Get baking

So how do you get round the problem of not being able to wander the supermarket aisles and load your trolley with goodies? You bake. You use real ingredients and remember that they have a shorter shelf life. And they taste sooooo good. Real cookies, cakes and bread. The fantastic effect is that it makes you very conscious of exactly how much fat and sugar is in a batch - and the result is that you eat less. I lost 5 kg initially.

The pantry shelves start to resemble an old fashioned grocers - tubs of sugar, flour and oats, dried fruits (organic to avoid preservative), dried pulses and cans of tomatoes. It's all cheap and absolute staples. Who said eating well was expensive?

In the freezer - peas and mixed veges, rather than frozen pizza and ready dinners. Make your own yorkshire puddings to have with a good old roast and then eat the leftovers in a sandwich. Eat cold chicken in a salad and use up cheese in a quiche.

So let me share some of my recipes here with you and try to inspire you to get cooking and baking especially with your kids. Whenever I get the weighing scales out my elder daughter asks what I am cooking and could she help? Use up homemade yoghurt in yoghurt cake, make my Nan's plumbread (full of dried fruit and heaven in the colder months), and fresh soups. Make sponge cake in summer and stuff it with cream and strawberries. And learn that these additives actually taint the food you consume. Get back to to basics.

Think about what your kids eat. Cookies? Potato chips? Crackers? Ice cream? Muesli bars? Do they drink fruit squash? Look at the ingredients. Check them out. And stop and think - not only could you ditch the additives - you could make this a fun activity to do with the kids and save yourself some money!