Cooking skills: Where and how you start to learn to cook is likely to vary but there are basic skills and lots of them. One of these is knife skill. You need to build up confidence and develop skills in knife handling. The basics are constant, used over and over again, even in some quite complicated dishes. The photographs in this article illustrate basic knife skills you need to learn.

It is worthwhile learning how to make a home-made white sauce based on a roux. Roux is simply the French derived word for a mixture of melted butter and white flour. It is the roux that thickens the milk. What happens is amazing and very useful.

Basic ingredients need to be understood. Which ones are dry, which are wet, which are perishable, which will keep, which need chilled storage. Also check out ‘Know your ingredients’ post for more information.

Looking after yourself - One bag of shopping for 5 meals. Week 1 & Week 2How to eat well and spend less and Keep Healthy