Week 4: Happy and Healthy Summer Holidays

Dieting Tips and Recipes During Special Celebrations

Week 4: Your Guide to Happy and Healthy Summer Holidays

It’s the 4^th week in our Summer holiday guide here at The Slimming Clinic and we still have lots of delicious recipes and activities to entertain your family! From a very veggie pasta recipe to a balloon fiesta, we’ve got you covered. There is no reason that with our help you can’t keep you and your family on the health track during the sunny Summer holidays, so why not wile away the Summer days and nights with these ingenious ideas…

Recipes

This little number offers a wide variety of delicious Summer vegetables so that you can settle down with a comforting bowl of creamy pasta, safe in the knowledge that it’s low-fat too.

Super-Veg Pasta

Serves 6

Prep time: 10-15 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Ingredients

2 red pepper, quartered and deseeded
2 tbsp olive oil
1 fennel bulb, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, roughly chopped
2 garlic clove, crushed
¼ tsp crushed chillies
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 tbsp tomato puree
400g can chopped tomatoes
600ml vegetable stock
1 tsp caster sugar
Small handful basil, leaves shredded
500g bag fresh egg pasta, cooked

Heat the grill and pop the peppers, skin-side up, underneath for 10 mins or until beginning to char.
Transfer to a bowl, cover and set aside. When cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and cut the flesh into strips.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the fennel, onion and carrot for 8-10 mins until softened.
Stir in the garlic, crushed chillies, fennel seeds and tomato purée, cook for 2 mins, then add the canned tomatoes, stock and sugar.
Simmer, uncovered, for 15 mins or until the vegetables are completely soft.
Take out a couple of spoonfuls of the sauce (this will later add texture), then blend the rest in the saucepan until almost smooth with a stick blender.
Simmer for 5 mins to thicken, and then stir in the reserved sauce, shredded basil and peppers.
Serve with the pasta.

Top Tip: This sauce freezes well and is really versatile so it’s worth making a double batch, then jazzing it up by adding olives and prawns. Plus, if your children don’t like the vegetable bits, you can just blend the whole thing.

Taste a little bit of summer with this classic fruity British pud. Straight from Angel Nilsen’s cookbook, this Summer Fruits pudding is a great fruity alternative to your normal dessert. Although this is one of the trickier dessert recipes, it really is worth it, just for the amount of yummy blackcurrants and redcurrants it contains!

Angela’s Summer Pudding

Serves 6

Prep time: 1 and half hours (plus overnight chilling)

15kg British summer fruits (Angela liked 350g/12oz raspberries, 350g/12oz small strawberries, 300g/10oz blackcurrants, 175g/6oz redcurrants, but this is not definitive – experiment with your own blend and try mixing in loganberries and bayberries)
175g golden caster sugar
5 tbsp Crème de Cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) or crème de mȗre (blackberry liqueur)
2-3 day old small un-sliced farmhouse white loaf of bread (5 slices)
Double cream, to serve

Firstly, get all the fruit ready. Hull the strawberries and cut them in halves or quarters depending on how big they are. Strip the blackcurrants and redcurrants from their stalks in one fell swoop by running a fork down the length of each stem – keep both the currants separate from the other fruits.
Tip the sugar into a wide, not too deep, saucepan. Measure in 3 tbsp water and the cassis. Put the pan on a low heat and cook, stirring often, until you can no longer hear the crunch of sugar grains on the bottom of the pan. When the sugar is dissolved, turn up the heat to medium-high and let the mixture bubble away for about 8 minutes. It will go quite syrupy and you want to catch it just before it starts to change colour or caramelise.
Now tip the blackcurrants and redcurrants into the hot syrup, it will feel quite sticky at first, then bring everything back up to a lively simmer and let it bubble again for no more than a minute, just to lightly burst and soften the currants without losing their shape. Take the pan off the heat and leave until it’s barely warm.
Gently stir in the strawberries and raspberries – a large metal spoon is best so they don’t break up – and let the fruity mixture sit for about half an hour so the juices all mix in.
Cut 4-5 slices from the loaf, about 5mm thick, and trim off the crusts. Cut a little square from one slice and put it in the bottom of a 1.2 litre pudding basin.
Using a big slotted spoon put a layer of fruit over the bread. Next lay a slice of bread in the centre over the fruit trimming to fit and fill any gaps with trimmings of bread so the fruit is covered. Continue layering and finish with a final layer of fruit.
Spoon over a few spoonfuls of juice – not too much or it will ooze out. Cover the fruit with a final layer of bread, press down to compact everything, and then cover with cling film. Layer a sauce on top and weight down with heavy cans or weights.
Stand the basin on a plate in case any juices spill out, then leave in the fridge overnight, or for a minimum of 5 hours.
Press the leftover fruits and juice through a metal sieve to make a sauce, keep chilled.
To turn out, go round the edge of the pudding with a round bladed knife to release it and then invert it on to a plate. Cut into slices and serve with a drizzle of fruit sauce and cream.

Activities

This week we have found a selection of exhibitions and shows that offer something for both adults and children to enjoy. From the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta to the Hampton Court Flower Show, here are some great (and most importantly cheap) activities for all the family to enjoy…

Hampton Court Flower Show, Surrey, 7-12 July

This year there will be six different gardens themed around each of Henry VIII’s wives, in celebration of the 500-year anniversary of his coronation. There will also be a marquee dedicated to roses and another to plant heritage, and a Growing Tastes area offering advice and demonstrations on growing fruit and veg. The 11th and 12th is a family weekend, with lots of extra activities for kids. The distraction of the stunning flowers will keep you from thinking about the activity you are undertaking walking through the six different gardens.

Top tip “Stop by Jekka’s Herb Farm for some of the best organic herbs,” says Mandy Almond, RHS show manager. “She has a wealth of knowledge about medicinal benefits, from hangover cures to herbs that can help indigestion and common colds.”

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, 11^th– 14^th August

The Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is one of Britain’s biggest free events, typically attracting half a million visitors over its four days. This year it takes place on 11-14th August and the schedule includes several “mass ascents”, when more than 100 hot-air balloons will take to the skies (weather permitting), “nightglows”, where 30 or more balloons “glow in time to music”, plus a variety of arena and air displays. It is held at Ashton Court on the edge of Bristol. Attend the event for a fun filled weekend outdoors getting the fresh air your body needs and deserves.

Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, 7^th– 19^th August

There’s a free Summer festival at the Museum of Childhood, in Bethnal Green, featuring rickshaw rides, children’s performers, stalls, food samples, live music, clay model making, face painting and a day out in the museum’s gardens: Sunday 7 August, 11.30am-4.30pm. Among other free events at the museum is the Feline Festival on 19 August, 12pm-4pm. Come dressed as your favourite feline for an afternoon of music and games. Admission is free and there is no need to book in advance. With all of the excitement, you’ll be running around everywhere keeping up with the kids!