School meals full of Christmas cheer
Maximise nutritious ingredients
You won’t be feeding your pupils on the big day itself, but the lead-up to the festive holidays is still a special, happy time. You want to make mealtimes fun and the dishes as delicious as possible, but you’ve also got nutritional standards and a food budget to meet.
Serving a Christmas dinner every lunchtime isn’t going to cut it. So trial fresh ideas that are tasty, balanced and get your kids in the festive mood. Here, two chefs from Lakeland Dairies share their tips on how to get pupils engaged while balancing compliance requirements.
Maximise nutritious ingredients
Ryan Graham, Development Chef at Lakeland Dairies, has a background in sports nutrition and has fed apprentices at Aston Villa Football Club. With balance always in his mind, he explains how a few simple tweaks can make festive dishes healthier and meet compliance requirements.
“This Christmas, you’ll be working to the new School Food Standards,” he says. “This makes nutrition even more important. You still want your menus to include little treats, though. Balancing these with plenty of vegetables, wholegrains and quality protein sources will create meals that are enjoyable and meet nutritional guidelines.”
Ryan’s top tips
- Enhance dishes with nutrient-rich ingredients to boost nutritional value without compromising taste. For example, incorporating skimmed milk powder can increase protein and calcium content in soups, sauces, mashed potatoes, and desserts.
- Maximise ingredient utilisation and minimise waste by using festive ingredients across multiple dishes. For example, turn cabbage and Brussels sprouts into festive slaws. Then use Brussels sprouts in a seasonal pesto. Use leftover turkey in pies, pasta dishes or festive bakes.
- Make food fun and interactive by creating opportunities for children to get involved, such as decorating their own snowman gingerbread biscuits. Adding theatre at the serving counter can also help build excitement and engagement.
Make the familiar festive
Paul Jennings, Head of Food (UK & International) at Lakeland Dairies, has worked across several sectors and is a food innovation expert with a strong commercial focus. To maximise pupils’ excitement, he suggests school caterers should take dishes that are familiar and add a touch of Christmas magic.
He says: “Whether it’s through creating an experience or reinventing dishes your kids already love on your menus, you can easily make festive mealtimes more exciting without reinventing the wheel. That way, your menu has a Christmas feel but has variety and piques interest.”
Paul’s top tips
- Keep it fun, familiar and engaging. Take dishes children already enjoy and give them a festive twist, such as Christmas turkey hot dogs with seasonal toppings, festive mac and cheese, or loaded Christmas roasties.
- Create an experience. Consider a Christmas food market or winter food festival that brings excitement and theatre to lunchtime, allowing children to explore different festive flavours and food traditions.
- Add interactive elements. A Christmas Around the World theme can encourage children to try new dishes. Create a food passport that can be stamped as they sample different cuisines, with a small reward for completed passports. Fun, festive menu names can also help increase engagement.
