What to cook this week

A new research study has found a correlation between high consumption of dairy fats and lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Say cheese!

Are you a snackoholic? If snack you must, nibble on something healthy and/or homemade. Anything you have made will be much better than shop bought stuff, trust me.

I've had a week long junk food binge - now I'll have to make up for that lapse by eating plants with healthy protein on the side. And I couldn't have picked a better season for that!

Making jam isn’t difficult and it is a lot of fun. I used to think it was only viable with truckloads of produce and enormous vats. But you can make a saucerful of jam from a punnet of fruit.

This is the best time of the year for the produce: you can feed yourself only the seasonal crops and still have incredible variety of fruit and veggies on your menu.

Can we come up with new ways for the old zucchini? My one plant has so far yielded probably about three kilo courgettes, and I pick them small! Firstly, the flowers are not to be thrown away.

This week some suggestions on how to keep to our five-a-day using fruit in dinner dishes. And I’m not going to cheat on technicality, presenting only tomatoes!

Scientists say we should eat 30 different plants a week, but we eat mostly plants already, apart from some crazy keto fanatics and babies. My lasagne has 5 different plants in the ingredients!

Stir fries are healthy and excellent for weight loss, if you go easy on fillers and cook your sauces from scratch. And in a true takeaway fashion you can replace the main ingredient with another.

Teaching kids to eat healthy is tougher than slapping a tax on stuff but far more effective. Getting them to cook what they like is a step in the right direction: homemade pizza with fresh ingredients.

Buy from your farm shops or straight from producers who have embarked on delivery or click-and-collect services in pandemic. The only import not only necessary but recommended is champagne!

How to cook sweetcorn? For years I’d microwaved corn cobs but now I swear by roasting it in the oven. You can boil it, and then there’s barbecuing. Also cook it deliciously off the cob.

Salad days! Even if the forecast is for 'unsettled’ it still means the afternoon might be fine and warm after a washout morning. So apart from barbecues and takeaways, we should be eating salads.

In the past self-catering meant occasionally preparing breakfast; not this summer. So, what to cook on hols? Skewer what you can and barbecue it, or make massive tray bakes.

Barbecues, making your own ice cream and blueberry season: benefits of holidays do not depend on the destination; staycation is also good for your wellbeing and de-stressing.

Is it time for summer food? Barbecues and ice cream? Everybody has been going out to eat in droves, but barbecue trumps restaurants when the weather is gorgeous.

The possibility of eating out makes everyday cooking seem tedious. Cook the easiest things possible, get takeaways a lot, cook only what you enjoy eating or cook what you don’t get in restaurants.

We chuck out perfectly good food while we can do much better than that. Miserable-looking lettuce can go into a stir fry: chicken chow mein doesn’t really need Napa cabbage to taste good.

Fish is the source of lean protein and omega 3 fatty acids, but it absorbs pollutants. Is farmed fish better than wild caught? And what about sustainability? It's complicated.

Asparagus with lunch and dinner every day and a bowl of luscious strawberries to snack on through the day is my idea of a good diet in May. Let’s hope the nasty frosts go away at last!

Food is mood, as studies show; what we eat affects how we feel and not only physically. We all now yearn to feel better mentally, so how about some feel-good food?

Which fruit and vegetables are the most recommended for the five-a-day mix? Leafy greens, berries and citrus, carrots and beetroot seem to lead the pack.

What to cook? The least possible. That’s a joke, but I’m going to skip all the fillers this week trying to lose the lockdown weight gain.

Barbecue ideas might come in handy as soon as the weather allows again. Also, the salad season is approaching: plenty to choose from in Cuisine Fiend's salad department.

Easter is coming and it’s a nonholiday again. I’m still going to do a fair bit of baking, even though this time I’ll do rounds and drop off cakes on family and friends’ doorsteps.