Allinson Kate - Pinch of Nom: everyday light: 100 tasty, slimming recipes: all under 400 calories

Wow! Our second book! We still cant believe how much you guys liked the first. We were overwhelmed by all your support and by how much you loved making the recipes. We enjoyed watching post after post in our Facebook group of all the recipes being made. Thats what its all about for us getting people back into the kitchen and cooking for all the family, while also giving you healthy, calorie-friendly swaps. So were back again with this: the Everyday Light book.

Well, the simple answer is that all of the meals in this book come in under 400 calories. But weve made sure to use the right ingredients so youre still getting decent portions! We dont create recipes where you only got a teaspoon of food we want to give you the same hearty Pinch of Nom food youve come to know and love. All of these dishes are either complete meals, or we have suggested an accompaniment that will still bring the dish under 400 calories (you can also refer to our list of accompaniments and calorie counts on ). If youre following the major diet plans in the UK, all of the recipes can be enjoyed without counting any values, aside from any fibre and dairy allowances. Weve made sure that all of the recipes work on the major diet plans, as well as for calorie-counting.

Everyday Light recipes have been requested by the community so many times, weve lost count! So were delighted to finally be able to put all these together for you in this beautiful book.

The majority of these recipes are packed with vegetables and protein perfect for keeping meals lean, while making sure youre full until your next meal. Of course, for a few extra calories, we have some sides and snacks but, if youre calorie-counting, keep an eye on your main meal calories before adding on the sides.

We can hear you thinking meat and veg and rolling your eyes. But we promise, these are still the Pinch of Nom meals you know and love Fish and Chips (see ), to name but a few. Weve used our tried and tested way of seasoning, flavouring and spicing the meals so you wont find bland meat with a side salad thats not what were about!

As a classically trained chef, Kate has always looked at well-known recipes and dishes, then worked out how to improve or recreate them. That is still the case and its how the Pinch of Nom recipes are formed. She and her small team come up with the best ideas for recipes, then get into the kitchen and throw around ingredients until they find the right balance.

You can prepare most of the recipes in this book in under 30 minutes. It was important to the Pinch of Nom team that the recipes were easily accessible and featured ingredients that home cooks will use time and again to save on cost. Ingredients that are less familiar are only used when they add a unique touch to the dish and we make sure they are used more than once so youll never have ingredients gathering dust.

Weve also made sure that the recipes work for any cooking ability. We didnt want gourmet chefs as our taste testers or even have a requirement that people needed to be able to cook. We wanted a subsection of the general public to attempt these recipes and see how they got on. Based on their feedback, were confident that even the novice cook can tackle these recipes and end up with a decent meal without spending hours in the kitchen.

Weve grouped our favourite batch-cooking recipes together in their own chapter, because batch-cooking ideas are often requested by our community. As you can see, these recipes have their own specific guidelines, but there are also plenty of other recipes in the book that you can batch cook with a few tweaks. Some general notes to think about when batch cooking are below. Its always important to store food safely, so we have included the latest NHS food-safety guidelines (correct at the time of writing).

Divide the food into individual portions to refrigerate or freeze. This means you can just reheat one portion, or four portions, or six etc. without needing to chisel portions off of one big frozen block! It will also ensure they cool and freeze (and defrost) quicker.

Make sure youve got enough space in your fridge or freezer for your meals before you get cooking!

Use refrigerated foods within 2 days.

When freezing food, make sure you use airtight containers or freezer bags that are suitable for the freezer. Invest in some decent, freezer- and microwave-proof storage containers. If not, your containers may crack or melt, which is not what you need when you want a quick meal youve spent time batch cooking. Make sure your containers are sealed properly to avoid freezer burn, which is when the food has been damaged by oxidization from air getting inside.

Always label food. Use freezer-proof stickers to label your dish, adding the date when you made it. Nobody wants mystery food in the freezer, and its likely it will end up going to waste. Meals can be frozen for around 36 months. Up to 3 months is ideal and beyond 6 months is still safe, but the food may not taste as good.

Always make sure food is defrosted thoroughly before reheating it, either in the fridge or microwave.

Only reheat food once.

When food has defrosted completely, it should be reheated and eaten within 24 hours, so only defrost what you need. NHS guidelines state you should reheat food until it reaches 70C/130F and holds that temperature for 2 minutes. Make sure it is piping hot all the way through. Stir during reheating to ensure this.

You may freeze the sauce or meat for some recipes, but need to cook rice, pasta or other accompaniments at the time you want to eat as they either cannot be reheated, or theyre a lot nicer cooked fresh. Keep an eye out for the freezer instructions throughout the book for further details on each recipe.

If you are batch-cooking rice, its important you store it correctly before you reheat it. You should cool it as quickly as possible, ideally within 1 hour. (With other foods this could be up to 2 hours.) You can put rice in a wide, shallow container, which will help it cool quicker due to the larger surface area. There is a risk of bacteria growing the longer it is left at room temperature. Cooked rice should only be kept in the fridge for 1 day before reheating. When you reheat rice, make sure it is piping hot all the way through. Never reheat rice more than once.