It’s a bank holiday Monday after a busy weekend for the whole family - work, parties, travel, a marathon for your truly - and I’m looking for something healthy, vegan, easy (I'm knackered!)  and inexpensive to cook for lunch. And my daughter’s gone out so I need something that can be reheated when she gets home.

To complement her healthy eating books, Kate Percy has a range of free recipes on her website. A quick trip to the corner shop later, and I’m good to go for cracking on with some homemade sweet potato falafels (minus the salt, which I never add - a point of disagreement in our house!). Falafels tend to be a 'go to' lunch or snack for a vegan like me, fairly widely available and healthy alongside other good stuff. But making them for yourself is the better option. They’re high in protein, complex carbohydrates and fibre.

After chopping, grating, frying and blending, there’s a selection of slightly mis-shapen patties cooling in the fridge. I fry them up and serve with warm, wholemeal pitta, houmous, baby spinach and tomatoes. I even have a few left over for when my daughter gets home (whenever that is!).

..but making them yourself is easy, cheaper and you know what’s in them. And the fact that they're not perfect shapes only makes them more endearing as far as I'm concerned! They’d also be great to take to work for a healthy and cheaper packed lunch, so you could cook up a batch ahead of time.