Optimus Prime - eat your heart out!

Today I was lucky enough to attend a CLPL (career long professional learning) course called 'cooking bus'. 
"What a bizarre name" I'd thought while signing up,  and I wondered what on earth it could mean.
 As I drove in this morning I concluded that it must be some fancy new resource or gadget to help while cooking with children.  Imagine my shock then when I arrived at the address and found a huge lorry that had transformed into a beautiful classroom come kitchen. And it wasn't as if it used to be a lorry and had been re-made into this classroom, oh no! It had sections that moved out, and then the moving parts all slotted back together again when it changed back into it's lorry form, ready to hit the road - Amazing!

Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I cannot cook for love nor money! I'm a dab hand at making toast, and I can re-heat an oven meal no problem, but as for cooking with real ingredients? I have a serious case of 'can't cook, wont cook'. This being said, I was excited to get on the bus and see what the lovely ladies had in store. They welcomed us in with coffee and the temptation of raspberry muffins (all the best courses offer you treats!) and then we were invited to learn about diets, nutritional needs, packaging and information and they also busted a few myths about food. 
This reminded me again of how lucky we are at my nursery to have all of our meals cooked on site by a wonderful and talented cook who really cares about giving the children healthy meals.
Then, the fun bit! We were able to do some cooking! The ladies didn't give us any recipes, but rather they demonstrated the methods and techniques that we should use and that we should teach to children when carrying out food technology activities.
I was rather proud of the 2 sample dishes that I came away with! It just goes to show that with a bit of encouragement and instruction, anyone can cook or prepare a healthy meal (even me!)

I definitely feel equipped to try and bring a bit more adventure into our food technology at nursery! I will report back on how it turns out so watch this space!

For more information about the cooking bus, please visit the cooking bus website!