Amongst these resolutions a common one that crops up each year is - the pursuit of a healthier lifestyle including: healthy eating. Here are my top tips to help and maintain a healthy balanced diet.

Cooking skills equip university students with practical tools for maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle while fostering independence and resourcefulness, making it an important aspect of their personal development.

The Mediterranean diet is widely regarded as one of the healthiest diets and has been extensively studied for its numerous benefits. The diet is defined by the traditional eating habits of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, such as Italy, Greece, and Spain, the foundation of which usually lies in using fresh seasonal simple ingredients and cooking from scratch.

If you’re not a fan of going out to eat on valentines and would rather cook at home. Here are my 5 top tips for how to make the perfect romantic dinner at home. Whether it’s on valentines or any other special date nights.

Chicken Involtini - little rolls of chicken. If you’re bored of always cooking chicken the same way, this one is for you. This recipes is simple to make with a few ingredients and is packed with flavour. Perfect for a midweek healthy family dinner.

With the cost of living on the up and predictions for further increases on food and other household expenses to come, a lot of us will be feeling the pinch. Finding ways to make your weekly shop go further can help.

Try to factor in a bit of meal planning and list writing at the beginning of the week it will reduce your stress when it comes to mealtimes, save you money and helps reduce food waste.

From tiny lentils to black eyed beans, tinned pulses are an essential store cupboard ingredient. Not only are they healthy, a great source of protein, complex (healthy) carbohydrates and full of vitamins, tinned and jarred pulses are a great base for many a quick and budget friendly dish.

What is meal planning?

Meal planning is like asking ‘what’s for dinner?’ once for the whole week, instead of every night, and then shopping for and prepping the ingredients before cooking. The simplest way to start meal planning is to follow these four steps.

Panzanella Salad - Prefect lunch on a hot summers day, the tomatoes should be ripe and sweet. I like to let mine sit in the fridge for a while before serving to let the chunks of bread absorb some of the delicious juices and dressing. Tear up a ball of mozzarella and add to it prior to serving.

Budino al cioccolato (chocolate pudding), just a handful of store cupboards ingredients required for this one and some milk. You can add some pieces of chocolate too, a good way to use up those abundant Easter Eggs, and for a dinner party dessert you can add some Amaretto or Rum into the ramekins before pouring in the mixture.

Gazpacho soup, all it takes is some chopping, marinating, blitzing & chilling. It also contains most of your 5 a day veggies and they’re all raw so packed full of nutrients too. I’ll definitely be serving this up more as the weather warms up. Makes a perfect light lunch or dinner party starter.

This courgette, tomato & prawn penne makes a great midweek meal, using fresh vegetables and prawns it’s well balanced and healthy with 2 of your 5 a day and low calorie protein. Ready in around 25mins, it’s delicious too.

Calamari fritti are the Italian version of fish & chips, you’ll find them or Fritto Misto (mixed fried fish) on menus across Italy. Frozen squid is readily available in most supermarkets and is a great source of protein. This is easy to prepare at home and can make a nice change to your usual fish dishes. Serve with a wedge of lemon & chips.

Scallopine al limone (chicken escalope with lemon). This is a light and zesty way to serve chicken, quick to make it’s a great midweek meal idea, I like to serve mine with crushed potatoes & spinach. You can also use pork loin or veal escalopes instead of chicken.

Zucchini (Courgette) & Ricotta tart. The ricotta is lightly flavoured with garlic, nutmeg, basil & Parmesan cheese, works perfectly with the lightly fried courgettes and puff pastry. It makes a great light lunch or dinner, served with a mixed salad.

Tonno e Fagioli (tuna & bean salad). This simple salad from Tuscany, made with mostly store cupboard ingredients and ready in 15 mins. It's healthy and nutritious, can be served as either an 'Antipasto' or on it's own for lunch or a light dinner. I like mine with a ripe tomato on the side and a big chunk of crusty bread.

Pasta alla Puttanesca (tart’s sauce😉). This can be made in 20mins or so with some of my trusted store cupboards ingredients including tinned tomatoes (@muttipomodorouk, my favourite brand) anchovies, capers, chilli flakes & olives, with either Penne or Spaghetti. Perfect for lunch or dinner in a hurry.

In addition to a well-stocked store cupboard, the freezer is your next best friend to help make meal planning and preparation easy. Here are top 10 tips for ingredients to keep in your freezer.

Polpette con sugo (meatballs with tomato sauce). I’m sure there are hundreds of variations to meatballs recipes across Italy. I like to keep mine relatively simple, I use Veal mince (you can easily substitute beef or pork maybe a combination of the two or Turkey mince for those looking for a leaner meat). And no, I don’t serve mine with spaghetti!

This is a simple and delicious way to cook Seabass or Seabream with bags of flavour. Cooked in one tray, it makes a great midweek meal with minimal preparation.