NADIYA HUSSAIN ON HEALTHY EATING

Getting back into the swing of meal prepping can be daunting, so we spoke to 2015 Great British Bake Off champion Nadiya Hussain to get her top five tips for weeknight cooking, together with a weekly packed-lunch menu to keep your kids happy…

If you get stuck in a rut…

“Try not to put too much pressure on yourself. Often, it’s all about what I can use up and I just use what I have at home, and that gives me inspiration to use a little ingenuity to create something new.

“I get a lot of inspiration from using up what I might have in the back of the freezer or in the back of the vegetable drawer. But, yes, I get stuck in a rut all the time!”

Find a balance…

“We have cakes, sweets and sometimes fizzy drinks throughout the week and, actually, that just means the kids often pick fruit and water and sometimes don’t have the cake for dessert at all.”

Batch cooking and the freezer are your friends…

“If you are cooking something, is there a way you can double the recipe or bulk it up with vegetables? For example, if it’s bolognese, add kidney beans to make a second batch of chilli.”

Double up…

“Make one meal into two meals; eat one and freeze the other. This will save you time for an emergency day when you don’t have time to cook or need time to do something else.”

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself…

“I have hungry teenagers and more often than not, they don’t care where the food has come from. They don’t care if they have the same thing every night for a week as long as they’re fed.”