HEALTHY Schools Lesson Resource Bank
First Level – Eat Smart, Play Smart
Interdisciplinary Learning Project – Get Healthy, Stay Healthy
Planning Framework Context for Learning – Healthy Eating
Cooking Skills Module – Mini Chefs 3
HEALTHY Schools
Mini Chefs 3
Contents
Theme / Topic / Suggested Learning ActivitiesCooking Skills / Mini Frittatas (Eggs) / · Introduce
· Explain
· Demonstrate
· Get Cooking
Mini Chefs 3
Theme: Cooking Skills
Topic: Mini Frittatas
SUGGESTED LEARNING ACTIVITYIntroduction
The main focus of this lesson is eggs, to teach children how they can be used to cook easy, cheap, delicious and nutritious dishes. The recipe also showcases a useful characteristic of eggs - that they can make a mixture set and hold together into a neat frittata!
Eggs are fascinating for children - the magic of cracking open an egg, cooking a boiled or fried egg so that the white is solid and the yolk is runny, the ability to whisk egg into meringue and how they help cakes rise are all things that a child may have experienced.
Eggs are very nutritious. They contain lots of essential vitamins like Vitamin D and B12 and minerals such as selenium and phosphorus. They are also a good source of protein that supports the growth and maintenance of healthy muscles and helps to maintain healthy bones. It’s important to eat a varied and balanced diet as part of a healthy lifestyle.
Most of the eggs we eat come from hens, but we can also buy duck, goose, quail and even ostrich eggs. Farmers produce eggs by keeping hens on farms. Some hens are kept in barns, while other free range and organic hens roam freely in and out of the barn into a field.
Chocolate eggs are a popular treat at Easter, and this lesson could be timed to coincide with an Easter egg hunt or other activities in the school.
Aims of the session
· To introduce children to eggs and teach them how to store, handle and crack eggs safely.
· To cook a frittata, safely and hygienically.
· To teach children that eggs are laid by hens each day, that there are three main parts of an egg (yolk, white and shell), and introduce their nutritional properties.
· To identify that a working characteristic of an egg is to set or bind a mixture when it is heated.
· To name several ways of cooking eggs, and dishes that contain egg to show their versatility.
· To enable children to name and use a range of basic cooking equipment (knife, grater) and demonstrate basic food preparation skills (e.g. mixing with a fork, snipping with scissors, de-seeding a pepper) to make a frittata.
Children will
· recall and carry out the personal hygiene drill, with support
· learn how to make mini frittatas and demonstrate a range of food preparation skills safely and hygienically (grate, snip, de-seed, crack and beat egg)
· evaluate their dish, e.g. appearance, smell, taste
· be encouraged to build their skills and confidence by making the dish again at home as part of a family meal
Skills
Greasing, cracking an egg, beating, grating, cutting, dividing a mixture and baking.
Outline of activity
1. Introduce the activity, talk about where eggs come from and describe what the word ‘frittata’ means. (Frittata means ‘egg cake’ in Italian, and is similar to an omelette with extra ingredients such as meat, cheese and vegetables.)
2. Show the children how to make a frittata step-by-step, with children following each stage.
3. Show the children the whole pepper (theirs will be cut into quarters).
4. Allow the children to eat the frittata while warm or chill and serve cold (you could allow them to eat some chilled and some warm so that they can see/taste the difference).
5. Make the recipe in groups of four children.
What You Will Need
Ingredients / For Group 1
(4children) / For Group 2
(8children) / For Group 3
(12children) / For Group 4
(16children)
Butter / 10g / 20g / 30g / 40g
Spring Onion / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Red Pepper / 1/4 / 1/2 / 3/4 / 1
Mature Cheddar Cheese / 40g / 80g / 120g / 160g
Canned Sweetcorn / 75g / 150g / 225g / 300g
Large Eggs / 4 / 8 / 12 / 16
Milk / 2 Teaspoons / 4 Teaspoons / 6 Teaspoons / 8 Teaspoons
Black Pepper
Ingredients / For Group 1
(4children) / For Group 2
(8children) / For Group 3
(12children) / For Group 4
(16children)
Box Grater / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Chopping Board / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Tablespoon / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Teaspoon / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Muffin Tin (at least 4 holes) / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Fork / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Small Kitchen Scissors / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Mixing Bowl / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Table Knife / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Sieve / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Oven Gloves
(1 per pair) / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
1 / 2 / 3 / 4
How to run the session
Before the children arrive
· Collect images of hens, and dishes made with eggs (e.g. fried, boiled and scrambled egg, quiche, custard, meringue).
· You may also like to collect pictures of other birds and the eggs they lay (such as quail, duck, goose, and ostrich).
· Have an egg box to show labelling.
· Set out the demonstration area with all ingredients and equipment listed.
· Set out the ingredients and equipment needed for each group.
· Prepare the room and tables. Display the pdf recipe on the whiteboard and/or provide copies of the recipe on the table for children to follow.
· Get the recipes and aprons ready.
· Place the eggs in a measuring jug or egg box so that they do not roll around or fall on the floor.
· Cut the pepper into quarters so that children are able to cut them safely, but leave the seeds and stalk in place, to be removed by children with a spoon/their fingers.
· Measure 40g blocks of cheese, cut so that it is easy for the children to grate (a square lump rather than thin wedge will be easier to handle).
· Frozen sweetcorn does not need to be defrosted; canned sweetcorn will need to be drained.
· Leave the root and top on the spring onions, these can be removed by the children with scissors. This is a teaching point.
· Preheat the oven. If it is not in the same room, ensure that others in the school know that it is being used.
Activity 1 Introduction
Explain to the children that they will be making a frittata.
Get ready to cook
Ensure that all the children are ready to cook. Children should follow the personal hygiene drill:
· tie up long hair
· remove jewellery
· roll up long sleeves
· wear an apron
· wash their hands
You’ll need: Recipe on the whiteboard/copies of recipes for the children to read through
You’ll need: Aprons, a sink, soap and hand towel
Activity 2 Inspire the children
Show the children an egg in a box.
Question the children:
· Where do eggs come from? (Hens, ducks, quail, ostrich, on farms.)
· How often do hens lay eggs? (A hen lays 300 eggs a year.)
· Talk about how some eggs hatch into chicks (but not the ones we eat!).
· What can we make with eggs?
· How are they used for cooking? Eggs are used in many recipes; show them recipes or images of egg dishes, e.g. quiche, custard, boiled and scrambled eggs, mayonnaise.
· Who has eaten eggs? How do eggs taste?
· Why are eggs packed in boxes?
· Where should eggs be stored? (Fridge.)
· How long do they keep? Note the date mark on the shell.
Ask children to recall the eatwell plate:
· In which food group do eggs belong? (Meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein.)
· What main nutrient is provided by foods from this food group? (Protein.)
Show the children how to crack an egg:
· Hold the egg in one hand over a jug or bowl.
· Tap the middle of the egg firmly with a table knife to crack the shell.
· Insert the tips of your thumbs into the crack, draw the two halves apart, allowing the egg to drop into the bowl.
· Use a spoon to get out any fragments of shell that may fall into the bowl.
· Explain to the children that after they have cracked an egg they should wash their hands and ensure they do not put their fingers in their mouth.
Question the children:
· What are the names of the parts of an egg? (Yolk, white and shell.)
· Ask children to describe what they see – colour and texture. Show them the thin clear white at the edge, the thick white near the yolk and the shell.
· Which parts of the egg do we eat?
· Do the white and the yolk taste different?
· Explain that the yolk and the white can be beaten together, but can also be used on their own – yolks for mayonnaise, whites for meringues.
· What happens when we cook/heat an egg? The egg sets the mixture, i.e. it goes firm/hard.
· Why do we cook eggs? To make them safe to eat.
You’ll need: ImagesDemonstration ingredients and equipment
You’ll need: An egg, Table, knife and a Measuring jug (saucer/small plate)
Demonstration
Go through the recipe so that children understand your expectations.
· Demonstrate the skills in the recipe. Show them how to make the recipe step-by-step:
· Emphasise controlled light greasing of muffin tins. (You may wish to allow children to ‘grease’ the muffin tins using oil and a pastry brush, therefore removing an additional hand washing stage. Alternatively, use non-stick silicon muffin tins.)
· Distinguish between edible and non-edible parts of the spring onion and pepper (e.g. seed, root, and stalk). Talk about the plant and how it would grow.
· Show how to top and tail onions using scissors.
· Show de-seeding pepper, pulling away the pith with a teaspoon or fingers.
· Emphasise the evenness of snipping, making sure all pieces are a similar small size so that they cook evenly (very large pieces will be crunchy and very small pieces may disintegrate on cooking).
· Show how to grate the cheese safely (repositioning the cheese as it gets smaller in order to keep fingers away from the grater blades).
· Explain why it’s important to beat the whites and yolks evenly so it becomes a yellow mixture.
· Remind children to pour the egg mixture carefully into the muffin cases.
Activity 3 Get cooking!
· Divide the children into groups of four.
· Ask them to check that their group has the correct equipment, according to the recipe.
· Ask them to measure and weigh the ingredients required and set out for them.
· Check their measurements are accurate and ask them to work together to check each other’s measurements.
· Supervise the children setting the oven to the correct temperature, if the oven is in the same room.
· Ensure that the muffin tins are lightly greased.
· Check that children are using the scissors carefully to prepare the spring onion and pepper.
· Supervise the use of the graters, reminding children to watch their fingers as the cheese is grated. Remind them to concentrate during such tasks.
Activity Keep cooking!
· Encourage them to be brave when cracking eggs, but to hold them correctly and tap with a knife.
· Ensure they hold them over the bowl/jug to catch the white and yolk.
· Do not allow them to tap on the side of the bowl.
· Children should wash their hands after handling raw eggs.
· Check that children have mixed the eggs evenly (so that white and yolk are blended).
· Remind children to evenly share the vegetables, cheese and beaten eggs equally between the muffin tins.
· Show the children a cooked frittata - the egg must be thoroughly cooked (it should be firm). You can do this at the end of the cooking activity if you are not able to cook a portion of frittatas in advance.
How to finish this activity
· Discuss the state of eggs ‘before’ (runny egg and mixed vegetables) and ‘after’ (neatly set round, holding the vegetables) cooking.
- Explain how the eggs hold the shape.
-Ask them to describe the differences in texture, taste and colour between ‘raw’ and ‘cooked’ frittata.
· Discuss other vegetables that could be added, such as frozen peas instead of sweetcorn, or leftover cooked vegetables, green beans or cooked butternut squash cut into small pieces.
· Ask them to make suggestions of ingredients for a frittata on a theme, such as summer or winter frittata, or a frittata for a family picnic.
· Ask children if they like the frittata. Talk about when they might eat the frittata and what they might serve with it to make a meal (hot breakfast at the weekend, for lunch or as part of an evening meal with chicken or ham, or cold as part of a picnic).
· This dish can be served hot and eaten straight away, or covered and stored in the fridge and eaten cold. Ask the children why the frittata should be stored in the fridge.
· Provide the children with a copy of the recipe to take home – encourage them to make this with their parents/carers.
You’ll need: Copies of the recipe for the children to take home
Mini frittatas
These colourful omelette-style bites would be delicious for lunch or a tasty after-school snack
Eggs contain lots of essential vitamins, such as Vitamin D and B12, and minerals including phosphorus. They're also a good source of protein, which supports the growth and maintenance of healthy muscles and bones.
Serves | 4 children
Preheat the oven to | 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas 4
Preparation time | 20mins
Cooking time | 15mins
Equipment:
· Muffin tin
· Scissors
· Chopping board
· Mixing bowl
· Teaspoon
· Sieve
· Box grater
· Measuring jug
· Tablespoon
· Fork
· Oven gloves / Ingredients:
· 10g butter
· 1 spring onion
· 1/4 pointed red pepper
· 75g canned sweetcorn
· 40g mature Cheddar
· 2tbsp milk
· 4 large eggs
· Black pepper
Instructions:
1. Turn on the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas 4. Using your fingers, grease 4 of the cups of the muffin tin with butter.
2. Use the scissors to cut off the tough ends of the leaves and roots of the spring onion. Thinly slice the rest on the chopping board and put into the mixing bowl.
3. Using a teaspoon, scoop out the seeds and white pith from the pepper (or pull them out with your fingers).
4. Cut the flesh into small pieces with the scissors and add to the bowl.
5. Drain the sweetcorn in a sieve and add to the other vegetables. Grate the cheese on the chopping board.
6. Mix in the cheese and stir it all together.
7. Divide the mixture evenly between the 4 muffin cups.
8. Break the eggs into a jug, one at a time. Add 3 grinds of black pepper and the milk. Beat with a fork until the yolks and whites are evenly blended.
9. Pour into the muffin cups until they are evenly filled. Bake in the oven for 15mins until puffed up and set in the middle.
Hints & tips:
Try making one big frittata instead of mini versions – great for a family dinner, or cut into wedges for packed lunches.
Make your own:
Most vegetables would work well in this recipe. Try swapping the sweetcorn for frozen peas, or add cooked broccoli, green beans or butternut squash, all cut up into small pieces.
Each 125g serving contains:
Energy
805kj / Fat
Med / Saturate
Med / Sugar
Low / Salt
Med
194kcal / 14g / 5.8g / 1.6g / 0.5g
10% / 20% / 29% / 2% / 8%
Useful links:
For basic food skills in primary schools, including videos demonstrating cutting, peeling and grating and support around where food comes from, visit www.foodafactoflife.org.uk
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