Cookery lesson with Growing Up Milk Info and Fiona Faulkner

Can you believe it? I can tick number 10 off my “100 things to do before I die” list, because I actually went on a mini cookery course yesterday and improved my cooking skills. Go me! I have neglected my list a little, although I have done or am still doing some of the things that I wanted to achieve, but when I started writing this post, I remembered that I wanted to learn some new cooking skills and thought I’d better start updating my list before you all think I just listed 100 random things for the sake of listing them. I will actually attempt ticking them all off, I promise!

Anyway, Growing Up Milk Info recently invited me along to a blogger event in Bristol’s ‘Food Square Foundation‘ (literally 10 minutes away from my front door) and yesterday was the day when I put on an apron and learned how to cook some fantastic home cooked meals for little and not so little ones. The team behind Cow & Gate’s Growing Up Milk, which we used in all of the recipes during the day, had invited kids food expert Fiona Faulkner to show us all the tips and tricks a mum needs to transform a meal into a healthy meal that is rich in Vitamin D - something a lot of our meals lack.I will post a separate blog post with lots of information over the weekend as I really find it important to know how much Vitamin D a child needs a how much it actually gets. Growing Up Milk Info have come up with some fabulous infographics and material to help parents and I can’t wait to share it with you.

At first, the big kitchen of the Square Food Foundation was a little intimidating for little old me, but our hosts and fellow blogger Penny from Being Mrs C were really lovely and helpful when I fought against the induction hob. My parents have one too and I swear these things go on strike just because they don’t like my fingerprint. Anyway, first of all, we made some absolutely delicious Baby Broccoli Muffins. They were so light and fluffy and just full of healthy and tasty things. I am absolutely in love with them! I shall post the recipe separately tomorrow as I don’t want to make this post too long, but I will definitely make them again as both Amy and Ben tried the muffins I brought home with me and asked for seconds and even thirds. The great thing about the Baby Broccoli Muffins is that they are not only a healthy and fun snack for toddlers, but also a perfect side dish for a BBQ or a nibble on an evening with friends. You can alter the recipe and add things such as sun-dried tomatoes or olives to give the recipe your very own twist. I added sun-dried tomatoes to mine!

The next dish we created was a Pancake Pizza. Yep, I also raised my eyebrows at the sound of it, because I only ever have sweet toppings on my pancakes, but this recipe is a really lovely and fun way of introducing savoury toppings to your children. We made our own tomato sauce with some hidden carrots and zucchini and then decorated our pancake pizza. Apparently, I won our little internal competition - the proof is on Twitter, so it must be right, yes? They were really light, but surprisingly filling. I took my second pancake home with me and still have some of the batter left to make them for Amy. The tomato sauce, I used in a pasta bake today and it went down a treat. I love it when you can take elements out of one recipe and use them in a different one.

The Macaroni Cheese with Salmon was really tasty too and that comes from someone who normally doesn’t even like fish - apart from tinned tuna. I have to say though that the meal wasn’t fishy fishy, if you know what I mean. The salmon gave the macaroni bake a bit of a different flavour. Fiona showed us how to rustle up a quick and easy Béchamel sauce that we added some grated cheese to. Once again, I will add the recipe separately as this post would just get ridiculously long and confusing, if I posted them all at the same time.

The Rice Pudding with Spiced Fruit was the only dish that I didn’t try and I hope you forgive me, but rice pudding is my personal idea of hell. I just cannot do it! Ben really liked it though and to be honest, I was quite surprised about it as he usually is not a fruity person at all. He can eat vegetables for England, but whenever I put fruit in front of him, he doesn’t even want to try it. The Rice Pudding with Spiced Fruit however went down a treat.

Disclosure: I was provided with a goodie bag and a lovely day, but all my words and opinions are my own. I was not asked to write about the day, but have done so, because I felt that I learned something new and left motivated to cook more. If you want to find out more about Cow & Gates Growing Up milk, you can do so here.