Cooking by numbers with Skills & Learning!
Young adults from 2CareUK Ltd in Bournemouth have been enjoying learning about budgeting and healthy meal portions with a Cooking on a Budget session taught by our Multiply tutor Jo.
Multiply is a government initiative offering a huge range of free courses to help adults improve their numeracy skills.
People from across Dorset are taking advantage of skills based maths sessions, helping them to make them more number confident, and make their money go further and even widen their career prospects.
The amateur cooks from 2Careuk Ltd started by measuring out their pasta and then worked in pairs to make wholesome spaghetti Bolognese with the aim of making six meals for the lowest cost possible.
Michelle, Shane, Thomas and Miranda added cheap yet filling and nutritious ingredients such as sweetcorn and peppers to their dishes, to increase the amount of healthy food they could prepare, with the minimum monetary cost.
Michelle said: “I’m finding the class really good because it is teaching us to batch cook recipes we can freeze and eat another day. I think I would also add lentils to the dish next time because it would make even more portions for quite a small extra cost.”
Thomas said: “When Jo said we were only supposed to have 75g per serving of pasta I didn’t think it looked enough. I wouldn’t usually weigh pasta, but then you make too much and can end up wasting it, so it’s a really good idea.
“Mine and Michelle’s was the cheapest meal – we made seven portions of food for just 84p per portion.”
Shane said: “It’s delicious! I’m really glad how ours turned out. I share a flat with Thomas and we will definitely be taking away this recipe and cooking it for ourselves.”
Jim Williams is an activity leader at 2CareUK Ltd. He said: “We offer a variety of arts and crafts and outdoor activities, and our residents here have been taking advantage of Skills & Learning’s excellent courses for a long time. The Multiply courses are a great way to learn better numeracy skills in practical ways. Having watched the residents cooking this morning it was easy to see how engaged they were and how much they enjoyed themselves with Cooking on a Budget. Healthy eating and being able to budget, especially in the current economic climate, is important for us all. We’ve really enjoyed having Jo with us.”
Multiply Dorset offers courses FREE to all Dorset and BCP residents aged 19 or above. Courses are available for individuals, schools, businesses, the self-employed, people with special needs or learning disabilities and speakers of English as an additional language.
For more information email: enquiries@salbcp.com phone: 01202 123444, or visit: Multiply – Free Maths Courses
