Food hygiene

A useful resource to use for Entry 2- Level 1 learners to teach safety and hygiene in the kitchen. Fact sheets are available on kitchen health and safety from Jamie's home cooking

Potato wedges picture recipe

This picture recipe for potato wedges can be downloaded from My Box net.

Food Storage

Some resources to teach food storage. These resources are suitable for students with a learning disability working at entry level . Updated 30/10/15 (old links removed!)





Food storage a work sheet from Food a Fact of Life   


Storing Food Worksheet 1 and work sheet 2 from Food a Fact of Life




Fill the fridge PowerPoint from TES (may need adapting for lower level students)

Food storage from the NI curriculum thematic unit MLD:
Home Economics Stop the Rot







Click on the PowerPoint link for the thematic units for good PowerPoints on Food StorageThe Fridge Game
A game to print out/cut out/laminate and play from the Food standards agency

Healthy or full of fat and salt...?

Rate these foods: healthy /unhealthy ?

• Jordans Country Crisp
• Fox's Butter Crunch Crinkles
• Danone Activia intensely creamy yogurt
• Kellogg's Cornflakes
• Heinz Baked Beans
• McVitie's Hobnobs

The answers can be found in an article from The Independent

Food Industry wins battle over warning labels on 'junk' food

The article is about how

'the Food Standards Agency's has dropped its insistence that manufacturers use 'traffic light' colours as part of efforts to reduce obesity, heart disease and other diet-related illnessess'

This 'compromise' opens the gate for supermarkets to use much less transparent methods for identifying health /unhealthy foods for example, using percentages to show the amount of salt and fat in the food.
I've been exploring convenience foods with my students and we needed to have a simple way to know if the food was healthy.
We started with McCains chips. (cooking schedule to download)
McCains use the easy to understand traffic lights system and we could all understand that green meant yes its good, amber be careful and red don't eat it very often.

Download our information sheet





Download our worksheet



We had made a good start but we weren't so lucky with our future purchases and we just couldn't tell if the microwave meals were healthy or not.
The full implementation of the food labelling traffic light system from the Food Standards agency would have been a great tool to help everyone make healthy choices. We all need the traffic lights!

Picture Prompts for Cooking

When I cook on a Friday I use these 2 picture prompts with my Autistic students as an alternative to a verbal prompt. Wash up and clean your work area download from TES


Wash up and clean your work area PDF download from Box net


Wash up and clean your work area Word download from Box net
Wash hands and put on Apron download from TES


Wash hands and put on apron download from Box net PDF version


Wash hand and put on apron download from Box net Word version

Stir fry

There is Stir fry recipe (PowerPoint) available on the TES website contributed by Ibuzzybea. Register with the TES website to access this resource and others for free.Including Chocolate crispy cakes (PowerPoint) .

Fruit and vegetables

Here are some Milestone level resources around the topic fruit and vegetables suitable for adults with a learning disability.

Recipes/method to download

fruit salad PDF

fruit salad Word

Thank you to my colleague Sophie for this resource.

From Sparkle Box Fruit salad recipe sheets A set of simple visual aids showing how to make a fruit salad in 7 steps.




The Great Grub Club website has a game What am I?




You have to guess the fruit or vegetable from close up pictures. You can zoom out,making guesses as you go.

There is also an Eatwell plate in the Print and colour section





TES has a fruit and vegetable PowerPoint. It was designed by a SEN teacher to help her students identify different fruit and vegetables.




Topic Box has a link to Sort the fruit and Vegetables. An online self checking activity but ideal for the whiteboard. Fruit can be sorted by colour or peel/don't need to peel.




Counting fruit a PDF to download is from The Down Syndrome Foundation of Orange County





Fruity words is from the Birmingham Grid for Learning


Also view my other Healthy Eating blog entries

Making a sandwich

Making a sandwich from Symbol World (online)

Recipe for sandwich from Symbol World (online) but will also print out

Help Kidz Learn has a sandwich making activity (online)



From Sparkle Box :
Making a sandwich picture cards.
PDF picture cards -Ingredients but no cards for method . 4 pictures per A4 sheet. 6 sheets.

Sandwich evaluations/designs from Primary resources ( for E1/2 students requires writing and reading skills )
Scrumptious sandwiches

Sandwich evaluation

Sandwich design

From My Box Net -These are my worksheets:
Making a sandwich schedule(written schedule)

My sandwich review

Pizza Recipe

Thank you to Teresa for sharing these resources for making Pizza:

Pizza recipe sheet

Pizza Cards 1

Pizza Cards 2

Pizza Cards 3

My cooking folder

I have some worksheets for cooking which you may be able to change to suit your class.I am looking for a good pizza recipe and method sheet if anyone has one

Cooking Fairy Cakes

On Friday I was cooking with my students with learning disabilities E1/M7. It was birthday time again and so we made fairy cakes (again!)
This time I used the fairy cake recipe and instructions from xxxxx. It is 13 A4 pages long and so it could be considered a little wasteful as I printed out one set of instructions for each student.I could probably have got away with half as the students worked with a partner. The instructions were very clear with simple pictures.It worked very well because I have students who can read in the group and they followed the instructions with minimum support.The non readers were able to use the pictures to gather equipment, ingredients and follow the method from the pictures with some support.At the start of the lesson we went through the instructions carefully reading through, identifying the equipment and ingredients. This helped and I was very pleased with how well the session worked. I weighed out the ingredients before the lesson started.
Photo from From sa'xic on flickr

Tuna and Pasta Bake

Recipes from my Monday Milestone 4-8 cooking class. Download from my file sharing space at
My 4 shared

tuna and pasta bake doc

tuna and pasta bake pdf

Pasta Salad

I have two versions of Pasta Salad. This is because I have started to use a Mac lap top and I'm having some teething problems with the compatibility of images with my computer at work. The picture prompt lists were used with my milestone 4-8 cookery group.The accompanying text including recipe, method and link to original recipe is for the use of staff supporting the students.
Pasta Salad Word file

Pasta Salad PDF version

Tomato and Vegetables with Pasta or Baked Potato

My Milestone 4-8 Cookery class prepared Vegetables with Pasta or baked potato . You can download the ingredients and equipment sheet at My 4 shared.
This week the ingredients list ran over 3 pages as I wanted to make sure the pictures were clear and accessible for all the students. Having too many bits of paper didn't turn out to be a problem but let me know what you think.
This week the students first had to make a choice between baked potato and pasta and circle their choice.The students then chose the vegetables they wanted from the sheets. This allowed us to name and identify and taste.
I don't use exact measurements.We put all the ingredients on the table and students took a small piece or a bowlful as required.
Having the picture sheets has allowed the students to independently collect all their ingredients and equipment.
Some aims (depending on ability):
Make a choice between two ingredients
Name and identify 4 vegetables used in the cooking class

Identify 4 of the pictures on your recipe sheet.

Use pictures /symbols to find 4 ingredients without help.
Use a symbol/picture list to collect all ingredients with minimum support.
Use a symbol/picture list to collect all equipment .
Use a recipe to cook a dish with minimum support.

Identify one thing you have done well in the session.

Using the microwave

Edexcel Cooking and Hygiene at Entry 2 requires the student to understand the safe use of a microwave oven.
The American site GCFLearnFree.org in the Every Day Life section

has a short film about using the microwave followed by some drag drop and click type practice including opening the door,putting in the food and setting the timer on the microwave.

Children in Need

Children in Need is on Friday November 14th
I will be making some cakes and biscuits with my cookery group.

Lakeland have some Pudsey Cake Cases for £1.49

and Pudsey Cookie Cutter for £1.99

I've printed off some labels( Pudsey stickers)from the Learning Zone section of the Children in Need website

and each student will have a money box to take home with them to raise funds from their cakes and biscuits.

A simple biscuit recipe

can be adapted from the Children in Need Party Biscuit recipe

or a Ginger Biscuit from Rosie bakes a 'peace' of cake blog
and Fairy cakes from BBC Food