Vanilla slice gets the chop in favour of a fat free diet... and it tastes wonderful | Tracey Smith

I’ve been a “good eater” from being a baby and brought up on good, wholesome, homemade food.

Every evening we came home to a home cooked meal and a lovely pudding with lashings of custard and you

were not allowed to leave the table until it was all eaten.

My mum's cooking was so good why would you leave any?! The only time we did not get pudding was when mum managed to boil dry the Heinz chocolate steamed pudding and it exploded everywhere in the kitchen, then two weeks later did it again with the treacle version! The kitchen had to be redecorated... twice.

The only thing I refused to eat was liver. And you sat at the table until it was gone, and boy, could I sit that one out!! I would be ravenous, but being the stubborn Taurean I am I would sit and stare at my plate of liver until my mum gave in.

As I got older, I loved to learn how to cook and bake and would delve into my mum’s cookbooks and have a go.

My three children came along, and it was natural to recreate the great recipes my mum made for us when we were little. Although I’ve never mastered how to make pastry.

Being a lover of home-cooked meals has come at a price and you may have already gathered that I'm no

Kate Moss.

So yes, I am a tad curvy and now in need of my gall bladder removing along with other nasty things. My body finally told me in January, 2020, that I could no longer eat fats of any kind and it is refusing to have it’s mind changed no matter how hard I try to convince it that one vanilla slice won’t do any harm.

So, I’ve changed the way I eat, what I eat and discovered a whole new world of fantastic recipes that are fat free.

They look and taste amazing, they are cheap to make and after a long day at work I stick to the recipes that take 30 minutes to make especially when you are famished!!

I’ve now lost over two stones in weight and feel a lot healthier, I have more energy and feel good about myself.

I’ve learned a whole new way of cooking. Me and my family enjoy trying at least two new dishes each week. I’ve started to share the amazing meals on Facebook and I’ve got my friends and family making the recipes.

I don’t feel like I’m missing out on the meals I used to eat or takeaways as there’s low fat versions available and you can hardly tell the difference.

Don't get me wrong, I still crave pastry, cheese, bread, and that elusive vanilla slice but there is no going back now.