A note on the recipes…

Some of the recipes here have been adapted over the years from ones I have found in books and online, or have been given to me by friends or clients. For some I don’t know the origin to give credit. I can’t take credit for them anyway, but I can say that they are all well-tested and eaten regularly in our house.

For most recipes you can adapt them as you like, swapping vegetables or meat, using noodles instead of rice etc. So if you don’t have the exact ingredients, feel free to change it up and experiment with what you do have.

You can also adapt recipes to fit the plate model and your hand size measures.

For example, if you are making a Bolognese sauce then measure the food groups as you put the ingredients in. If it is a six-portion Bolognese sauce then you know you need roughly six palm-sized portions of minced beef in it. You could also measure out the carrots, onions, celery and tomatoes so you know how many handfuls go into a portion. And then when you serve it you know how much extra salad you should add and have it with a fist-sized pile of pasta. And you don’t have to be exact. Remember: it’s a guide and a little bit either side will make hardly any difference.