What to cook this week

Environmental and welfare considerations plus support for local farmers mean that I’ll have lamb at Easter but it will be last season’s, or even hogget: over 1 year old lamb.

Grains and cereals are so much the basis of our diet, there’s hardly a meal that does not contain them. But apart from bread and porridge, they also make wonderful dinner dishes.

Wegovy is going to be available on NHS to people with BMI of 30 plus. I’m happy for my taxes to be used to battle obesity, but I can’t imagine existence where I refuse a ricciarelli biscuit.

Chicken is such a commonplace staple, we treat it like we do bread: boring, but daily fare. But I do try to do less boring things to the bird, and so should you.

Simply think beyond boiled cabbage (and turnips) and you’ll find your family eating well and not suffering in the slightest from the dearth of tomatoes.

Once we get the Pancake Day out of the way, let’s go modest, balanced and restrained. A spell of eating less indulgently will do us more good than jerking our bodies about with intermittent fasting.

Date night is a brilliant practice but doesn't have to mean going out. If you'd like to make it a special night in, prepare a special meal together.

How to eat less meat? Ditch the dinner template of meat and two sides, and stop trying to find things to swap meat for. The upside is that you can gorge on rice, grains, pulses or pasta.

We want hearty food in cold and miserable January. No salads! I want hot food at lunchtime and for suppers. If it means more cooking, then be it: cooking warms you up too.

Cosy, warming and satisfying: the food we crave in January. How to match that with the desire to lose a couple of pounds? Cook what you fancy and exercise a bit of discipline when you eat it.

Bleak news in the hospitality sector, with restaurants closing everywhere. I cheer myself up by recalling some of my dishes inspired by restaurant meals.

Live longer, slimmer and healthier? There's no magic diet, no trick to cancel out rubbish lifestyle. Moderation wins over fits and starts: that means cake, but just a slice.

Leftovers are the best Christmas food. Christmas dinner is special, but it’s the week after when you really appreciate the turkey or the duck.

Time for a fistful of advice for Christmas dinner! Everything is secondary to roast potatoes. If there are plenty of super-crispy spuds, it matters not what meat lands on everyone’s plates.

Time to put on Christmas baking hat! Is it going to be panettone or Stollen, in two iterations: with poppy seed filling or with fruit, nut and marzipan (I love both)?

After three long years of Christmas cancellations and Zoom drinks we can finally PARTY! like it’s 1999. Nibbles or full-on dinner? Plenty ideas here for either option.

Chocolate makes us happy. It is good for us, in sensible quantities. It contains chemicals that aid the immune system and make us clever (seriously).

Like the Geordie girls who never dress for the weather, I don’t cook for the weather. It’s November, right? That means salads are out, in come stews and casseroles.

Ditch the supplements: the boring solution to aid your immune system is a varied diet with lots of plants, fibre and naturally occurring vitamins and nutrients.

Game is affordable and excellent value, sustainable and benign for the environment, and as ethical as killing animals for meat can get away with being.

Autumn is the time of plenty. Summer tomatoes, aubergines and peppers have worthy successors: parsnips, beetroot and carrots. Boring? Wait till you try the autumnal vegetable tian.

Food pairing for new flavours, what-goes-with-what or some brilliant matches to make in your pan, in the baking tray and on the plate - like figs baked with blue cheese.

Nuts are full of nutrients, antioxidants and fibre while supporting healthy lifestyle when munched as a snack. But they can also be used in cooking in many ways.

If you buy your bread, look at the label: anything other than flour, yeast and salt is additives, extra sugar and salt. Which is of course why it's best to bake your own.