Luxury Sherry Trifle with Fresh Raspberries (with Thermomix instructions)

A traditional-based sherry trifle perfect for special occasions - you can leave out the sherry if you want the kids to have some too!

In our family, it has become traditional to make a sherry trifle over the festive period. I have given you the option whether you wish to make this trifle with or without  jelly - I like to make mine without, with plenty of fresh raspberries lightly crushed and crammed into the middle to counteract the sweetness of the sherry-soaked sponge and the custard.

Custard wise, if you own a Thermomix, I've put instructions for making your own custard at the bottom; if not a 500ml tub of good quality thick custard is perfect for the job (or of course, you could make up 500ml of instant custard if you prefer a more set texture).

This should serve around ten people, or a few more if the portions aren't too large!

Rich Madeira Sauce with Wild Mushrooms

Delicious with steak, this decadent sauce is a real treat which also complements chicken and pork.

Things like Madeira, cream and wild mushrooms are luxurious ingredients, coming together in a rich sauce perfect for when you indulge yourself in a really decent, aged steak from a good butcher, and want to adorn it with something which will complement it, and not overpower it.

I confess, I haven't taken the best photo as I was plating up for four (including two hungry children!) for a certain person's birthday without the time or opportunity to faff about with beautifying the plate as I often do, or take anything but the briefest of photos, but I hope you can at least imagine how delicious the sauce might taste - which it really, REALLY does - there was not a drop left on these plates afterwards!

See? All appetites catered for here - boys on the left! If you're bored of peppercorn sauce with your steak (even though it's gorgeous), and you like mushrooms, you'll love this!

Luxury Fruit Christmas Cake (includes Thermomix method)

A rich and decadent traditional style Christmas cake, packed with fruit

For me, this is best prepared by around mid-November, so you can give it a few 'feeds' of brandy before Christmas. This makes one large cake, which is great if you have a family who really love it and will get through it (although it will keep for up to a year!) - or if you don't want lots of leftovers, you can cook it in a large square tin (which is what I generally prefer to do), then just before you're ready to ice it, cut into four smaller square cakes and give three away!

Yes, there is a 'little' missing from the top left square of the cake in the bottom middle photo...

As far as the mixed fruit goes, you can play about with the dried fruit types and quantities I've given you in the ingredients. If you don't like something, then substitute it for something you do like, the same weight - chopped dried apricots or dates, dried cherries, blueberries, pineapple - whatever you fancy. Play around with the weights of different things if you want too, just try and keep the overall weight the same (1kg dried fruit including glace cherries). If you don't have bags of assorted dried fruits permanently hanging around your kitchen cupboards like I seem to have, then for convenience you could just buy an 800g pack of dried mixed fruit of your choice (preferably including peel if you like it) and a 200g tub of glace cherries (or buy a 1kg mix including glace cherries) and mix with the liquid ingredients. Easy peasy!

Braised Ox Cheeks in a Rich Red Wine Sauce (includes Instant Pot Pressure Cooker method)

Moist, tender beef with a really rich, dark and delicious sauce

Although you don't have to cook this in a pressure cooker (you can slow cook it instead), it will shave a few hours off the process and give you the same meltingly tender results from the meat from just 30 minutes cooking at high pressure.

Ox cheeks are becoming easier to get hold of, now that they've become popular again - although the downside of this is that any surge in popularity means a surge in the price too. However, they're well worth it, as they are one of the tastiest, most tender cuts of beef, when cooked properly. They are practically the beefy embodiment of the word 'unctious'. If you can't get hold of ox cheeks, then beef shin will give you a similarly tender, gelatinous result.

One thing to note about cooking ox cheeks in this way is that they do shrink quite considerably during cooking, so if you want to cut them into single portions, I'd probably go for about 250g each which may seem like a large piece of raw meat, but not once it's shrunk after cooking! I cut it into large chunks about 125g each (so if buying in portions of around 500g, cut into four portions) to cater for my family, where people can choose whether to have one, two or three pieces each that way, according to their appetites (naming no names!). One piece is enough for me and the kids for a small portion, but I think most people would go for two (or three for larger appetites!). If you don't have access to a good butcher to buy your ox cheeks from, they can be found in some Waitrose and Morrisons stores (UK).

Serves from six to eight. Approximately 206 calories per 125g (raw weight) piece of ox cheek with sauce, therefore 412 calories for a serving of two pieces with sauce.

Baked Cod Provencal

A delicious, healthy taste of the Meditteranean, cooked in just the one tray!

Yes, that's right. Not only does this taste amazing, you only need one tray to cook it in, so less pots to contend with, too!

Succulent fillets of cod cook perfectly in the oven, on top of a bed of delicious roasted vegetables full of Provencal flavours. Shavings of lemony fennel inspired by Gordon Ramsey, top it all off perfectly for a contrasting texture, with fresh herbs.

Serves two, 318 calories per serving.

Creamy Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Pie with Tarragon (includes Thermomix method and gluten free options)

A luxurious creamy chicken pie, beautiful comfort food to share and enjoy...

If you like to cook a big roast chicken (or even turkey) on a Sunday and want something delicious to make with the leftovers, then here it is! Or if you just want to make a mouth-watering chicken pie, then you could roast one just for this (or cheat and grab a rotisserie chicken on your way home - one large bird should give you enough for this with a little bit left over for sandwiches - but shhh, don't tell anyone I said that!).

This is a luxurious deep fill pie, with a really generous filling to pasty ratio. I use a lasagne-style pyrex dish which is 19cm x 25cm and 6cm deep, which is filled pretty much to the brim when using the full 800g of chicken. If you prefer a more shallow-filled pie, then you could bake this in two slightly smaller pie tins, and use two packs (or quantities) of pastry and put one lid on each (you'll need to reduce the cooking time to around 35 to 40 minutes or so). Or of course, you can make it into individual pies. You can freeze it once topped with the pastry - either before or after cooking it (leftovers!), or simply as portioned up pie filling depending on your preference.

If you'd like to make this gluten free, you can use my easy gluten free rough puff pastry recipe, and instead of making the sauce with butter and flour, just mix a few tbsp of GF cornflour with some cold milk, and add to the heated milk and stock at the end, until thickened to your likening.

Serves eight to ten. Freezes well. [Calories in square brackets]

Calories: The entire pie is 3,827 to 4,161 calories (using a pack of sheet puff pastry, according to weight of chicken used). For a tenth portion of a pie using 600g chicken, it would be 383 calories. For an eighth portion of a pie using 800g of chicken it would be 520 calories, and so on.

Roasted Aubergine and Spinach Curry

A delicious vegetarian curry that's easy to make and tasty!

'Roasting' the aubergines until soft, and then scooping out the flesh means that you don't need to cook them in lots of oil, and that they take on a rich, toasty flavour from the slight char on the skin which permeates through to the flesh.

If made with two de-seeded large red chillies, this is a very mild curry, which makes a lovely vegetarian main on its own (you may want to add a tin of chickpeas to add more texture and protein to the curry, if you want to serve it as a main on its own), or a beautiful side dish to other curries, or part of a selection (e.g. a thali).

Makes seven portions (main sized) of approximately 250g, at 134 calories each; or eight servings if including chick peas (see 'variations'), at 157 calories a portion. Serves more as a side dish, and freezes well.

5:2 Fast Day Menu Planner (including full Vegetarian options and Gluten Free) - never have a boring fast day menu again!

A tasty selection of fully calorie-counted ideas and recipes for fast days - ideal meal inspiration for fasters old and new!

Whether you're new to the 5:2 diet or intermittent fasting, or you're a veteran in search of new ideas (in which case, you can probably scroll down past all the tips to the menu plans and skip this bit!), I hope this selection of fast day menu ideas helps you out.

There are eight menus for fast days with three meals (including breakfast) and eight more menus for fast days with two meals (no breakfasts) - all with full vegetarian options (and gluten free notes in the recipes)... and then there are a bonus further eight fast day dinner suggestions for those who like to save most of their calories for dinners (or men, who have an extra 100 calories to 'spend' on a fast day, the lucky so-and-so's!).

I've been developing calorie-counted recipes suitable for the 5:2 diet for my Facebook recipe group members for over two years now (you're very welcome to join us!), so I'm actually surprised myself, that I've not put something like this together before! [Edit: Now I know why... it took days!!!]

Retro Chasseur Sauce

A rich tomato, white wine and tarragon sauce with sliced mushrooms in it.

This sauce may be a bit of a blast from the past, for those of us frequenting British Pubs and Restaurants a couple of decades ago! 

However, this version is made from natural and fresh ingredients, and packed full of flavour. This sauce goes equally well with steak, chicken or pork fillets/steaks (just substitute chicken boullion/stock), or fish (use vegetable or fish boullion/stock). 

Makes 4 servings at 120 calories each (if you're counting. If not, feel free to increase the oil if you need to.), freezes well. Slimming World 1.5 Syns per serving.

Muttar Paneer - Pea and Indian Cheese Curry

A classic vegetarian Indian curry that's not too hot and can be served as a main dish, or a side.

Muttar Paneer is one of my favourite vegetarian Indian dishes. I think it's maybe because it has cheese in it which makes it one of those vegetarian dishes where you really don't miss meat.

You can even make the paneer cheese yourself the night before, if you fancy (see the separate paneer cheese blog here - paneer is a very mild Indian cheese, which is easy to make yourself at home and no special equipment is needed). I think this dish is lovely as part of a variety of Indian dishes to share with friends.

Serves six (or more if served as a side dish), easily halved. Freezes well.

Calories per serving: 248 calories for a full portion (a sixth) of the 'skinny' version where you either grill the cheese, or just add it as it is without frying. If shallow frying the paneer first, you will need to add around 70-100 extra calories a portion.

How to Make Homemade Paneer Cheese (Indian Cheese)

Make your own paneer cheese - it's really easy!

You just need two ingredients (milk and lemon juice), it only needs to go into the fridge overnight and no special equipment necessary! 

So without further ado, here's how!

Courgette and Aubergine Curry (Zucchini and Eggplant)

Delicious on its own, or as an accompaniment to other curries.

This is a simple but tasty curry, delicately spiced and lovely as a main, or an accompaniment to other curries. You can play around and substitute whatever vegetables you have available ( it’s very versatile – peppers, cauliflower, squash, okra, sliced carrots, green beans are all good – or you could make it with just aubergine, or a mixture of vegetables.

I usually like to serve this as part of a selection of Indian dishes to cater for all palates, but it is excellent as a low calorie vegetarian main dish.

Serves 4-8 depending on whether served as a main dish, or a side dish.

Calories per serving: 120 calories if served between four people as a main, 60 calories if served between eight as a side.

Moroccan Spiced Roast Vegetable and Lentil Soup

Warning: This soup will fill the house with gorgeous smells whilst cooking!

This delicious (and healthy!) soup came about for two reasons: Firstly, I wanted to create a vegetarian soup with Moroccan flavours which didn't contain chickpeas, and secondly, there's a jar of ras el hanout in my spice cupboard which was crying out to be used in something!

So here it is, I'm very pleased with it, and everyone else really loved it too! Feel free to shake up the flavours by substituting a different spice mix, or adding cooked pulses after blending it to make a heartier soup.

Yields 10 portions (recipe easily halved) of approximately 250g each, at only 99 calories per serving!

Spicy Prawn and Avocado Salad

The classic combination of prawns and avocado... with a kick!

Just a quick flash in the pan for the prawns, and you’ve got a tasty, spicy salad with a lovely lemony zing – fantastic fast food!

Serves one (easily doubled or quadrupled!), 272 calories per serving.

Saag Paneer (Paneer Cheese and Spinach Curry)

A delicious Indian curry, not just for vegetarians!

This is a really comforting and tasty curry - fantastic on its own, or as part of a selections of Indian dishes.

Traditionally the paneer cheese is fried before adding to the curry, giving it a tasty golden crust on the outside and a soft, fluffy texture on the inside. A similar effect (with less calories, if you're counting) can be achieved by placing the cheese on some greaseproof paper on a tray, and placing under a hot grill to brown it a little on the outside, or if preferred you could just stir the cheese in at the end and heat it through to keep the calories down.

Serves three to four light portions (or more if served as a side dish), easily halved or doubled. Paneer is a very mild Indian cheese, which is easy to make yourself at home if you wish (although this needs to be done the day before), and no special equipment is needed.

Calories per serving if not frying paneer cheese: 204 for a quarter (if split into four portions), 272 per serving, if split between three portions.