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

Tuna Tuesday

Somehow Tuesdays have become known as Tuna Tuesdays in this house.  Not that we're obsessed with food or anything! Owing to logistics, child 1 will be having a meal on the move today.  It will include her favourite, a tuna sandwich - half a can of tuna in spring water drained and mashed with salad cream.  No butter, crusts off.

The rest of us will be having pasta with last week's tomato and red pepper sauce.  I will stir in a generous lump of Quark to make it a creamy-but-still-low-fat sauce, and smother it with Grana Padano cheese.  I might stir the remains of the tin of tuna in - lovely if you like cat food!

Pudding will be an unashamedly easy 'Apple Fluff' (like apple fool, but easier).  Stew some apples, puree them in a blender.  Mix together one third apple and two thirds Ambrosia custard.

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This (above) is the beginning of our apple harvest. There will be a lot more about apples, including a recipe for apple jam as soon as I have tested it.

You can get through quite a lot of apples if you have a juicer. We have a basic model that cost about £40, but it works pretty well. Add a bit of peeled root ginger and/or some carrots. My children think it's a real treat - as good as the fresh juices in Wagamama. Praise indeed.

Going back to salad cream in sandwiches, I have to commend and recommend M&S' egg, salad cream and tomato sandwich. Simply delicious.