Tasty Family Recipes From Bright Horizons Family Solutions

Bright Horizons, one of the UK’s leading nursery networks is encouraging parents to get into the kitchen with their kids and spend some quality cooking time together.

Bright Horizons operate over 200 nurseries in the UK and Ireland, many of which are managed in partnership with employers. They also offer back-up dependant care for children and adults, and a range of work-life supports

Their nurseries aim to provide children and families with naturally inspiring, exceptional care and education for the early years - and cooking together is a brilliant way to teach kids key life skills, as well as the benefits of co-operation and teamwork!

To help with this, they have produced a Family Recipes cookery book which though short, contains a tasty range of family-friendly recipes such as Chicken Paella, Butternut Squash Risotto, Summer Fruit Muffins and, as tested by us, Seaside Carbonara.

In fact these very recipes have been thoroughly road tested in one of their nurseries which offers day care in London so it was up to Caitlin to step up to the hob with me to create a tasty Monday night tea.

We were sent a copy of the recipe book and a lovely apron by Eat Sleep Doodle that kids can colour in. This was Ieuan's favourite part of the activity!

If you'd like to try the recipe, you can find it on Bright Horizon's website, along with some other great family recipes.

Seaside Carbonara

Ingredients

400g Spaghetti
200g Courgettes
2tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Fresh Garlic
418g Pink Salmon
150ml Full Fat Yoghurt
60ml Whole Milk
1 Fresh Lemon
3tbsp Fresh Chives
Pinch of Black Pepper
1l Water

Method

1. Cook pasta in boiling water.

2. Add diced courgette 2 minutes before end of cooking time.

3. Drain and reserve water.

4. Return spaghetti and courgette to pan.

5. Meanwhile heat oil in pan and add crushed garlic.Cook for 1 minute.

6. Drain and remove bones from salmon. Add to garlic in pan.

7.Add yoghurt and milk and warm through.

8. Grate lemon and squeeze juice.

9. Add 1/2 of juice lemon juice 1 tsp of lemon rind.

10.Season.

11. Pour over pasta and add 4 tbsp of reserved cooking water and warm through over a low heat.

12. Serve.

We found this simple to prepare - Caitlin did the chopping.  Our only note of caution would be to make sure you take the pan off the heat before you add the yoghurt to avoid curdling.

You could also replace the fresh Salmon with tinned to save a few extra pennies.

So there you have it - a quick, tasty tea that the whole family can help to make.

(We did get Ieuan to lay the table).