Our Recovery Co-ordinator, Fran, tells us how The Orchard Recovery Group have been celebrating Chinese New Year in style, and expanding their daily menu…

“Following our recent planning meeting at The Orchard, our Recovery Group agreed that despite the grand efforts of the cooking team each day, we needed not just a little more variation in our members meals, but we also needed to look at Healthy Eating. One of the ways we thought we could do this was to have a themed cooking week. We had many suggestions, such as Italian, English, curries, healthy puddings, Mediterranean, Spanish, Mexican….

As Monday 8th February was the Chinese New Year, we decided to celebrate by cooking Chinese dishes with a healthy alternative for those who didn’t like Chinese food.
Each day the cooking team got themselves organised and have produced some fantastic meals this week including Sweet and Sour Chicken, Chicken Chow Mein, and Lemon and Ginger Chicken (spot the theme!!) served with rice or noodles.

Members felt inspired by their efforts and said it was easier than they thought. One member proclaimed himself to be very proud of his efforts having never cooked a Chinese dish before. Another led the cooking team, sharing her skills and ideas and then went on to lead the Pancake workshop on Tuesday afternoon.

There was very positive feedback and support from all members for our themed food week.

We already have the next themed lunch planned and will be exploring typical food from Ireland on St Patrick’s Day on 17th March. (Yes, I heard that rumour too; he was Welsh!!)”