Scarratt-Jones - Eat well for less every day

Jo Scarratt-Jones started her career in television in 1997 when she joined LWT. She spent 15 years at ITV working on a varied output from Trinny and Susannah to Im A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! and joined RDF Television in February 2011 as an Executive Producer and became Head of Popular Factual in 2012. Jo recently relocated to Bristol with her family and works from RDF West.

Thank you for watching Eat Well for Less? well, were guessing you watch it if youve bought this book! Or maybe its a present and somebody thinks you need a few tips and tricks to get eating well and, er, for less! If you do watch our show, youll know were all about keeping things simple and tasty without breaking the bank. This is our fourth book and it covers lots of the recipes in the recent series with a few bonus ones thrown in too! We hope it inspires you in the same way that weve inspired the families weve met.

The truth is that, even though all our families are very different, we often hear similar issues: busy lives and no time; no cooking confidence; too many fussy eaters; everybody wants something different; expensive tastes; wedded to the same pricey brands; stuck in a food rut and we bet youll identify with at least one of these! But dont worry help is at hand. Literally, with this book!

With this book, we dont only want to show you delicious, easy recipes that you can put together, we also want to help you do all those things youve talked about doing saving money on food bills, meal planning, healthy food choices and throwing away less food. Look at the early sections in this book to get savvy. There are also sections on how to deal with childrens food habits, from toddlers to teens, plus some of the health issues that you might need to be careful with when cooking. And we make all of it simple we promise!

One of the things we love to see when were filming with families is how their confidence grows in the kitchen even those who have never really cooked before suddenly find enjoyment. Often it can be when you stop thinking about cooking as a chore and more about an activity that you can share as a family. And of course getting busy families to sit down together to eat is always a real triumph, and something we encourage you to do at least once a week if you cant manage more. Its a habit worth getting in to if you can.

If you are a fan of the programme, we thought it might be worth explaining a few of the things you see on the show that we often get questions about. For example, when we pop up and surprise the family while they are doing their supermarket shopping, they really dont know that were there! Of course, they know they are being filmed as part of the show, but not that were secretly watching them. Its great seeing their reactions! The other thing people often comment on is the number of different supermarket brands that are spotted, and wonder if we expect you to shop at lots of different supermarkets we dont! We just want to show you that lots of the supermarkets do own-brand versions and that it really is worth checking out what they have. We bet that sometimes you wouldnt be able to tell the difference!

We really hope you enjoy the book, thank you for buying it and for watching the show. Heres to a new way for you to eat well for less!

Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin

Its easy to get stuck in a bad habit of buying time-saving ready meals to feed the family, but its also easy to get back on track with healthy eating on a budget. The first thing you need to do is to blitz your kitchen and get a grip on what youve got in your cupboards out of date, in date; the favourites or the unappealing packets lurking at the back. You will save money on your weekly shopping once you know what you have, because you wont be buying things your cupboards are already overflowing with.

So give yourself an hour or so, and get into those cupboards. Take everything out and set it on a work surface so you can see exactly what you have. If you dont have time to do this all in one go, do a cupboard or two at a time you might find you get the bug pretty quickly, though, and youll want to keep going!

Once everything is laid out, go through and check the dates of every package or tin; if they are past their use-by date, youve got no option but to bin them (see ). It might sound odd to throw things out when youre trying to save money, but trust us here, do this and youll have the perfect clean slate to get started from. Dont beat yourself up about it, just know that you wont let that happen again when you are in your new habits.

If items are in date but you know you wont use them perhaps you bulk-bought something that no one likes or will eat set it aside so that you can donate it to a food bank or homeless shelter, so someone else can benefit from it. If you bought a bag of quinoa or tin of mixed beans in a moment of enthusiasm to eat healthily, but they are still sitting there, have a look through the recipes in this book before you ditch them. Go on, give them one last try

By now you should have thinned out what you have, and its time to put everything back. Dont just shove it all on the shelves, though; youre going to get really organised now to make life easier later.

Whats the difference? Surely if it looks ok and smells ok, its fine? No the two terms advise very different lifespans, so know the difference and you wont be chucking food out needlessly or, worse, making yourself ill eating it.

Use-by this is all about safety, so pay attention to this one. Like it says on the packaging, use the product by the date given, otherwise the ingredient/food is no longer safe to eat. This means you cant freeze it or cook it after this date either.

Best-before youve got a little more latitude here the product will be at its best before the date shown, but its quality, flavour and texture will deteriorate after that. So it is still safe to eat, but whether you want to or not is your call.

Whether you are theming your cupboards or not, think like a supermarket and put the items with the soonest use-by or best-before date at the front so you use them first, and the items with a longer shelf life at the back. You will waste far less this way.

Youll feel really satisfied now youve got rid of all the clutter and you can see exactly what youve got, and what you need to stock up on.

Organising ingredients into themed zones will make finding them easier and prepping meals much quicker, as you know exactly where everything is when you need it. For instance, put all the items in one cupboard that you use on a regular or everyday basis, then perhaps the sweet treats and foods you want out of sight and out of mind in another cupboard preferably high up!