Summer, the season of snacks and lighter meals

In summer months people might not have as much appetite and may not want a large, hot meal.

This is the time of the year when there’s a higher risk of malnutrition. Creating an opportunity for people to snack when they feel like it throughout the day, as well as serving smaller portions of meals as snacks, is a good way to keep people well nourished.

Try providing lunch boxes with small finger foods (just like the ones in the graze board section below).

Have snacks available in the fridge to serve instead of cakes and biscuits. Include fresh fruit cut in small pieces ready to eat, perhaps placed in a small bowl so everyone could have an individual bowl of fruit.

Create a different dining experience by serving a buffet-style dinner. Have food in large bowls on the tables so people could add (or ask to have) as much food as they like to their plate. This style creates more of a community feel around the table because people are sharing the food. There is also care involved for people sitting around the table, making sure everyone has had enough. Perhaps they may encourage each other to have more food.

Teatime may include protein balls that could be flavoured like cake and called cake bites, such as brownie, carrot cake, lemon drizzle or even Victoria sponge with a dollop of jam in the middle! 

Graze boards

Graze boards seem to be popular this year. If you never heard of them, a graze board is like a sharing platter (though could just be for one person) filled with picnic-style finger foods. Food can be eaten with fingers, toothpicks or wooden skewers. The serving board could be a chopping board, slate, tray, or for large groups a grazing table can be created, perfect when hosting friends.

The food can be anything you like from BBQ items such as burgers, to salads, vegan cheese or crudités with dips. Accompany with chutneys, apple slices, grapes, figs, apricots, celery, caramelised nuts, flatbreads, crackers, or anything you can put cheese on or dip.

You could have a separate sweets board, or a large board to fit both sweet and savoury. Sweet graze board ideas include cakes, small cups of chocolate mousse, fresh berries, and fruit. You could make a tray of homemade ice cream served in paper cups, just like if you bought the ice cream from the ice cream parlour.

Here are some recipes you could include on your graze board:

Bruchetta with a Trio of Toppings

Roasted Cauliflower Tart

Banana Apricot and Walnut Muffins

Satay Tofu

Chocolate Pots with Piped Biscuits 

Coronation 'Chicken' Style Pie

Kale Crisps

Greek Fritters with Tzatziki

The easiest healthy ice cream

• 1 frozen sliced banana (ideally freeze overnight or for at least 2 hours)
• Optional flavouring of your choice: vanilla essence, cocoa powder, blueberries or peanut butter.
• Toppings of your choice: fresh berries, coconut flakes, cocoa nibs, seeds or granola.

Instructions

1. Add frozen banana pieces to the food processor and blend for at least 3 minutes. It will be lumpy for a while. If the processor is struggling, add a dash of plant-based milk or cream. When the last lump of banana is blended, the whole texture will change to a fluffy consistency.
2. Add your optional flavourings now and blend a little longer. Enjoy straight away as a soft scoop or place it in the freezer for a more scoopable consistency to enjoy later.
3. Add your favourite toppings if you like.
4. If you are fan of ice cream on the stick rather than the cup slice a peeled banana in half and stab each half with a chopstick halfway through or use forks.
5. Dip each half in vegan chocolate, roll in hazelnuts and freeze. The longer you freeze the harder it will get. Enjoy straight from the freezer or defrost slightly for a couple of minutes on a plate.

Mini refreshments

Small fruit skewers make a tasty, refreshing snack. Make them in the morning or in the evening and pop them in an airtight container in the fridge. It’s a good way of eating a mixture of different fruits throughout the day. If you are using apples or bananas squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on the top to slow down the browning of the fruit.

If you a fan of eating off wooden skewers or toothpicks, you could make mini sandwiches or even clubs. Cut a slice of bread into 6 to make 2 mini clubs or 3 sandwiches. Making your club sandwich by adding bread, cheese, bread, vegan chicken slices, bread and top it up with a grape then stab the skewer through.

Salads

A lot of people say that they don’t like salads because it’s rabbit food. Yes, it is if your salad is just lettuce and cucumber!

Add chickpeas. If you are not a fan of having them straight from the tin, dry them and pan fry in a teaspoon of sesame oil. Add a sprinkle of smoked paprika and leave them to cool.

Alternatively, make hummus to dollop on the top of the salad instead of dressing.

Why not add rice, lentils, edamame or green beans to your salad?

Sprinkle pumpkin, sesame, or sunflower seeds.

Add herbs to lift your salad: parsley, dill or coriander.

Use spinach and rocket instead of gem lettuce for more nutrition and flavour. Roasted courgette, squash or cauliflower on a cooler day would make a completely different salad.

These are some light meal ideas for those hot, summer days when appetites can be lower:

Veggie Burger Salad

Hummus

Blackbean Burger

Here is my favourite dressing recipe. It is all about the ratios, so it doesn’t need to be precise.

Ingredients

• 0.25 cup of tahini
• 0.25 cup of water
• 2 tbsp of lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove/1.5 tsp of garlic powder
• Pinch of ground cumin and salt
• Optional chilli powder

Instructions

1. Use a food processor or a stick blender to process all the ingredients. If you don’t have one, use garlic powder instead of the fresh garlic.
2. Add all ingredients in a jar and shake. Great with chickpeas or lentils in your salad.

I do encourage you to try at least one of these recipes this summer. Keep hydrated and carry on snacking!