Bacon or Venison?

VEG here! I thought I'd try a food experiment today because it's the holidays. I went down to the end of the Crinan Canal (1 second!). We didn't have any fish heads in the freezer so we took some bacon and some neck of venison.

I wanted to work out what local crabs liked for their lunch so I had both baits on my crabbing line. Dad put the bait on and I lowered it in next to the wall. I caught 14 crabs and 1 fish in total. Guess which bait was brilliant and which almost failed.... I'll tell you tomorrow!

Here's a photo of a school dinner you have sent in. I'm going to play the warm...warmer...hot....roasting game tomorrow with Dad to find the country it came from on the globe. I'll tell you how long it takes me and all about the food tomorrow.

I feel like an animal tamer today because I rescued a bird in the conservatory and picked the fish out of the bucket of crabs. The bird let me pick it up and the crabs didn't nip me.

Sorry it's a crab's dinner but we've not heard from our guests today.

VEG

Hi.

Thank you to Blod for last weeks interesting Tales from Wales. Veg is still on holiday so we "Not a Hippy" and "Not a Yoghurt Knitter" are having a week in her seat keeping it cosy. We are just over the boarder from Blod in Herefordshire.

Our school is The Steiner Academy Hereford. Steiner schools are a bit different, it is a more holistic approach to education about the child and not targets. Many people think that these schools are for the children of muesli munching yoghurt knitting hippies because the children wear their own bright clothes and chunky boots not a uniform. Steiner education caters to the more creative side of a child. Usually people have to pay to send their children to one of these schools but now we are an Academy and any one can come here for free if there is a place for them.

The day is structured differently. In the morning the children start off by saying a verse, they play recorder and then do movement. After that they start the main lesson. This will be the same topic every morning for several weeks rather that having a lesson of Maths, English, RE, Geography, History or Art each day. There is usually a story to go with the lesson to be remembered for the next day.

The lunches here are vegetarian. The dinner ladies are some of the parents of the students. Each week the menu is the same and there is only 1 choice take it or leave it BUT the food is SO tasty and very wholesome you do not want to leave it. My favourite is the curry (Tuesday).

Today is pizza with carrot sticks, salad and coleslaw, with vegetarian pink jelly for pudding or fresh fruit. The pizza is crispy wholemeal base with a smooth tomato plain cheese topping with no burnt bits. The salad is a crunchy green lettuce and fresh green herb salad with nasturtiums and marigolds in. The coleslaw was creamy. The jelly is pink fruit. The dinner ladies cook everything from scratch and everything is locally sourced or comes on the supermarket truck on a Monday. There never seems to be much waste.

Food-o-meter- 10\10
Mouthfuls- 50
Course- main/dessert
Health rating- 10/10
price £2.50
pieces of hair 0

see you tomorrow,
from,
Not a Yoghurt Knitter (Not a Hippy is away on a class trip to the Black Mountains possibly dragon hunting)

VEG here! Dad didn't pass a sent in meal to NAYK in time today so here's a meal from Japan. The blog is visiting Japan for week so there will be more from where this came from!

"Hi, VEG! I'm a big fan of your blog. My name is Corinna, and I'm an American who teaches English in Japan. Here is a photo of today's school lunch. It is my favorite, curry and rice and edamame salad. Here in Japan, there is milk every day and rice at least three days a week. Only the fast eaters get seconds, but the food is very delicious, so the children play rock paper scissors to see who gets the extra! Also, the children serve each other and then clean everything up after!"

Rock paper scissors for seconds, cool!

Haia, BLOD yma. Heddiw roedd yna fwydlen arbennig yn y gegin i ddathlu twrnament tennis Wimbledon (oeddech chi’n meddwl mai’r gemau Olympaidd fasa’r thema?!). Gwisgodd rhai plant wisg ffansi. Mi wnes i wisgo crys-t, sgert a chap. Rydym wedi cael nifer o ddiwrnodau thema eraill, fel diwrnod Americanaidd, a diwrnod Mecsicanaidd. Fe allwch weld bob un yma, yn cynnwys llun ohonof fi a fy mrawd o heddiw.

Ar y fwydlen arbennig roedd: pitsa selsig, sglodion, wedges, ffa pob, salad, a bara. Dwi ddim yn siŵr os ydynt yn bwyta pitsa efo selsig arno yn Wimbledon, ond dim ots gen i gan ei fod yn fendigedig. Ond mae ganddynt fefus yno, a dyna oedd i bwdin heddiw (efo jeli). Cymerais lun o’r mefus i ddangos i chi ond mi wnes i roi nhw i fy ffrind oherwydd dydw i ddim yn hoffi mefus. Roedd bwyd heddiw yn fendigedig. Doedd o ddim y fwyd iachaf o’r wythnos, ond roedd yn flasus, a dwi’n credu ei fod yn bwysig i blant ddysgu i fwynhau bwyd. Ond mae’r pitsa yn cael ei wneud yn ffres ac mae ganddo pum llysieuyn gwahanol ynddo.

Hi, BLOD here. Today there was a special menu in the kitchen to celebrate the Wimbledon tennis tournament finals (you thought it would be the Olympics didn’t you?!). Some children wore fancy dress. I wore a t-shirt, skirt and cap. We have had lots of other theme days at dinner time, like an American day and a Mexican day. You can see all of them here, including a picture of my brother and I from today.

The special menu was: sausage pizza, chips, wedges, baked beans, salad and bread. I’m not sure if they eat sausage pizzas at Wimbledon, but I don’t care because it was delicious! They do have strawberries though, and that was our pudding on some jelly. I took a picture of the strawberries to show you but I gave them to a friend because I don’t like them. Today’s food was delicious. It wasn’t the healthiest thing we have had all week but it is nice, and I think it is important that children get to enjoy food. But the pizza base is homemade and has five different vegetables in it.

Food-o-meter: 10/10
Courses: main/dessert
Mouthfulls: 50
Price: £1.85
Pieces of hair: 0 (none all week, phew, the cook is relieved!)
Stickers: 0 (but 4 for other people)

I have really enjoyed being the first guest-blogger. The week has gone quickly. Thank you for all the kind comments, I loved reading them. I’m a little bit sad that we’ve finished but I’m looking forward to reading what comes next. Good luck to the next school, Hereford Steiner Academy from Dewchurch, England, who will be taking over on Monday and I hope VEG has a lovely summer holiday. Perhaps one day we’ll meet! Keep up the good work with your justgiving page http://www.justgiving.com/neverseconds/ for Mary’s Meals. I want to finish with a big thank you to the people who cook our dinners. I really think my school cook is the best in the whole wide world. But I would – did I forget to mention? She’s my mum ;-)

BLOD

Thanks BLOD!

What a great week of food. Your Mum is an amazing cook! My favourite meal you had was Monday's Spaghetti Bolognese and I am going to try and bake a chocolate cake with sweet potato and beetroot. I really like baked beetroot with a roast. I enjoyed hearing your language and I am trying to learn to say LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH but I don't sound like Niamh yet! It's been great reading the blog everyday and I am looking forward to next week when it visits England. Dad asks you please to keep sending your pics in and if your school would like to guest blog for a week in August or September please get in touch! NeverSeconds@gmail.com

I've been busy camping in the rain but it was great fun to explore new places. I have been on huge roller coasters, to Babe at the theatre and penny arcades (I lost all my 2 pences!)

It's nice to be home and to see all the animals. There is a Red Squirrel outside waiting for me to fill the peanuts but Mum saw a Pine Marten this morning so I hope the squirrels will be ok.

I think we have dates decided to visit Malawi in October to visit the children and the Friends of NeverSeconds kitchen but I may need some jags before I go! Ouch.

VEG

BLOD yma eto. Wnaethoch chi eich gwaith cartref? Da iawn chi os ydych wedi trio dweud enw’r pentref sydd yn agos i fy nghartref i. Gwrandewch ar Niamh o fy ysgol i yn ei ddweud wrth glicio yma. Heddiw ges i becyn bwyd oherwydd aethom i ymweld â sw mor. Roedd fy mhrifathro yn ei alw yn ‘ymweliad addysgiadol’. Dwi’n ei alw yn drip ysgol! Aethom eithaf pell. Yn wir, roedd rhaid croesi’r ffin o Gymru i Loegr. Roedd o’n dda. Fy hoff ran oedd pan wnaeth y plymwyr bwydo’r gath fôr. Mae yna lun ohono ar flog yr ysgol, ac fe allwch fy ngweld i yn y llun bach yn pwyntio at bysgod.

Cefais frechdan caws a nionyn gyda ‘salad cream’ (sydd dipyn fel ‘mayonnaise’ os dydych chi ddim yn gwybod). Hefyd, cefais greision, afal, grawnwin, a teisin ‘rice crispie’ gyda ‘marshmallows’ ynddi. I yfed, cefais dŵr blas mefus.

BLOD here again. Did you do your Welsh homework? If you tried to say the name of the place near where I live with a long name then well done. You can listen to Niamh from my school saying it by clicking here. Today I had a packed lunch because we went to visit an aquarium. My headmaster called it an “educational visit”. I call it a school trip! We went quite far. In fact we crossed the border from Wales to England. It was good. My favourite part was when the divers gave the ray food. There’s a picture of it on our school’s blog (www.ysgolkingsland.com), and you can see me in the little picture pointing at some fish.

I had a cheese and onion sandwich with salad cream (which is a bit like mayonnaise if you didn’t know). Also I had crisps, apple, grapes, and a marshmallow rice crispie cake. To drink I had strawberry flavoured water.

Food-o-meter: 10/10
Mouthfuls: 55
Courses: snacks, sandwich and dessert
Price: not sure
Pieces of hair: 0
Stickers: 1, on the apple, but that doesn’t count!

Today’s guest dinner comes from Lytham St Anne’s in Lancashire, England. Max is nearly 8 years old and says:

I take a packed lunch to school every day and here is a picture of today's. Tuna sandwiches, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and a chunk of Stripey Jack cheese. For afters there's a KitKat (somewhere in there) and pineapple. Washed down with Ribena. My mum always makes sure I've got a healthy lunch and unusually for an 8 year old I love my salad and veg! I usually eat them first and then have my sandwiches. In summer my veg is from our garden. We grow peas, beans, carrots, onions, potatoes, rhubarb and pumpkins. Our school meals seem to be pretty good and they have a special lunch every term that you can have. They are usually themed as to what we are learning/doing.

Food-o-meter- 10/10! (I love my Mum’s packed lunches)!
Mouthfuls- about 47.
Courses- main/dessert
Health Rating- 9/10
Price- not worked it out
Pieces of hair - 0

BLOD here again. I’m really sorry, Max but I couldn’t try to find where you live because my headmaster didn’t bring a globe or map with him on the bus! Your food looks really nice, though. I like the look of the Stripey Jack cheese. We also have special theme days. In fact we have one tomorrow. Tomorrow will be my last post. I think VEG will post an update about her amazing fundraising for Mary’s Meals too. I wonder who will be the 7,000th person to donate. It’s very close! In the meantime I will leave you with another guessing game. Can you guess what the theme of tomorrow’s special menu is? A clue: something to do with sports.

BLOD

Helo pawb, BLOD yma. Hwn yw fy nhrydydd diwrnod fel y blogwr gwadd. Mae’n hwyl! Mae nifer o bobl wedi gofyn i gael clywed rhywun yn siarad Cymraeg, felly mae fy mhrifathro wedi recordio Niamh o Flwyddyn 6 wedi yn darllen y paragraff am fwyd heddiw (mae hi wedi bod yn dysgu Cymraeg am hirach na fi, diolch am dy gymorth, Niamh)!

Ydach chi’n cofio nes i ofyn i chi ddyfalu pam dwi’n cyfri sticeri bob dydd? Roedd un person yn agos iawn. Weithiau mae staff y gegin yn cuddio sticeri o dan un plât ar hap. Rhaid i ni edrych o dan ein platiau i weld pwy sy’n cael sticer. Os ydych chi’n ffeindio sticer, rydych yn ennill gwobr. Mae hwn yn ein hannog i fwyta cinio ysgol. Mae’n rhaid bod yn ofalus peidio gollwng bwyd ar ein pennau wrth edrych! Heddiw fe wnaeth dau berson ffeindio sticer. Cawsant raw fach i’r ardd a phecyn o hadau. Fe allwch weld llun un o’r bechgyn yma.

Heddiw cawsom ginio o gig eidion. Cig eidion Cymreig oedd o. Cawsom datws rhost, pwdin Sir Efrog, moron a bresych hefo grefi a bara. Roedd yna datws stwnsh hefyd ond dydw i ddim yn hoffi tatws stwnsh. I bwdin mi ges i deisen ‘rice crispies’. Ar y fwydlen ei enw ydi ‘Krispie Aur’. Dwi’n meddwl ei fod yn cael ei wneud efo triog a syrup. Mi roedd yn fendigedig.

Hello everyone, BLOD here. It’s my third day as the guest blogger. It is fun! Lots of people are interested to know what the Welsh language sounds like so my headteacher has recorded Niamh from Year 6 reading the paragraph about today’s food (she’s been learning Welsh for longer than I have – thanks for your help, Niamh)!

I asked you to guess why I’m counting stickers didn’t I. One person was very close! Sometimes at dinner time the dinner staff put a sticker underneath someone’s tray at random. We all have to look under our trays to see who gets the sticker. If you get the sticker you win a prize. This encourages us to have school dinners. We have to be careful not to spill any food on our heads when we check! Today two people found a sticker. They won a trowel and a pack of seeds. You can see one of the boys here.

Today we had a beef dinner. It was Welsh beef. With it I had roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, carrots, and cabbage with gravy and bread. There was mashed potato too but I don’t like that. For dessert I had a rice crispy cake. On the menu it is called a Golden Krispie. I think it is made with treacle and syrup. It was delicious.

Food-o-meter: 7/10
Mouthfuls: 50
Courses: main and dessert
Price: £1.85 (but we just found out they change to £1.90 in September)
Pieces of hair: 0
Stickers: 0 for me (but 2 for other people!)

Now let’s see some food from another country. Today we’re going to China (15 seconds). Christine says:

The picture I'm sending you shows my lunch today at the Muslim canteen at my uni (Xiamen is a sort of quiet little town located on the southeastern coast of China), where you get a helping of steamed rice for free and pay for the specific dishes that go with it. I got scrambled eggs with tomatoes, chicken and green pea stew and potato and beef stew. Then you get funny carrot-coloured chopsticks and a spoon, which I think is indispensable since it's impossible to eat rice or peas with chopsticks!

Food-o-meter: 9/10 (Chinese Muslims have some really tasty stews!)
Mouthfuls: too hungry to count :p
Courses: main (you could buy fruits for afters but they don't have dairies on the menu, more's the pity!)
Health Rating: 10/10 (it's a large portion, yet you're likely to get hungry at least some minutes before supper...)
Price: 7.5 RMB, or about 80 pence
Pieces of Hair: 0 (yayness!)

BLOD here once more. I think the scrambled eggs with tomatoes look really nice but at first I thought it was chicken. I’m not a fan of scrambled eggs though. I would really like to try the chicken and green pea stew though! I’ve seen spoons like that in the Chinese restaurant in Holyhead. When I go there I try to use chopsticks. I’m getting there slowly! Once, when I was about 7 years old we had a Chinese Day in school. There is a picture of me here – I’m the one on the left!

Do you want me to leave you with a challenge? As you seem to like the Welsh language I thought you might want to try to say the name of the place with the longest name in the UK. It’s not far from where we live. Niamh will read it out to you tomorrow! Here it is: LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH

BLOD

Haia, BLOD yma eto! Ydach chi’n fy nghofio i? Fi di’r eneth o Ogledd Cymru! Cawsom wasanaeth yn yr ysgol ac fe wnaethomddysgu am Mary’s Meals. Gwelsom luniauo’r plant tlawd mewn llefydd fel Affrica. Roeddynt yn edrych mor hapus wrth dderbyn eu bwyd. Mae’n anhygoel meddwl mai dim ond 6c mae’ncostio i fwydo bachgen neu eneth sy’n llwgu. Fedrwch chi helpu VEG i godi arian wrth glicio yma. Gobeithio bod VEG yn mwynhau ei gwyliau!

Dyma ginio heddiw: fy hoff brif gwrs ar y fwydlen gyfan. Dwi ddim yn siŵr beth mae’n cael ei alw ar yfwydlen ond dwi’n ei alw’n ‘cheesy pasta bake’. Cefais fresych o ardd yr ysgol a phys melys. Hefyd cefais salad a bara tomato blasus iawn. I bwdin cefais grymbl afal a chwstard. Bron i mi anghofio. Mi wnes i osod her i chi ddoe. A wnaethoch chi ddyfalu beth oedd ycynhwysion dirgel yn y muffin? Cafoddrhai ohonoch yr ateb yn gywir - da iawn chi! Yr ateb oedd tatws melys a betysen o’r ardd.



Hi, BLOD here again! Remember me? I’m the one from Wales! We had an assembly in school and learnt all about Mary’s Meals.We saw pictures of all the poor children in places like Africa. They looked so happy to be getting their food. We were amazed to learn that it only costs 6p to feed a starving boy or girl. You can help VEG to raise money by clicking here. I hope she is enjoying her holiday!

Here is today’s dinner. It was my favourite from the whole menu. I’m not sure what it is called on the menu but I call it ‘cheesy pastabake’. I had some cabbage from the school garden and some sweetcorn. I also had salad and tomato bread which was very nice. For dessert I had apple crumble and custard. Oh, I almost forgot. I set you a challenge yesterday. Did you guess the secret ingredient in my chocolate muffin? A few of you got it right so well done! Actually there were two secret ingredients: sweet potato and beetroot from our garden.

Food-o-meter- 10/10
Mouthfuls- 40
Courses- main and dessert
Price- £1.85
Pieces of hair: 0
Stickers: 0

Now I’m going to introduce you to Anni from Leipzig in Germany (11s). She is 17 years old. Anni says:

"If you want to eat in school (not everyone does, a lot of pupils bring their own lunch box) you have to order your lunch at the late stone day before. Everyday we can choose one of three warm options (one of them vegetarian), or we take a salad. We can also choose milk (strawberry, vanilla,choco or full-cream milk). Most timethere is a dessert or a starter for each meal. Normally you're not allowed to choose another one that's not with the lunch you ordered. But the women in our dining hall (we call them "Essensfrauen", that's a little bit like "lunchwomen", what do you call them?) are nice, so we can choose another one if we want. Otherwise they would just throw it away, because there's too much every time. I chose the macaroni with cheese sauce and ham sausage and took the tomato salad, but I didn't choose milk today.

Food-o-meter- 9/10
Mouthfuls- didn't count, sorry...
Courses- starter/main
Health Rating- 6/10
Price- 2,25€ (that's about £1,82)
Pieces of hair- 0

BLOD here again. Yourmacaroni cheese looks tasty. A bit like my cheesy pasta bake! The ham looks really fresh, I bet it was very nice. The tomato salad looks like salsa, which I quite like. We don’t have three types of meals to choose from because Ysgol Kingsland is a fairly small primary school, but there is always a vegetarian option and halal food too. Also, there is bread and salad available every day. My headteacher says that our proper word for “Essensfrauen” is “midday supervisor”,but we call them “dinner ladies”. I’m almost finished for the day. Just one more thing. Because you seem to like a mystery and I like reading your comments, I wonder if anyone can guess what the“stickers” are I’m counting when I do my rating? Today it was 0 again for me :-( I will explain tomorrow!

BLOD

Croeso i Gymru

Helo. BLODYN yma, ond fe allwch chi fy ngalw i’n BLOD. Mae’n ddrwg gen i os cawsoch sioc - oeddech chi’n cofio fod VEG ar ei gwyliau? Mae’n anrhydedd fawr i mi gael fod y person cyntaf i fod yn gyfrifol am edrych ar ôl y blog. Dwi mewn ysgol yng Ngogledd Cymru, felly dyda ni ddim wedi gwneud i chi deithio’n rhy bell o’r Alban wythnos yma! Dwi’n ferch naw oed hefyd, felly dyda ni ddim wedi newid gormod yn syth! Mi wnes i ddewis yr enw BLOD gan fy mod yn hoff o flodau, ac mi roeddwn eisiau enw Cymraeg gan ein bod yn siarad Cymraeg yn ein hysgol, Ysgol Kingsland.

Dyma fy nghinio ysgol. Heddiw mi ges i spaghetti bolognaise. Roeddwn yn ei hoffi. Cefais bys a salad hefo fo. Hefyd, mi roedd yna fara garlleg ond mi wnes i anghofio cymryd ei lun! Rydym yn cael math gwahanol o fara yn ddyddiol, ac mae’n cael ei bobi yn y gegin bob bore. I bwdin cawsom ddewis rhwng muffin siocled neu ffrwyth. Dewisais y muffin, ond mi roedd o yn dal yn iach oherwydd bod yna gynhwysyn arbennig ynddo. Fedrwch chi ddyfalu beth oedd o? Mi wnâi adael i chi wybod yfory!


Hi it’s BLODYN here, but you can call me BLOD. Sorry if I gave you a shock – did you remember that VEG is on holiday? It's a great honour to be the first guest blogger. I’m in a school in North Wales, so we haven’t made you travel too far from Scotland this week! I am also a nine year old girl, so we are not changing too much straight away! BLODYN is Welsh for flower, by the way. I like flowers. I chose a Welsh pen name because we speak Welsh at my school, Ysgol Kingsland.

Here is my school dinner. Today I had spaghetti bolognaise. I liked it. I had peas and salad with it. There was also garlic bread but I forgot to take a photo of it! We have different kinds of bread every day and it is always made that morning in the kitchen. For dessert we had a chocolate muffin or fruit. I chose the muffin but it was still healthy because there is a secret ingredient. Can you guess what it is? I’ll tell you the answer tomorrow!

Food-o-meter- 8/10
Mouthfuls- 35
Courses– main/dessert
Price- £1.85
Pieces of hair– 0
Wristband- we don’t have any, but:
Stickers found- 0 (I’ll explain this another day!!)

Now I'm going to show you some food from the Czech Republic (118s) – VEG must be a geography expert! Jana says this:

There are rules for the school kitchens in our country – the meal must fulfill nutritional standards. It is also important how the meal looks like isn´t it? I am sending you also one lunch picture. There is pulses soup (soup from lentils, peas and beans), cod fillet baked with potatoes and cheese, boiled potatoes. Every day the children have some vegetable – today it is lettuce salad – the whole bowl. The children have dessert only some days. For drink they can choose fruit drink or fruit milk. The meals are not expensive; we pay about 80p for one lunch.

BLOD here again. I think Jana’s dessert looks beautiful and it is served nicely in the glass. In our school we don’t have soup, but yours looks nice. In our school the menu is in blocks of three weeks. Ours are also healthy menus but they are delicious too!


BLOD

PS Great news! VEG's Just Giving page for Mary's Meals went through £110,000 today! Thanks to you all.