This weekend I rekindled my love of the Cook Yourself Thin cookbook (circa 2007) thanks to my mum who lent me the book. I used to watch the episodes religiously, and don’t forget this was in the days before sky plus (well for me anyway) so it meant I had to make sure I was free on that night so I could watch it. Old school.

Anyway, yesterday I started a twitter account for the blog (@mumsdays – please follow me!) and responded to a question from one of the Cook Yourself Thin chefs (@GizziErskine) who then responded to me! She asked me – which risotto? To celebrate this momentous occasion and my first experience of a ‘celebrity conversation’ particularly with one of my heros, I’m going to share my favourite 5 CYT recipes:

5. Beetroot Chocolate Fudge Cake – I’m not much of a sweet tooth but I have made this a few times. It is a pain in the arse and dude you are going to get friendly, beyond friendly, with beetroot but the end result is moist and delicious (and significantly lower calories than your average chunk of chocolate cake).

4. Singapore Curried Noodles – Morrisons have a lovely range of ready meals including Singapore Curried Noodles – it’s so delicious and this is just as good, and dead easy. Put more prawns in though!

3. Chicken Katsu Curry – for anyone who was a fan of Wagamama’s Katsu (which by the way is about 1200 calories! Whoops. And, I say was because they recently ruined it), this is the recipe for you. The sauce is gorgeous and the whole dish is 700 calories less than Waga’s. The only thing I wasn’t completely sold on was the cornflakes on the chicken but Mike liked it and so did Gabriella (I did here a non-curry powder sauce and she loved it too), so it could be a pregnancy sensitive pallet thing?

2. Chilli Con Carne – This was beyond delicious. I always thought it was a cinch to make, which it is, but adding a couple of these spices and it was a total revelation. I mean who would have thought cumin would work? – it smells funny. I missed out the chilli, sounds a bit stupid as it is then just Con Carne, but it meant Gabriella could eat it too and she loved it.

1. Skinny Keema Curry – This is my all time favourite. I’ve made it loads of times for family, friends, just us and it never fails to impress. I’ve made it with minced beef but I prefer it with diced lamb or chicken. Make it now!

These are all from the Channel 4 website, as I don’t know the copy right rules of the book but if you can get a hold of a copy, do it’s ace! It covers also sorts of good ideas for replacing naughty drinks and snacks, in addition to recipes for all occasions – I had prawn risotto last night and ho fun beef tonight, which was the good stuff.