FARMING FOODSTEPS
Like many families, our family eats meat. We especially love red meat to be part of our healthy eating and believe it has a lot of benefits. In the world where there’s so much information about various lifestyles and diets, as well as animal welfare – we choose to believe in the Circle of Life and consume all of red meats’ nutrients in moderation of course. I thought I’d make this clear at the start as this post is all about Scottish red meat food chain. This post was created in collaboration with QMS Farming Foodsteps and is particularly useful for parents and secondary school children. My daughter Sasha (15) and I have learnt so much since our introduction to Farming Foodsteps, so we couldn’t be more excited to share this wonderful resource with you.
WHERE IS RED MEAT ACTUALLY FROM?
You know when kids reach that age and they seriously start to question where their food is actually from? Not the toddler stage, but the teen-adult stage which won’t let you off with the “it’s from the butcher shop” answer. Farming Foodsteps IS that website / resource that we all need to turn to with our questions about where our red meat is actually from. This wonderful free resource teaches parents and young people about all the steps involved in farming, sustainability, environment, food production, packaging, the nutritional benefits, and of course young person-friendly ways of cooking and preparing red meat.
BUYING RED MEAT
I must admit that there are a few things we weren’t 100% attentive with prior to our introduction to Farming Foodsteps. Things like looking out for logo guarantee when shopping for meat with the Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork in supermarkets. These guarantee animal health & welfare through a whole-life assurance programme, supporting red meat that’s produced to an uncompromisingly high standard. Check with your local butchers whether their red meat is PGI protected and always check the labels in supermarkets to make sure you’re supporting rural communities and smaller suppliers.
Did you know? Red meat from Scotland is among the most sustainable in the world!
COOKING RED MEAT WITH TEENS
As much as kids love learning, cooking (or eating probably) is something they love to do even more. We’re delighted about QMS Farming Foodsteps’ fun, young person-friendly recipes(link) with videos that we can try at home. We decided to recreate Scotch Lamb and Tzatiki Pitta with Sasha and the steps couldn’t be easier to follow. There are a few components involved, so it was fun to share the prep and tasks between the both of us. Sasha had a go at carefully chopping the lamb meat for the skewers, prepared the marinade. Lunch that day was AMAZING! As you all know red-meat is full of nutrients such as Protein, Zinc and B vitamins. We also believe that animal fats are very important for a healthy balanced diet. Not only because there’s food at the end of it (well maybe), but we loved learning more about Scottish red-meat and are excited to be going back to this resource when questions arise or when we’re in need of some family-friendly recipe ideas.
I won’t type out word for word what we did as the recipe is HERE for you if you wish to try making this delicious healthy recipe. I had Sasha help me cook from a very young age, so she’s very confident around the kitchen and very safe with the utensils, but there are plenty of tips on knife skills and confidence in the kitchen in this super helpful QMS video. If your child is studying Food Technology at school, they’ll definitely find Farming Foodsteps super useful.
This was such a great project for us to be involved in. Not only because there’s food at the end of it (well maybe), but we loved learning more about Scottish red-meat and are excited to be going back to this resource when questions arise or when we’re in need of some family-friendly recipe ideas. Hope you enjoyed my intro to Farming Foodsteps as well. As always, any comments or questions – leave them in the comment section below this post for a chat!
Tatyana x
VISIT FARMING FOODSTEPS to be educated about Scottish Red-Meat Foodchain!
This is a paid project with QMS, though creative direction & writing are all on my own.