Looking to develop your cooking skills in the kitchen or are you looking to be inspired to cook new, quick and easy family meals? Maybe you fancy trying to grow your own produce?
The Public Health Nutrition Team at NHS Forth Valley have produced a range of growing and cooking resources that could help you and your family get more creative in the garden and kitchen. Making your meals from scratch is not only very rewarding, but you can also make dishes healthier and save money at the same time.
Feel free to download and share these resources. However, if you’d prefer paper copies of these resources then please drop us an email fv.publichealthnutritionteam@nhs.scot with your request.
Plan Ahead
- Make shopping and cooking easier with this handy Meal Planner and Shopping List
- Want to know what is in season when? Simply Veg have a Seasonal Veg Guide. or download their Seasonal Veg Guide Calendar.
- Before starting any cooking session it’s important that everyone involved is aware of basic food hygiene guidelines and principles. Visit our NHS Forth Valley Community Nutrition – Training webpage where you can access our online Food Hygiene Modules – (with interactive quizzes and posters etc) and you can see what other Food and Health courses we have on offer.
Let’s Get Growing
How to…Grow – Picture Resources
Have you ever fancied trying to grow your own vegetables at home? Why not take a look at these easy to follow, step by step picture guides on how to grow your own. They give clear instructions on what you need and how to get started producing your own perfect produce. Each guide takes you through 9 simple steps from sowing, planting, nurturing through to harvesting your crops.
- How to… Grow Carrots
- How to… Grow Leeks
- How to… Grow Potatoes
- How to… Grow Tomatoes
- How to… Grow Peas
- How to… Grow Onions, Shallots & Garlic
Once you have harvested your produce why not try out some of our How To…Cook or Six Step Picture Recipes – they can be found below.
How to… Grow – Videos
These videos show you what you need and how to get started to grow your own produce at home. Turn your window ledge into a veg plot and Veg your Ledge! Remember to always wash your produce thoroughly, before you eat it!
Useful Growing Resources
- Eating Greener – Net Zero Scotland
- Get Growing Scotland – A great resource to support growing in local communities – for a greener, healthier, fairer Scotland.
- The Royal Highland Educational Trust have produced The Good Food Learning Resource – Seasons in Scotland – which is a great resource for schools, community groups or individuals wanting to start to grow their own produce.
Let’s Get Cooking
How to…Cook – Picture Recipes
These recipes are easy to follow and use pictures to show each step of the recipe. They use only a few basic ingredients and can help you create quick and healthy family meals and snacks.
- Leek and Potato Soup
- Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
- Pumpkin Soup
- Lentil Soup
- Sweet Potato and Lentil Curry
- Chicken Fajitas
- Tomato Meatballs
- Chicken Stir Fry
- Fruit Scones
- Banana Loaf
- Fruity Flapjacks
Six Step Picture Recipes
Looking for inspiration in the kitchen? These cheap and easy recipes use only a few basic ingredients and in six simple, pictorial steps you can create tasty meals in minutes.
- Tuna Pasta
- Ham and Pea Rice
- Corned Beef Bake
- Omelette Muffins
- Paprika Chicken
- Pizza Slices
- Fish Crumble
- Carrot and Lentil Stew
- Mince and Potatoes
- Flatbread
- Vegetable Chilli
- Banana Pancakes
- Sausage Sizzler
How to…Porridge Recipes
- How to ..Porridge on the Hob
- How to ..Porridge in the Microwave
- How to.. Overnight Oats
- How to.. Fruity Flapjacks
How to… Slow Cooker Recipes
- Lentil Soup
- Minestrone Soup
- Chicken Curry
- Chicken-and-Rice-Hotpot
- Mince Hotpot
- Sausage and Lentil Casserole
Let’s Make A Bite To Eat
Let’s Make a Bite to Eat is a fun food flipbook that gives individuals and groups ideas on how to put together quick and easy, healthy meals and snacks.
The pages are divided into 5 different sections, each containing a variety of foods from the food groups within the Eatwell Guide. Flip through each of the pages to create your perfect dish – then give it a go in the kitchen.
The flipbook also contains key healthy eating messages, food safety information, recipe ideas and has links to useful websites for more recipe ideas.
Are you new to cooking? Or looking to develop your skills in the kitchen? Or you may even teach food skills to others…
It’s often easier and more straight forward to cook when someone is showing you what to do – demonstrating how much of each ingredient should be added and explaining the recipe step by step. The Cook-A-Long videos below demonstrate basic cooking skills using low cost, readily available ingredients and show how straight forward it is to create quick and easy family meals.
Press play on the video link, make sure you have all the ingredients to hand – then watch and cook – you can pause the video at any point. These videos can also be used as part of a cooking class or teaching session to demonstrate How to…Cook!
Cook-A-Long Videos
How to… Cooking Skills – Videos
- Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
- Leek and Tomato Savoury Bread Bake
- Cheese and Herb Scones
- Meatballs and Tomato Sauce
Low Cost, Easy Meals – Videos
- Fish Crumble
- Cottage Pie
- Vegetable Chilli
- Ham and Pea Rice – Download Ham and Pea Rice Recipe
- Flatbreads – Download Flatbread Recipe
Cooking Video Demonstrations
- Videos – themes and cooking (British Nutrition Foundation) – Healthy recipes such as eggs on toast, Chicken and veg curry, Veggie quesadillas and more…
- Cooking Videos (Food A Fact of Life) – illustrating how to get started, preparing the ingredients, basic knife and cooking skills. These videos are great for anyone teaching others about basic cooking techniques.
- Food Skills and Cooking Techniques Poster – Download this free poster and display in your kitchen or cooking area.
- Cook-A-Long Videos (Parent Club) – that can help you cook quick and easy meals for the family. Why not get your children helping in the kitchen – it’s often much easier following a video instead of a written recipe and you can pause or rewind if you need to.
- Food Skills Videos (Nutrition Scotland)
Other NHS Forth Valley Cooking Resources
- The Practical Nutrition and Cooking Workbook – This practical workbook provides a 4 week session plan of interactive activities, quizzes and easy to follow, picture recipes – to support anyone running a nutrition or cooking group.
Other Easy and Quick Family Recipes
Delve deep into the back of your kitchen cupboards and you’ll be surprised you might even be able to create a healthy meal for the family in minutes with what you already have. Here are some great recipes – why not give them a go?
- BBC Food – How to cook brilliant store cupboard dinners on a budget.
- BBC Food – Budget recipes and advice – Includes money saving and energy saving tips.
- British Heart Foundation – Recipes and cook-a-long videos – from comfort recipes to easy vegan recipes and much more…
- Change4Life – Recipes – Looking for easy, quick meal ideas, get inspired on the Change4Life website.
- Food A Fact of Life – a selection of recipes which support the teaching and learning of handling a range of ingredients, food skills and cooking techniques.
- Love Food Hate Waste – Best leftover food recipes, type in the ingredient you have and search for recipe ideas.
- Love Canned Food – Have a great range of recipes to try.
- Nutrition Scotland – Browse their library of nutritious Recipes
- Parent Club – This Scottish Government website is packed full of useful information on healthy eating for the family, as well as lots of great, healthy recipe ideas and a handy meal planner.
- VegPower – This website is full of recipes, giving ideas on how to use up any extra vegetables.
- World Cancer Research Fund – Have a range of Simple, Nutritious Recipes and a number of healthy cookbooks to order.
- Food For Life – Cooking, Growing and Affordable Recipes.