Meatless Monday - Healthy Eton Mess

Eton Mess is a traditional British summer dessert that has been popular since the 1930’s, when it was invented at Eton College. Founded by Henry VI in the fifteenth century, Eton boasts many famous graduates, including most male members of the British Royal Family and many British Prime Ministers.

There are several theories as to how Eton Mess was invented, including one about an excitable labrador and a picnic basket (my personal favourite!) but one thing everyone agrees on is how delicious it is. The only problem is, it is absolutely loaded with calories and fat. You see, Eton Mess consists of crushed fruit (most often strawberries), crushed meringue, whipped cream and confectioners sugar.

I’ve developed a much healthier version which tastes almost as good as the original and makes a fantastic summer dessert. Meringues are not, in themselves, that high in calories and this is a great way to use up leftover meringue - or even to use up meringue that didn’t quite turn out as you planned! Having said that, I often find myself using store bought meringues for this and they work really well too. 

You can make this dessert a little while ahead and refrigerate it, but I don’t recommend leaving it for more than a couple of hours as the whole idea is the meringues retain some of their crispiness.  This recipe will serve about 4 people, depending on how big your serving dishes are.  You can serve this at the table from a large serving bowl, but I prefer to serve it in individual serving dishes. It’s a great opportunity to use those pretty crystal glasses you may have tucked at the back of the cupboard!

1½ cups sliced strawberries

2 cups strawberry or vanilla yogurt

½ cup crushed meringues + about 2 tablespoons extra for decorating

Mix everything except the extra 2 tablespoons of meringue together lightly in a large mixing bowl.  Spoon into serving dishes. Sprinkle a little reserved meringue on top of each dish for decoration.

Enjoy without guilt, preferably in the sunshine!

The 21st Century Housewife’s Healthy Mini Fruit Parfaits

This is a delicious, healthy and fresh dessert that only takes minutes to put together, yet is pretty enough to serve at a dinner party.  It also gives you a great opportunity to use those special glass dishes - or even teacups - you have tucked away in the cupboard or china cabinet.

The proportions of the ingredients depend on how many desserts you are making and the size of your dishes, so this is just a guide.  Of course you can use any berries you like - I just happened to have strawberries on hand when I took the photographs.  Just use a flavour of yogurt that compliments the berries.  (Blueberries are lovely with peach yogurt by the way.)  The almond-y Amaretto liqueur does give a lovely flavour, but feel free to leave it out if you are serving these to children or those who don't want to drink alcohol.

You can make these parfaits about an hour or so before dinner and refrigerate, but the sooner you can serve them the better as you don't want the Amaretti biscuits to go too soggy.

For four servings you will need about:-

12 Amaretti biscuits
4 teaspoons Amaretto Disaronno liqueur (optional)
2 cups low fat, low calorie strawberry yogurt
about 1½ cups sliced strawberries

4 pretty glass dishes

Place one Amaretti biscuit in the bottom of each glass.

If using, sprinkle 1 teaspoon Amaretto over each biscuit.  Layer some yogurt over top of the biscuit.

Add a layer of sliced strawberries, and another layer of yogurt.  Then add a final layer of strawberries.

Crush the remaining Amaretti biscuits and sprinkle the crumbs over top.  Enjoy without an ounce of guilt!

Spring Salads

I’m so pleased to see that spring is well and truly here in England. The flowers are out; I’ve even got bluebells (one of the later bloomers in terms of English spring flowers) in my garden now. Now the clocks have gone forward it stays lighter longer and I notice I feel more energetic.

As a result I have been making a lot of salads, both complete dinner salads and side salads. Inspired by a couple of recipes my cousin Esther makes, I got a bit creative the other night and used strawberries in a savory side salad. It was delicious. It is not really enough of a recipe to be on the Recipe of the Week page, but I do want to share it as I hope it inspires you to try some versions of your own. Mixing fruit and nuts together with salad leaves can make for some very tasty experiments! Provided you go easy on the dressing and don’t use too many nuts, they are a very healthy choice as well.

I bought a ready-made speciality aged balsamic vinegar dressing from Waitrose, but any good balsamic dressing would be fine. You can even make one yourself using 2 to 3 tablespoons each of olive oil and good aged balsamic vinegar plus 1 tablespoon of honey.

Strawberry and Macadamia Nut Salad
Serves 3 - 4

About four to five cups mixed salad leaves (I used a bag of mixed salad and added about a cup of torn iceberg lettuce)
10 - 12 large strawberries, washed and sliced in about four slices each
2 handfuls of macadamia nuts
3 - 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar dressing

Toss everything together in a salad bowl. It’s nice to hold back a couple of strawberries and a few nuts just to decorate the top of the salad.

This recipe is so delicious you might want to make extra. We all had seconds!!