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Your healthy fakeaway meal planner

FROM COOKBOOK SENSATION THE DALY DISH

Get inspired

We all want to eat the food we love, but it’s hard when they are deep-fried and dripping in grease. We absolutely love watching American food shows and take so much inspiration from some of the dishes we see, but obviously they aren’t going to do us any favours. So we work out how we can tweak them, how we can still get the same taste, but without using a deep-fat fryer.

You will be so surprised at what you can rustle up when you just have a little inspo. You’ll feel like a domestic god/dess and it will become second nature in no time to produce healthier, tastier meals that all the family will love too!

Snacks and treats

(and things we are afraid to use our calories on)

This is the only part of my day I don’t plan, as some days I feel like a snack and some days I just don’t! I’m not really a snacker, if I’m honest, as I’m that girl who uses her extra calories in her meals. Some people say, ‘Why would you use that sauce when you could save the calories and make it with a bit of yoghurt and a sprinkle of dust?’ (No one will ever convince me that a homemade garlic sauce made with air and water is better than a shopbought one.)

The little bit we use is really not going to add eight pounds at the end of the week!

I’m not saying to lather every meal in lashings of ketchup, or to spoon-feed yourself straight from the bottle — just use your common sense and don’t be afraid to have a little drizzle of sauce!

I do like a sweet hit, which I usually lash into my breakfast — some people see this as a total waste of a good bit of chocolate!

If you are inclined to graze, try to buy things like watermelon, strawberries and other fresh fruit. If you like yoghurts, they are handy to have to hand too, and you can add in your berries if you need a quick snack.

Now, I’m under no illusion that these are going to give you the satisfaction of a bar of chocolate or a packet of crisps.

If you really feel like you want the chocolate or the crisps, just have them. But make sure to keep a few snack-sized packs in the press. I usually pick up the bags that are 99 calories — just don’t eat a share-sized bag all to yourself (which was always my downfall)!

Don’t buy share-sized bars and say, ‘Oh I’ll only have three squares on Monday and then I’ll have another two squares next Wednesday,’ that’s just not going to happen.

Buy smaller bars, try to keep them under 120 calories, dip them in your tea and enjoy the sweet hit you need.

Hula hooping works to shape the body