The trouble with holidays

For me, a real holiday is one where the only thought I have to give food is what to order from the menu. No planning, no cooking, and no clearing up. But I do have one major area of disquiet that chips away at my unfettered enjoyment - the children's food choices. Given free rein at the buffet or menu they choose stuff that makes me cringe. Sometimes it's the combination, sometimes it's the bald lack of respect for their own bowel function. On a trip to France last year Child 1 proudly chose an "all-mollusc meal" (squid followed by snails).

Returning home from holiday recently, I was obsessed with redressing the nutritional balance. I cooked pasta sauce full of tomato seeds and red pepper skins, muffins with blueberries and lemon, and - today - sweetcorn fritters. They went down very well with a simple prawn and avocado salad and a dollop of sweet chilli sauce. Super-quick and delicious for all ages.

Sweetcorn fritters and prawn & avocado salad

Sweetcorn fritters

2 eggs

5 tablespoons milk

knob of melted butter

85g plain flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

330g can sweetcorn drained (I used 250g frozen sweetcorn, cooked for a couple of minutes)

a couple of finely sliced spring onions

Whisk the eggs, milk and melted butter together. Add the flour, salt and baking powder and whisk a bit more til smooth. Tip in the sweetcorn and spring onions and mix. Shallow fry large spoonfuls in hot oil for 1-2 minutes each side until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and keep them warm in the oven while you cook the rest. This made 10.

Prawn and avocado salad

An avocado

A couple of handfuls of cooked prawns

A squeeze of lime (optional)

2 teaspoons dark soy sauce

2 teaspoons cold water

½ teaspoon caster sugar

a few drops of sesame oil

Cut the avocado into chunks and sprinkle over a little lime juice. Mix together the soy sauce, water, sugar and oil and pour it over the avocado and prawns. Serve with a few shredded mint or whole coriander leaves. Serves 2

Happy New Year!

Today is the start of the Chinese new year - the year of the snake. According to Chinese wisdom, having a snake in the house is a good omen, meaning that the family will not starve. Lucky for us, we have two, so I confidently predict I will be sharing my food with you for another year. The snake follows the dragon in the Chinese calendar. Dragon years are very lucky but snake years are less so and they may put people off doing big things like weddings, moving house or giving birth. You have been warned.

Sunday lunch

If you want to theme your food today, I suggest you try some stir-fried prawns with noodles, accompanied by Asian greens. You can make the whole meal in less than 15 minutes with these ingredients: noodles, spinach, raw prawns, garlic, soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, sesame oil, chilli flakes

Cook some dried noodles in water with half a chicken stock cube added to it (or use fresh noodles and skip this step).

Greens: Gently melt a knob of butter in a pan and add a crushed clove of garlic and some spinach. Let it cook until the spinach starts to wilt and then add a couple of tablespoons soy sauce, a teaspoon of sesame oil and a pinch of chilli flakes. Stir well.

Prawns: Heat some vegetable oil in a pan, add some crushed garlic, raw prawns, soy sauce (preferably the light kind) and sweet chilli sauce and stir well until the prawns turn pink. Use about 2 tablespoons chilli sauce for every one of soy. Tip in the noodles and give them a swish around in the cooking juices, then serve with the greens.