Some of you will know that celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver has been engaged in the past year or so trying to enable a healthy change to school dinners in the U.K. Watching a recent repeat of the TV series Jamie’s School Dinners on Channel 4 TV, I was astounded to realise that many of the youngsters were unable to identify even the most basic vegetable in its raw state. Assuming that everything was either an onion or potato.

It soon became painfully obvious that some of these children had never experienced the delights of fresh food. Having only ever tasted the synthetic flavours of fast foods, such as burgers and pizza, with most meals including, or consisting entirely of chips.

Vegetable was a foreign word to many of the children, some reaching puberty without ever knowlingly tasting a green vegetable. The detremental effect on children’s health is devastating, and could lead to a generation of parents out-living their children.

Lots of us find it difficult to cook and eat the recommended five portions of fruit and veg a day, so here are a couple of easy ways to get those all important veggies eaten.

Roast them. Just about any veggies you’ve got to hand can be roughly chopped, drizzled in olive oil, seasoned with salt, pepper and fresh herbs and put in the oven to roast. Don’t bother peeling the potatoes for this, just give them a good scrub. Include vegetables like, peeled and quartered onions, chopped peppers, scrubbed and halved carrots, mushrooms, green beans, courgettes and brocolli. Add mushrooms, tomatoes and other quick cooking ingredients towards the end of the roasting time. You’ll end up with a tasty dish of healthy vegetables. The edges of the potatoes should be crispy and the onions starting to caramelizse.

Chop lots of different vegetables in a tiny dice and add a tomato and minced beef (bolognese) sauce, again just about any vegetable can be sweated off with the onion at the beginning of cooking. With all the other usual ingredients such as, garlic, tomatoes, tomato puree and seasoning in your sauce, the additional vegetables will blend in (and if you cut them small enough) go un-noticed, by even the most fussy eaters.

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