So many of us throw away a small fortune on convenience lunches, like sandwiches and pre-packaged mini meals, during the working week. This seems like the easy option, but it’s actually costing you more money and could be bad for your health due to the excess of salt and sugar in these foods.

This is why you should consider making your own lunches to take in; try it for a week and just see how much money you save.

As well as making your own sandwiches, wraps and salads, another quick and easy way to make your lunch is to use the surplus from last night’s meal. Make slightly more for tea than usual, and what you don’t eat in a Tupperware container for the next day.

If your chocolate dessert arrives in front of you in a restaurant and it’s a teeny-tiny portion, you may feel ripped off or tempted to demand a larger pud.

However, if this tiny portion is rich and intense in flavour, this small portion can actually be the perfect way to round off a meal. Large slabs of chocolate cake, however delicious, will only make you feel over-full and bloated at the end of a meal, spoiling that enjoyably satisfied feeling.

This is why I’m a firm fan of potent, petite puddings. Try the following and you’ll join me:

• White chocolate mousse
• Bailey’s chocolate mousse
• Chocolate fondant cake
• Chocolate torte (the best example of a tiny, intensely flavoured tempting treat)
• Dark chocolate truffle with raspberry accompaniment

On a busy morning, when I am rushing to get out of the house and beat traffic, I have a tendency to forget breakfast, and grab a cereal bar instead. But it never feels like actual food, and it certainly doesn’t set me up for the day. But i do enjoy the “healthy” meals to microwave for lunch – like the supermarkets steamed veg and fish, or the chili chicken noodles – they taste great, and don’t cost too much, and are incredibly light on the washing up.

So why do I not grab a porridge pot and take it to work to heat up? One and a half minutes, with a little water, and porridge is my breakfast. Perhaps the stigma of eating breakfast at work is too great?

Either way, I am very pleased to have convenience food around – but I still prefer the taste of the real thing, made at home.

Although Christmas is 9 months off (and 3 months gone), the winter months are slowly turning into Spring and this is starting to reflect on the food I am buying, cooking and eating for my family and I. The thick soups and stews are slowly being replaced with the occasional salad and lighter meals of fish and steamed vegetables.

The main reasons behind the changing menu will be down to the seasonal changes in foods being available or not (lettuce won’t grow in winter, and doesn’t keep long enough to store, but potatoes are available, etc), and the temperatures making us want warmer, more filling meals.

I love stews, and would happily eat them all year, but when it gets to the nice sunny weather, we simply don’t need that amount of intake.

on the website for BBC Food there is a section which shows you different ways to get your child cooking and i have been looking through it and thought it was a really good site to use.

You can make cakes, meals, Easter egg nests and lots of other things.

there is a programme on their called big cook little cook which gives you recipes and instructions which are easy to follow for the children so they wont need that much help but personally i would be giving them lots of supervision as i can imagine it being very messy.

Let me know what you think of this and if you would recommend it.

Pancake day is finally here and i have listed below the ingredients to make a perfect pancake..

Recipe
110g plain flour
Pinch salt
2 medium eggs
200ml milk
75ml water
50g butter

Method

Sieve the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and add the 2 eggs into the centre  and whisk.

Gradually add the milk and water while whisking until this is the consistency of thin cream.

Melt the butter into a pan and spoon a small amount of the batter into the pan and flip once cooked on one side.

Serve with whatever topping you like, find ideas below:
Sugar
Lemon
Bananas
Ice cream

I love to go out for a meal at least once a week but my other half started telling me it was a waste of money so we stopped going as much until i started to receive the emails from www.myvouchercodes.co.uk and www.vouchercodes.co.uk with loads different discount vouchers each week.

All you have to do is fill in some details, print a copy of the voucher and take it with you when you go out.

At first my other half was embarrassed when i brought the voucher out but than he realised how much money we were saving so he got over that.

So far i have used the vouchers in the following:

• La Tasca
• Zizzi
• Pizza Hut
• Yo Sushi

Go and have a look and see what bargains you can get.

I had my friends around the other night and they taught me to make Home Made burgers and potatoe wedges, see below on how we made them:

Burger Ingredients:

• Lean mince meat
• 1 medium onion
• salt and pepper

Potato Wedges ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Chilli flakes
• salt & Pepper

Cooking Instructions

Burgers:
finely chop the onion and add to a bowl with the mince and season with salt and pepper.  Mix it all together than spray a griddle with low fat spray and cook turning every 2 minutes until the inside is cooked.

Potato Wedges:
Boil the potatoes until they start going soft (dont leave until they break when you touch them), remove from the pan and cut into wedge like shapes.  Spray low fat oil onto a baking tray and add the potato. Season with the chilli flakes, salt and pepper and cook in the over at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

Serve with a salad and this is a healthy meal.

Ingredients
4 large tomatoes
1 large red onion
1 garlic clove
600ml tomatoe juice
300ml fresh stock
Dried mixed herbs
Basil torn into pieces
Small splash Tabasco sauce
4 small pots of low fat yogurt

Instructions
Place garlic tomatoes and onion into a roasting tin and spray with low fat cooking spray and roast for 20-25 minutes at 200°C.  After 25 minutes remove the tomato skins and chop.  Pour tomato juice and stock into a saucepan and add the vegatables, tomato, basil and Tabasco.  Bring to the boil than simmer for 10-20 minutes than serve.

Let me know how yours turns out as mine was gorgeous and i am making it again tonight.

I have just heard the most fantastic news ever, Cadburys do tours around their factory and you get free chocolate.

When you book tickets you get a Main Exhibition Time and you can wander around with a tour guide and see how the chocolate is made and also learn how it all first started.  You get shown all old advertisements and up to date ones.

At the end of your tour there is a shop which you can buy all of the things you don’t usually get.

Admission prices are:

Adult: £13.90
Child : £10.10
Senior Citizen & Students: £10.50
Under 4’s: free
Family (2 adults and 2 children): £42
Family (2 adults and 3 children): £49

It may be worth booking soon if what the press say is true and Kraft close it down.