The BritMums Blog

Guest post: 6 tips for choosing a cookery school

With new cookery schools popping up almost daily in the UK it’s worth taking a few moments to make sure that you’re signing up for the best possible culinary experience. Nick Wyke, founder of the UK’s leading cookery schools directory www.lookingtocook, offers his six essential tips.

1. Recommendations

The word of a bona-fide foodie friend or colleague who has been on a course is hard to beat. Apart from that, the national papers intermittently do round-ups which invariably feature the same old suspects (despite the fact that there are hundreds of cookery schools out there, some of which are truly amazing), and local papers will write up a new school.

10 talented food bloggers to watch – they’re mums too!

At BritMums we’re bursting at the seams with brilliant foodie bloggers who share recipes, reviews, ideas and mouth-watering pictures day in, day out. Recently our friend Nick Coffer, aka My Daddy Cooks, has received a flurry of coverage both online and off. It seemed like high time to shine the light on some of our favourite parent food bloggers. Check out this handful diet-wrecking divas (in no particular order). 

Ladies who lunchbox

Our video bloggers are an industrious bunch and their latest topic for your delectation is the humble school lunchbox. From making meals go further to baking an easy apricot loaf to ingenious use of the freezer...

“After a busy day at the office, I love nothing more than setting about in the kitchen making delicious nutritious snacks for their packed lunches the next day ...” jokes Catherine from babygenie.wordpress.com. 

The reality, is something far more recognisable – but you’ll have to watch the video to find out. 

Ditch the boring lunchboxes

Back to school needn’t mean back to the soul-destroying monotony of doling out cheese sandwiches each day, but nor should providing a healthy and innovative lunch box for your kids take over your life.

Anything that requires overnight soaking or first thing cooking is clearly unsustainable... 

Tasha from www.wahm-bam.org recently ran a competition to win a hamper of goodies, and asked readers to share the contents of their kids’ packed lunches.

Guest post: Eight of the best student cookery courses

As the nation’s teenagers scrabble to get on to the university courses of their dreams, parents everywhere are pondering quite how their progeny will cope with looking after themselves, properly, come September.

While the cleaning skills may take a little while to master, there are options to get their cooking up to scratch so if little else, you know there will be some nutritional value sloshing around alongside the union bar beer. Here are Looking to Cook's top selections of student cooking schools...   

BritMums Blogger of the Week

What a week we've been through! Riots, civil unrest, 11 year olds looting, businesses being destroyed in a matter of minutes by careless individuals hell-bent on creating chaos. Not our best moment here in England! So let's retreat to the comfort of blogging!

The BritMums blogosphere is full of wonderful writers who share their knowledge and delightful prose every week. They provide us with inspiration and are a welcome respite from the struggles and stresses of everyday life. This week I'd like to re-introduce you to a blogger who will inspire you to get in the kitchen, who will amuse you with tales of her teenage boys and will delight you with her lovely photos of the most ordinary things. This week's BritMums Blogger of the Week is...

Guest post: 5 summer cooking schools for kids

If the number of cookery schools catering for children is anything to go by, says Nick Wyke from Looking to Cook, we can expect the next generation to produce more than its fair share of super chefs. In fact, there are almost as many cookery schools and classes for children as there are for adults now - and that's saying something. 

Here are Nick’s five tasty ideas for budding chefs in London this summer...

Munchkins, in Blackheath, South-East London runs fun, hands-on Summer Holiday workshops for 4 to 11-year-olds from 9am to 12.30pm Monday-Friday in its purpose-built kitchen behind a lovely cook shop.

Each week has a cool theme such as 'food from around the world (Aug 1-5); 'food from the stories of Roald Dahl' (Aug 8-12); 'funky fruit and super veg' (Aug  15-19); and 'cooking the rainbow' (Aug 22-26). Children make their own snack to eat during break in the kitchen garden, and their own lunch, plus lots of goodies to take home. 

Guest post: It's time to banish the children's menu!

Families eat out together more than ever. But @Working_Mum, who blogs at Adventures of a Working Mum, finds the situation not quite up to snuff when it comes to the food on offer for the kids. Find out what she has to say about it and tell us whether you think the "children's menu" should be ditched.

Apparently London has been confirmed as the gourmet capital of the world after a record 53 restaurants were awarded Michelin stars in the 2011 guide. Really? Well here’s an idea for you Mr Michelin Inspector: try eating out with a toddler. Go on. I’ll loan you mine if you like.

Take Toddler-Not-So-Tiny-Temper out to eat and you’ll soon find a whole new area of the restaurant scene. Introducing the dreaded ‘Children’s Menu’. Not so fancy now is it? The main menu may be full of ‘seared breast of this’ and ‘tartare of smoked that’ but ask for a children’s menu and the options are somewhat limited. All together now mums: “Fishfingers and chips, sausage and chips, or pasta with tomato sauce”. We all know it – it never changes.
 

Blogger of the week + 10 must-reads

The Easter Holidays, School Half-Term, Royal Wedding and a myriad of Bank Holidays have put us off our Blogger of the Week regular schedule. For that, we apologise. We're back on track honouring brilliance in blogging every week and pointing you in the best direction to follow new and exciting blogs and their authors.

This week we bring to your attention, the blog of a very special Mummy Blogger who was a Super Mummy last week. What made her such a Super Mummy? Well, bringing forth her latest gorgeous creation a mere two hours after arriving in hospital, accompanied by only gas-and-air makes her pretty much a Super Mummy in anyone's book. That Super Mummy/Blogger of the Week is... Kelly (@Kellyfairy)  from A Place of My Own.

Guest post: English Mum's 10 tips for fabulous food blogging

English Mum has a gorgeous food-oriented blog where she writes everything from easy fresh baked bread and pies to farmhouse breakfasts that make your mouth water. She was also a Make a Difference Winner at the BMB’s Brilliance in Blogging Awards!

Here are her tips for writing about food, whether your favourite recipes or cooking with the kids, to get your readers – and other bloggers - eating up your content. Over to English Mum:

1.  Start with a bit of background. Has the recipe been in your family for years? Did you try it in a restaurant and then recreate it at home? Why do you love it? When do you make it? Is it easy or does it require a bit of work? The more information you give, the better.

Your 50 top tips for getting secret goodness into kids’ diets

  Ask a bunch of parents about how to get secret goodness into children’s meals and you get not only recipes and cooking tips. You also get down-to-earth strategies and philosophies that go way beyond the kitchen.

At our  Twitter party Thursday, sponsored by Kingsmill to announce their new Seeded range, the tweets were flying thick and fast. The hashtag #secretgoodness trended in the UK!

Some bloggers even used the party as inspiration for posts as well. Angels&Urchins wrote about foodie strategies she uses.  Mummysquared has a great picture of her little one trying loads of food. (Awww.) If you wrote about it, let us know!

Register for Kingsmill news and offers, and see food writer Jo Pratt's recipe for a Chicken Delight sandwich.