A Beginner’s Guide to Pinch of Nom
Whether you’re new to Pinch of Nom or you’ve been with us from the beginning, we’re so grateful that you found our recipes. Taking big flavours and transforming them into lower-calorie dishes has always been our idea of fun – and we wouldn’t be here if you weren’t collecting our cookbooks, making our recipes and swapping tips in our Facebook group.
In case you haven’t had the chance to get to know all the ins and outs of Pinch of Nom just yet, we’ve put together a quick, one-stop guide to get you started. Even if you’ve been with us for a while, you might just discover a handy feature or two to help you out on your slimming journey!
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What is Pinch of Nom?
Way back in 2016, Kay and Kate, developed the idea for Pinch of Nom as a way to swap recipes and handy tips with friends and family. They were both in the beginning stages of their own slimming journeys, and they wanted to be able to enjoy lower-calorie meals every day without compromising on their favourite flavours.
After sharing slimming-friendly versions of their favourite breakfasts, dinners and desserts online, others on their own slimming journey began to take notice (the Pinch of Nom Instagram gained 8000 followers in less than 2 months!).
Our Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries were one of the first recipes on the site; their cheesecake-inspired filling will curb your sweet cravings in under 10 minutes, for only 107 calories per serving.
Nine big cookbooks (including our latest addition to the collection, Pinch of Nom: All in One!), four food planners and a number of record-breaking years later, Pinch of Nom hasn’t stopped putting a slimming-friendly twist on the food you know and love.
We publish brand-new recipes to our website every single week. You can sign up to receive recipe updates straight to your inbox by updating your website account preferences (creating a website account is easy and free – you can log in here!).
Pinch of Nom Cookbooks
- Pinch of Nom: 100 Slimming Home-style Recipes
- Pinch of Nom: Everyday Light
- Pinch of Nom: Quick and Easy
- Pinch of Nom: Comfort Food
- Pinch of Nom: Enjoy
- Pinch of Nom: Budget
- Pinch of Nom: Express
- Pinch of Nom: Air Fryer
- Pinch of Nom: All in One
What can I expect from Pinch of Nom recipes?
Pinch of Nom recipes never taste like you’re eating fewer calories, and that’s what makes us extra special. Take our Crispy Chilli Beef as a prime example. This one’s always been hugely popular with our community, and it’s easy to understand why.
While it looks, tastes and feels like you’re enjoying a takeaway at home, our version is only 349 calories per serving.
Whether you’ve got your nose in one of our cookbooks or you’re scrolling through the site, you’ll find that our ‘Fakeaways’ section is chock-full of takeaway-inspired meals that won’t take you off track.
It’s always been our mission to make eating well and following your slimming goals as faff-free as possible, so we’ve divided all of our recipes into calorie-based categories:
- Everyday Light (400 calories or less, for your midweek menu)
- Weekly Indulgence (401-500 calories, for once or twice a week)
- Special Occasion (500 calories or more, for when you’re celebrating)
If you’re preparing food for particular dietary requirements, we’ve got plenty of vegan (VG), vegetarian (V), dairy-free (DF) and gluten-free (GF) dishes to choose from (our website is searchable by dietary requirement, so you can find the dish you’re looking for with ease!).
If you’re not sure how suitable a recipe is, keep an eye out for colour-coded badges in our cookbooks and on website recipes to help you judge at a glance. Many of our recipes, like these Chilli Cheesy Nachos, are adaptable; to make this indulgent-tasting sharer gluten-free, simply swap out the beef stock cube for a gluten-free alternative.
When you’re cooking for people with allergies, please be extra careful when checking ingredients and preparing food.
Join the Facebook group
If you’re not already a member of our Facebook group, we’d definitely recommend joining. It’s always easier to set and stick to goals with a support network, and we have almost 1 million members ready and waiting to help you on your slimming journey.
If you don’t feel like posting about yourself, you can be an active contributor by commenting on others’ posts with some words of encouragement, or even just by leaving a ‘like’ or ‘love’. It might seem small, but it can make all the difference to someone else’s day!
From confident chefs to brave beginners, we encourage everyone to ask questions and share their recipe photos if they’re happy to. Not only does sharing recipe photos contribute to the whole group’s motivation, it also allows us to see your feedback on our recipes directly – there’s really no need to be shy!
In fact, without questions in the group about adjusting our Dirty Rice recipe for beef mince, our Cajun-Style Dirty Rice might never have happened.
If our wonderful community doesn’t get to your question first, the Pinch of Nom team will try to respond as quickly as they can. If you would prefer to ask a question to our recipe team directly, you can email them at [email protected].
To help you with joining our Facebook group, you’ll find our guide on how to get the most out of being a member here.
Sign up to the website and set your email preferences
Creating a Pinch of Nom website account is really quick and simple – you can register here. As part of the process we’ll ask which of our cookbooks you already have, as well as a couple of questions about your goals and dietary preferences. We like to make sure your experience with our website is the best it can be, and we don’t want to show you anything you’re not interested in.
Updating your preferences so that you’re on our email list is never a bad idea. As well as being the first to hear all about our latest cookbook news, you’ll also be one of the first to find out about our newest recipe creations. Imagine midweek wonders like our Somerset Pork landing in your inbox…
Having a FREE (yes, free!) Pinch of Nom website account means that you can set and track your slimming goals with our weight loss tracker. Celebrating wins, big or small, is important for staying on track; we love seeing Facebook group members download and share their certificates with the community, to keep everyone updated on their progress (and receive well-deserved congratulations!).
When you’re logged in, you’ll be able to save and organise your favourite website recipes in custom folders. Our step-by-step guide on how to do it is here.
Start meal planning
Our first-ever official Pinch of Nom Calendar is the ultimate meal planning kitchen companion! It’s been a long time coming; so many of you in our amazing community have been asking for a calendar over the years, and we’re buzzing that it’s finally here.
Inside, you’ll find 12 hand-picked, slimming-friendly dishes, bringing you the Nom flavours you know and love, season by season.
We’ve also made sure there’s plenty of room to stay organised. With large monthly date panels, you’ve got all the space you need to jot down notes, plan meals, and keep track of birthdays and appointments.
You can grab your copy on Amazon or directly from Danilo’s website – just tap the image below!
Grab our Pinch of Nom x Flava It! Recipe Mixes
We’re so excited to tell you all about our brand-new range of Flava It! x Pinch of Nom Recipe Mixes. Pinch of Nom started with one idea in mind: to make slimming-friendly mealtimes easier.
There’s no doubt that these flavour-loaded sachets are a delicious, fuss-free way to put healthier, midweek meals and fakeaways on the table.
Grab individual sachets from Tesco by clicking the links below to some of our fan-favourites:
- PON x Flava It! Creamy Garlic Chicken
- PON x Flava It! Campfire Stew
- PON x Flava It! Mediterranean-Style Traybake
Or, you choose between two of our collection boxes on Amazon: Pinch of Nom Fan Favourites and Pinch of Nom Fakeaway Favourites.
Share your photos in our PON Gallery
When you’re signed up for a free website account, you can start sharing your photos with us in our PON Gallery (and we might even send you some PON SWAG to say thank you!). It’s the perfect place to go when you’re short of inspiration, or if you’re curious to know what everyone else is cooking up.
Thank you again to Vicky Galvin for sending us this gorgeous photo of our Cinnamon Breakfast Buns from Pinch of Nom: Air Fryer. We never get bored of seeing photos of your golden, glaze-topped batches!
The same goes for mouthwatering pictures of our hugely popular Bolognese and Garlic Swirl Pie. Just last week, we ran out to grab the ingredients because Karen Gibson’s photo gave us a serious craving!
“Everyone loved this! You don’t need a side dish as it’s deceptively filling.” – thank you for sharing, Karen.
Follow Pinch of Nom on Instagram and TikTok!
If you’re hungry for even more Nom, you can follow us on our Instagram and TikTok pages too – they’re all updated daily with slimming-friendly recipe inspiration, including videos and reels to give you a closer look. We don’t always post the same things on every social channel, so if you want to dive right into the deep end of all things Nom, it’s best to follow us everywhere!
You can find out more about Pinch of Nom on TikTok here, plus everything you need to know about our Instagram page is right here for you!
View this post on Instagram
Come and say hello!
We’re so excited for you to start cooking with us, whether you’re on a slimming journey, or learning to try cooking new, easy, delicious recipes!
With our cookbooks and website tools at your fingertips, cooking food you love that suits your schedule doesn’t have to be a chore. We can’t wait to see you over in our Facebook group. Don’t forget that we have almost 1 million members waiting to meet you and support you on your slimming journey.
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