Not just in the fruit bowl...

As we've said previously, fruit and veg doesn't have to be fresh - frozen peas, tinned sweetcorn, dried apricots and cartons of pure fruit juice are all perfectly good options. It's always handy to keep your cupboards and freezer stocked with fruit and veg for those days when you have run out of fresh items, you're in a hurry or you just weren't prepared to pay £1.20 for a fresh cauli.

Yes, with those products in tins and cartons there is some vitamin loss, but you're still far better having fruit or veg in this form than going without at a meal. Some vitamins are actually more readily available to the body when cooked - think chopped tomatoes for lycopene and tinned carrots for beta-carotene. Choosing fruit canned in natural juice and veg tinned in water helps you watch your intake of sugar and salt.

My favourite items are tinned tomatoes and pulses. Using these along with onions, perhaps another veg, and the herbs and spices you've likely got in, you can create so many dishes. Anyone for chickpea curry or lentil shepherd's pie?

Why not keep the following in your kitchen?

• Tinned fruit - chop and add to porridge, sugar free jelly, custard or natural yoghurt
• Frozen fruit - raspberries, blueberries or mixed red fruit will make a jelly set quickly; alternatively serve with yoghurt or a small scoop of ice cream
• Dried fruit - add to cereal, stewed or baked apple, milk puddings, baking or even try in savoury dishes - raisins in rice, dried apricots or prunes in a tagine
• Pure fruit juice - add to chopped fruit for a fruit salad, pour into lolly moulds to freeze, use pineapple juice as an ingredient in sweet and sour sauce, use instead of cold water to make up a sugar free jelly or add to stewed fruit
• Frozen mixed veg - add to stews, curries, pasta sauce or rice
• Tinned sweetcorn - add to soft sandwich fillings, salads, rice, soups, pasta dishes, fish pie, stews or curries
• Tinned tomatoes - soups, sauces, stews and curries here you come
• Tinned peas, beans and lentils - anywhere meat goes, a pulse can go too, and that includes baked beans

Then what about the frozen spinach, broccoli or peas, where might they take you?