It’s not long until I’ll be in Paris for the best of a week for an extended city break. Although Paris is a really expensive city when it comes to eating out, there are certain things you simply can’t beat in this part of the world.

I’m thinking specifically about pastries. I’m a fan of the simplest croissants available from Parisian patisseries, which usually cost around a euro and are always freshly baked on the morning of your purchase.

No matter where you buy you croissants here in England – supermarket, café, restaurant – they never quite hit the standard of the authentic French equivalent. Light, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, French pastries are far superior to their sorry counterparts this side of the channel.

Sadly, you get the impression we’ll never get pastries of a Parisian standard here in the UK because there just isn’t the demand for a real French patisserie that bakes its own goods every morning.

People often suggest that by including things like salad dressing, croutons and feta cheese in a salad you are turning a healthy meal into an unhealthy meal. However, there’s something to be said for jazzing up healthy food in this manner.

The fact is, for many people, a salad is dull and uninteresting unless it has a few embellishments. Even if you introduce unhealthy elements to a healthy dish, you are still getting the benefit of all the good stuff in there with them, so there’s no reason why you should feel guilty.

There is only an issue if you find that you generally end up with more unhealthy salad ingredients on the plate than healthy ones. Then perhaps it’s time to revise your recipe.

There really is no substitute for nice fresh bread. It’s often the case that you buy bread for the week and find that a couple of days later, the rolls you hoped would last for every lunch time for the next five days aren’t terribly appealing.

Instead, it makes sense to go for bread that really lasts. Pitta bread doesn’t tend to suffer for freshness because you generally toast it or microwave it to bring it back to life.

Whenever you fancy a bit of bread with your evening meal, it makes much more sense to buy it fresh in the morning, on your lunch break or on the way home from work than relying on bread from the weekend.

After eating a nice mixed starter at Felicini’s recently, I decided to follow up with a bit of a search for a kind of sauce that accompanied houmous on the platter.

The sauce in question is known as Imam Bayildi and it is made of friend or baked aubergines in plenty of oil. At length I found a jar in the special foods section at Sainsbury’s and it is well worth checking out provided you aren’t put off by loads and loads of olive oil.

The version I found came with large chunks of aubergine which make a great addition to pittas and other snacks or main meals. However, it didn’t quite match up to the Felicini version, so if you want a great taste of this stunning accompaniment book yourself a table asap.

Sausage casserole is one of the easiest, tastiest and healthiest meals you can make. It’s easy to make it last for a couple of days to keep your food bill down and make the most of your ingredients.

All you need is to get hold of some low fat sausages and pop them in the oven for ten minutes in a large dish. Meanwhile, fry up some garlic, a couple of peppers, an onion and a leek in a pan. When these are soft, add some mixed beans and a tin of chopped tomatoes and simmer. Add Worcestershire sauce and herbs for flavour.

After the sausages have been in the oven for ten minutes, cut them into large chunks and add the vegetable and bean mixture to the dish. Then pop back in the oven for a further twenty minutes.

When the time is up, just spoon a healthy portion into a bowl and save the rest for tomorrow or freeze for another day. Job done.