Enjoy comfort food without piling on the kilos with these slimming recipes

We've all been there: Staring at the "low-kilojoule" offerings in the supermarket fridge like a sad flavour widow, longing for the good old days when your metabolism hadn't left you.

Inevitably increased working hours and a waning work-life balance means you don't quite have time to cook dishes like you used to. Instead, you have to default to ready meals at best, or unhealthy fast food at worst. You know it's not good for your waistline, but what else can you do?

It was this exact conundrum that faced professional chefs Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone, whose gruelling work hours played havoc with the numbers on their scales.

But instead of turning to the usual convenience foods, they decided to turn their professional hands to the situation and make delicious and easy slimming meals for each other.

After seeing the results, they thought the recipes were too good not to share, and so the Pinch of Nom website was born. It now boasts a 1.5 million-strong community and the title of UK's most visited food blog.

Now the duo have launched their first cookbook, Pinch of Nom: 100 Slimming Home-Style Recipes (Pan Macmillan, R399), featuring easy recipes for everything from simple weekday meals to sweet indulgences.

The book itself is a delight, a great buy for any cookbook enthusiast regardless of your pants size. The images are bright and vivacious, and the recipes are so delicious it's hard to believe that they are good for you, let alone able to help you get your beach body back. 

Here are some of our favourite guilt-free winter comfort food recipes from the Pinch of Nom cookbook: