This week in Bite: Dust off the casserole dish

You've got to love a good casserole — a melded medley of ingredients bringing us warmth and comfort. Come April we are ready for them but perhaps with a lighter note. Ray McVinnie has created three for autumn enjoyment:

Spicy chicken with tomatoes and green beans

,

tofu braised with greens and mushrooms

and

pork meatballs with vegetables and cannellini beans

.

You also have to love a good fry up and, if you haven't already perfected your favourite batter, perhaps one of these

four

will encourage you to have a dabble. I did recently, after years of avoiding the battering and deep-frying of anything — and it wasn't anywhere near as messy or scary (although the hot oil thing does require your full attention) as I thought. I now produce crisp, beer-battered fish to go with homemade chips to rival those from Herne Bay's Fishsmith, no longer a phone order away in my new rural life.

Allyson Gofton is making a

spiced courgette chocolate cake

– a rich-tasting cake that makes good use of summer's courgette bounty and a great one to add to the lunchboxes this week.

For those who take their lunch to work, nutritionist Mikki Williden has

tips

on how to use the supermarket to your advantage to make healthy, economical, easy-to-prepare-at-work choices.

Also in Bite this week
Peter Gordon smokes fish
Produce reportLouise Thompson's 13th way to set your 2018 on fire