National Care Group colleagues and the people we support are proud to present the first edition of National Care Group's Big Cook Book. Designed to support colleagues who are new to cooking for others, and the people we support to develop new life skills, the Big Cook Book has been created by some talented cooks from across the group.

Several colleagues and two people we support have contributed recipes to the book, with special feature links to training videos starring the group's Abbeyvale Care Centre's very own resident Chef, Laura Stevenson.

Laura guides colleagues through seven recipe ideas she uses at Abbeyvale Care Centre, step by step, talking through the preparation, ingredients, and tools needed to cook a range of meals. The easy-to-follow films really showcase how easy it is to cook healthy and nutritious meals from scratch.

The key message linking all the recipes together is cooking from scratch, reducing the reliance or habits of processed foods and ready meals.

Recipes include rhubarb crumble by Reece from Highlea Care, a special version of eggs on toast by Adam from Regent College, and chunky chocolate cookies by Dan Burgess, the registered manager of Endurance Care Deal & Hythe in NCG's south east region.

Karen Lewis, NCG's chief operating officer said "I'm delighted that we're adding this important resource to our portfolio of learning and development support tools for colleagues and empowering them to work with the people we support to increase their independence. It's important we promote nutrition and hydration as a fundamental element to maintaining health and wellbeing within our services and what better time to launch our new resource than during Nutrition and Hydration Week."

NCG plan to keep adding recipes to the book, encouraging more and more colleagues and people from across services to get involved with promoting the message of home cooking.