat
näyttää vihaisilta jos olemme liian äänekkäitä!

Tänään meillä oli broileri-pastapaistosta ja porkkanaraastetta. Pidimme
paistoksesta, se oli aivan mahtavaa! Monet meistä ottivat myös lisää.
Vaikka ruoka maistui hyvältä, sen väri olisi voinut ehkä olla parempi.
Porkkanaraaste on aina hyvää.

Hello! Today we were really Hungry Birds on our lunch break! We had two
sport lessons in the morning so we spend lot of energy. Today we played
football and trained long jump. Best of us jumped about 3 and half
meters.

We also listened the radio programs that was made yesterday. There were
two 10 minutes programs and they were quite successful. There may be a
change to hear them from internet later, we hope so. Anyway the reporter
wrote an article to internet and you can read it here.

Again here are some answers to you questions:
In our school canteen there is four cooks. They are very nice and
friedly people and we know almost everyone by name. They often talk to
us if they aren't in a hurry. They can ask what we liked about the food
or they van just ask how are we. Sometimes they can also look as little
angry if we are too noisy.


Today we had chicken and pasta casserole with grated carrot. We loved
the casserole, the taste was awesome. Many of us took even another
portion! Even the food tasted good we thought that the colour of the
casserole could have been little better. Grated carrots are always
great.

Food-o-meter: 10/10 (just perfect!)
Mouthfuls: 33
Courses: main
Health Rating: 8/10
Price: 0e
Pieces of hair: 0

Bye for now!

Hungry birds' teacher here! I decided to write also something about our
school meals. Today I talked with our head cook. The menu is made for
seven weeks at a time. There is different food for every day during the
menu. In our kitchen they use as much as possible local groceries. For
example almost all of vegetables they use are local and if they can't
get local product they choose a products that are produced in Finland.
All milk products are fat free. In our kitchen they use rarely
industrially manufactured products. Our cook counted that for example in
next seven weeks they use those products only in five days! One a really
big bonus in our kitchen is that they make their own bread and buns and
what can be better that smell of fresh bread!

In Finland we teachers also eat the same food with our pupils. School
lunch is part of the curriculum. I have to say that in our school the
food is really tasty. However children attitude for the food is often
very negative. Of course the food is not pizza or hamburgers. But still
the food is good and of course free. Sometimes I think that the negative
attitude comes from home. Many Finns have bad memories from school
meals. I have also! But the food has changed a lot. Many can remember
meat with dill (tilliliha) as one of the worst meal ever. Today in many
homes families don't eat any more together. Also in many homes the food
is convenience food. So pupils are not used to eat different flavours.
It is sad that some pupil eat first time fish (if we don't count fish
finger) at school! Anyway I think that after this week my pupils will
relate better to our school lunch. We have learned lot of new things and
had good conversations. So in the future I think we look our food in a
different perspective.

13 comments:

  1. Are those grated carrots cooked or raw? That lunch sounds good.

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  2. They are always raw carrots. :) Go Finland! :) My child is in preschool and receives breakfast and lunch free there. :) And I must say "tilliliha" is gross! :D

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. Either way, cooked or raw, would be good but it is interesting to hear how it is done in Finland. Thank you for answering my question.

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  3. yikes, tilliliha... uh! Although chopped liver casserole was even worse- if possible.

    Still, I have to agee with the Hungry Birds' teacher- our children don't always appreciate the nutricious meals they are served daily. Sometimes I wonder if they would like school lunches more if they were actually charged for them. This blog certainly highlights how fortunate they are to receive wholesome meals, in stead of PB&J sandwiches, chips or hamburgers. What is really sad, though, is how little time Finnish families do spend "breaking bread" together. I think this is something we could learn from the North Americans writing on this blog earlier?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish I could say that families eating dinner together was the norm in North America, but I'm seeing it less and less often as well. My family does every night still, but very few of my friends' families do the same. I know that for some families, even if the food is home-cooked, they get the food from the stove and the go eat in their own rooms or in front of the TV! I do think that eating together is an important part of family bonding. I hope that it starts making a come-back around the world!

      Delete
  4. to HB Teach:
    regional products - great!!
    nearly no industrial foodstuff - great!!
    selfmade bread - Yummy!!

    Attitude... weeeell...
    Maybe it could help to a) give lessons about what a healthy diet could / should look like and why.. even kids do sometimes follow reason ;)

    Another possible way to get the kids to accept food they're not used to would be to get them into the kitchen and have them make part of the meals themselves. I think the welsh school who already were part of this blog did something like that.
    If You prepare a meal yourself, you're much more likely to eat it without predjudice..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You don't think that insisting each child at least taste everything (even the food they don't like or don't like as much) is enough?

      Remember, this is a school lunch we're talking about here. If a child is made to sit at the table until he (or she) "cleans his plate", that may take up an hour's worth (or more) of what should have been lessons.

      I'm impressed with the schools "taste everything" rule as well as the fact that they insist on proper table manners.

      Parents have some responsibility here too, as well.

      Delete
  5. Mmmm... Fresh baked bread smell in the school would be wonderful! Although I think even as a teacher I would have trouble keeping my mind on the work and not on the minutes until lunchtime!

    ReplyDelete
  6. It looks great!!!
    Now i'm really hungry :)

    CU
    Shiri from Germany

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  7. I am surprised that with the recognition of the value of unprocessed, local, traditional foods, that fat-free milk would be on the menu. Whole fresh milk is nutrient dense, with natural enzymes that help with digestion and nutrient assimilation. The fats contained in fresh unprocessed milk are very beneficial, especially to growing children. What led to the decision to go with the fad of fat-free?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Its of question of nations politics of food and nutrition, wich isnt really up to date when it comes to newest research. There are now few schools where whole milk is on menu after parents made issue out of it, same with real butter. When i was at school in finland, there where choices, butter or margarine and milk, fat free or less than 2% of fat and buttermilk, water. But i have to say aside of bad potatoes, i have very nice memories out of school lunches.

    ReplyDelete