Inspiration needed

[amandaandherveg]

Baked choccy bananas

bananas, whole
slit the skin, stuff in some chunks of chocolate, wrap in tinfoil and bake for about 20 mins.

Oh yes... forgot all about these, oh yum. An Australian friend of mine used to stuff the bananas with sliced mars bar and marshmallows. Slurp!

I'm hungry now!

[HayleyB]

Jam tarts (shortcrust pastry skills)
Apple Pie
Soups of all descriptions (I made a god awful mushroom soup at school once)
Sausage casserole (sausages, fried onions, carrots, mushrooms & peppers, tin of tomatoes sizzle off on the hob)
Veggie Shepherds pie (Tin of tomatoes, fried onions, Mushrooms, garlic, rosemary, thyme, carrots, celery, peas, all cooked down add a tin of baked beans, top with cheesey mash)

[Glutton4...]

My DH (ex-Chef) suggests Mushroom Stroganoff!

Sliced Mushrooms
Diced Onions
Chopped Garlic
Sliced Red Pepper
Paprika, Salt, Pepper
Tomato puree
Double Cream or Creme Fraiche
Rice

Sweat off pepper in a little oil, add onions, cook for 4-5 minutes. Add mushrooms, cook for further 2 mins, stirring all the time. Add paprika, salt & pepper & tomato puree. Turn heat down, add cream and stir in. Season further if required.
Serve on a bed of boiled rice, or even Chips!

[madmum23]

I hope I am not repeating anyone but I would recommend a good basic italian tomato sauce and then expand to making spaghetti bolognaise or meatballs and pasta, lasagne etc. Making breadcrumbs for chicken nuggets and goujons. Fish cakes. My children are always inquisitive about these things and last but not least yorkshire pudding, toad in the hole. Hope it my help. Good luck

[Hilary B]

Have you looked at Delia's stuff?
pancakes with all sorts of fillings (once they can make the pancankes, each new filling is a lesson, although not too soon after the last one)
Jams and marmalades
Chutneys and pickles
You could turn the rissotto recipe into a Paellaish thing by omitting the butter and cheese, and adding some garlic (with the onion) whatever protein you like (ought to include chorizo, but a slightly spicy salami will do instead, traditionally also has seafood, but it tastes pretty good without if you don't like the stuff or are allergic), plus red and green chopped peppers, and a bit of turmeric to turn the rice yellow.
If you don't want any meat in it, you will need some more spices. I am still working on the recipe for a vegan mock-paella with assorted nuts, pine-nuts etc. although the reason I decided to try has moved on (my son's ex-girlfriend).

[dillydallydaisy]

Leek and potato soup (or lots of other soups), maybe they could make their own bread rolls to go with it.

It is probably already on your list but my favourite lesson was Swiss Roll. I also remember learning how to make real custard, that was a revelation!

[shoreham_steve]

Pizzas have already been mentioned but why not make your own pizza base? Easy enough although admittedly the dough needs to be set aside to rise a little. The phrase, 'This is one I prepared earlier' springs to mind.
Chilli con carne - although, as a veggie, I use soya mince (chilli non carne)
The addition of a couple of squares of dark choclate as a sweetner may grab their attention.
Veg samosas or spring rolls.
Veg sushi - cut strips of spring onion,carrot,avocado,cucumber etc. as filling with sticky rice. Rolling the Nori sheets should keep them busy. They can be rolled in a tea towel, you don't need a sushi mat.
Good luck.

[SarzWix]

With the new "Fast Action" yeast, pizza dough can be made and used in no time at all - it doesn't have to rise and be punched down, it can just be put on the tray and left to rise a little while the toppings are prepared. It's always a favourite at my kids parties - 'make your own' pizzas

You could do a whole series of lessons on eggs, so many people don't know how to poach, soft-boil etc. Then there's meringues, custards, quiches, even souffles if you're feeling very brave

Jam? Nigella has recipes/quantities for one/two pot jams in Domestic Goddess I think. Using Jam Sugar/Certo you should get a set within a lesson. Or Lemon Curd? That would tie in with an egg theme too.

[Two_Sheds]

pizza dough can be made ... just be put on the tray and left to rise a little while

we made pizza dough with the class last year, and left it to rise overnight.

the next morning we realised it looked decidedly grey, so swiftly made a fresh batch before the kids came in.

[Hilary B]

One idea that may be useful to these kids. Contrast the 'proper' recipe with a 'simplified' version (maybe half the class doing each and taste testing at the end?) for things like pizza, tomato-pasta sauce, stroganoff, etc.....
Lessons of that sort may inspire them to adapt recipes to whatever is in the cupboard, a really handy skill in the everyday world.
Towards the end of the Autumn term, how about Christmas cakes? Bake them one lesson (no doubt teacher will have to take them out of the oven as lessons won't be long enough anyway)
Marzipan the next lesson, then ice, then decorate. That is 4 lessons on one item!
You could probably fill another lesson or 2 with all the traditional 'bits' around the Christmas dinner (including mince-pies, home-made mincemeat, or home-improved cheapo shop stuff).

[blackkitty]

Thanks for the stream of ideas. We cook loads of bread things as its cheap and you can keep them busy kneading for as long as convinient
We do pizza, danish pastry type things, chelsea buns, chelsea bun type things with pizze type fillings. I'm going to give calzone a try soon. I think the shushi idea is great - most of them are non fish eaters (it ranks as weird) but they're also quite sophisticated in their tastes. Now can you make bacon sushi bacon is their favourite thing...
A few months ago I bought some whole chickens and we learnt to joint them and them make roast chicken portions and veggies. Another staff member suggested I do the same with a few rabbits - I can just see the two girls in the class