A Parent Taster is a wonderful opportunity for families to see, smell and, most importantly, taste the delicious, nutritious dishes children enjoy every day.
We love seeing our nursery partners invite parents through their doors to experience Nursery Kitchen food for themselves. But these events are about so much more than food on a plate.
A chance to experience the menu
From colourful curries and comforting classics to vibrant sides and fresh flavours, our menus are designed to bring variety, goodness and plenty of enjoyment to the table.
A Parent Taster gives parents the chance to experience this variety first-hand – discovering the care that goes into each menu and seeing just how exciting nursery mealtimes can be.
Starting positive food conversations
Parent Tasters also create a lovely opportunity for nursery teams and families to come together and chat about food.
Parents can ask questions about the menu, ingredients, portion sizes or how children are encouraged to explore new foods. It’s a chance to share ideas and reassure families that every child develops their relationship with food at their own pace.
We provide our nursery partners with everything they need to run a successful parent taster, along with take-home resources for families to help keep the experience going beyond the nursery. These include recipes for some of their favourite Nursery Kitchen dishes, making it easy for families to recreate them at home. It’s a simple way to continue the conversation, inspire new flavours and bring fresh ideas to family mealtimes.
Helping create healthy tastes for life
At Nursery Kitchen, we believe early food experiences can help shape a child’s relationship with food for years to come.
That’s why our dishes are created to nourish growing bodies while introducing children to a wonderful variety of flavours, colours and textures.
Parent Tasters help families see this approach in action, from a colourful vegetable-packed dish to a new flavour a child might be discovering for the very first time.
Because encouraging children to explore different foods, enjoy mealtimes and develop curious little taste buds is all part of helping to create healthy tastes for life.
Celebrating our nursery partners
We love seeing our nursery partners proudly showcase their Nursery Kitchen menus and create welcoming experiences for their families.
There’s something special about seeing a table filled with inviting dishes, parents chatting with the nursery team and families discovering the food their little ones enjoy every day.
Because when food looks good, tastes good and is made with care, wonderful things can happen around the table.
Interested in finding out more about Nursery Kitchen and the meals we create for early years settings?
A big part of Eid is celebrating with friends and family, enjoying delicious meals and treats. Download this free resource to enjoy in your nursery!
We’re bringing a little festive magic into your kitchen with three family-friendly recipes that children (and adults!) will love. From a colourful bruschetta wreath, to delicious (and nutritious!) chocolate drops, and scrumptious mince pie crumble bars, there’s a festive bite for everyone.
This cosy, hands-on session is perfect for families and nursery teams alike. Gather your ingredients, put on your aprons, and get ready to cook, laugh, and make the kitchen sparkle with Christmas cheer!
Join our live Christmas cook-along
When: 03 December 2025, 7:00pm–8:00pm
What we’ll make and the ingredients you will need:
Here are the ingredient lists for each of the three festive recipes we'll be making together during the cook-along.
Download bruschetta wreath ingredients list
Download chocolate drops ingredients list
Download mince pie crumble bars ingredients list
This is a relaxed, hands-on session where grown-ups can cook along, follow simple step-by-step instructions, and create healthy, festive snacks to share with family and friends. Share the cheer and invite others to join the fun too!
Get your apron ready and join us on 03 December 2025 at 7pm for a festive evening of cooking. Together, we’ll make healthy, wholesome snacks that bring a bit of Christmas magic to your home!
Important: Please have all your ingredients ready, measured, weighed, and chopped before the cook-along starts. This way you can follow along smoothly and enjoy the festive fun from start to finish.
Get baking with our yummy cheese & sweetcorn scone recipe!
Easter treats have always revolved around chocolate, so why not make a healthy swap this Easter and try out our edible garden!
Why we love this recipe:
This is a fun and simple recipe to make with children. Adults can handle the blending prep, whilst the children can help lay out the vegetables across the board, to turn it into a yummy edible Easter garden. Use vegetables that you and your child love to eat raw. Your child helping choose their favourite veggies at the supermarket is a good way to ensure that they feel connected to the activity and will enjoy eating it once prepared! This Easter activity is also a good way of trying some new veggies that your child might not have tasted or seen before. Let them have fun by exploring the veg with all their senses - sight, touch, smell, taste, and listening to all the different noises as you chop, and crunch.
Ingredients:
- 2 packs of hummus (or your dip of choice)
- 100g of pumpkin seeds
- 10g of black onion seeds
- 150g of drained sundried tomato
- 50g of pitted black olives
- juice of half a lemon
- 2 slices of pumpernickel bread
- 1 pack of chives, finely chopped
- your choice of crudites, such as:
- mini carrots
- mini cucumbers
- cherry tomatoes
- radishes
- tenderstem broccoli
- baby corn
- mini snacking peppers
Method:
- Adult role - blend the pumpkin seeds, black onion seeds, sundried tomato, and black olives with the juice of half a lemon until you get a rough chopped paste (you could just chop all together with a knife if you don’t have a blender to hand)
- Support your child to break the pumpernickel bread into small pieces, close to breadcrumbs (an ideal activity for little hands!)
- Spread the hummus thickly across a serving board or serving plate
- Support your child to spoon the seed and tomato mix, so dotted across on top of hummus
- Sprinkle breadcrumbs across
- Sprinkle chopped chives across
- If age/stage appropriate, support your child to chop off a small amount of the base of each vegetable (just so they have a base to stand upright), then encourage your child to place the vegetables in lines (like an allotment), across the hummus board
- Enjoy whilst pretending to be rabbits (optional of course!)
This week (14th - 20th November 2022) is World Nursery Rhyme Week. And of course, we absolutely love nursery rhymes about food! One of our all time favourites is, Oats and Beans and Barley Grow - here's how it goes:
Oats and beans and barley grow,
Oats and beans and barley grow,
Not you, nor I, nor anyone know,
How oats and beans and barley grow.
First the farmer sows the seed,
Then he stands and takes his ease,
Stamps his feet and claps his hand,
And turns around to view the land.
Oats and beans and barley grow,
Oats and beans and barley grow,
Not you, nor I, nor anyone know,
How oats and beans and barley grow.
First the farmer sows the seed,
Then he stands and takes his ease,
Stamps his feet and claps his hand,
And turns around to view the land.
Did you know that nursery rhymes play an important role in early childhood development and education?
As well as being fun, nursery rhymes are excellent teaching tools:
- Nursery rhymes and children’s songs boost vocabulary and language development
- They help children to develop literacy skills
- They provide a fun way to support early numeracy skills
- Nursery rhymes help children to develop social, physical and emotional skills
Another classic nursery rhyme about food and great for learning counting skills is, One Potato, Two Potatoes - here's how it goes:
One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes - four
Five potatoes, six potatoes, seven potatoes - more
Eight potatoes, nine potatoes, ten potatoes - all
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten
One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes - four
Five potatoes, six potatoes, seven potatoes - more
Eight potatoes, nine potatoes, ten potatoes - all
Our last but certainly not least favourite nursery rhyme about food is Five Fat Sausages. This one is so much fun for children to join in with and it can open discussions about sausages and why they're not such a healthy option. Here's how it goes:
Five fat sausages sizzling in a pan
The grease got hot - and one went "BANG"!
Four fat sausages sizzling in a pan
The grease got hot - and one went "BANG"!
Three fat sausages sizzling in a pan
The grease got hot - and one went "BANG"!
Two fat sausages sizzling in a pan
The grease got hot - and one went "BANG"!
One fat sausage sizzling in a pan
The grease got hot - and it went "BANG"!
Autumn is a beautiful season for discovery and exploration with children. There are so many colourful sights with green leaves turning to vivid reds, warm oranges and golden yellows before they fall to the ground creating a crunchy blanket. So, with so much to see and discuss, wrap up warm and head outdoors to try out one of our suggested learning ideas focusing on the natural world around us.
Take children on a scavenger hunt
Scavenger hunts are a great way to connect with the natural environment whilst developing your child's vocabulary. Challenge your child to focus on the sights around them, looking out for an acorn, a pine cone, 1 green leaf, 2 brown leaves, 3 red leaves, a conker, a flat stone, or a twig, for example. Why not take your autumn collection home to create funny nature faces with your child or use your collected pine cones to make bird cakes for your outdoor space (see bird cake recipe below!).
Make a leaf kebab
Help your child to create a colourful leaf kebab! Simply find a straight twig, choose a fallen leaf, and gently thread the leaf onto the stick. Support your child to continue to layer lots of different colour leaves until you have made your very own leaf kebab. Challenge older children to explore different patterns, for example, if you thread 2 red leaves, then 1 green leaf, are they able to repeat the pattern?
Help feed the birds with bird seed cakes
With bugs and berries scarce in autumn, why not help feed the birds by making a bird cake. You will need:
- a cup of bird seed*
- half a pack of lard or suet
- a pine cone
- some string
*The RSPB recommends using seed mixtures that include flaked maize, sunflower seeds, and peanut granules, but do be mindful of safety if your child has allergies.
Before making the bird cake place the pine cone in a sunny spot or somewhere warm like in an airing cupboard or near a radiator for a few days to make it open out.
- Cut the lard or suet into small pieces and encourage your child to mix this with the bird seed in a small bowl.
- Take some of the mixture and press in between the pine cone layers.
- Tie some string around the cone then choose a good spot to hang it outdoors, remembering to hang out of reach of cats! Somewhere where you can watch from the window is ideal.
Allocate a few minutes each day to watch from afar to see how many birds visit the feeder. Older children might like to look up the names of the different types of birds that visit and keep a tally.
We hope you have lots of autumnal fun!
