Battle on to find Scotland's healthy highlights

Quality Meat Scotland is sponsoring the Great Food Celebration cook-off, which takes place on Monday 27 April in the Metropolitan College's Scholars Restaurant and will see a panel of experts judging the winning meal in categories such as Best Budget Meal, Family Favourite and Member's Own.

Scottish Slimmers' members were earlier in the year asked to nominate their favourite beef, lamb and pork recipes from the Positive Eating Plan (PEP) or any of the other of the club's recipe books, they were also challenged to come up with their own recipe that met the PEP guidelines.

The dishes voted most popular will be cooked and judged by representatives of QMS, Asda, Scottish Slimmers and the Scottish Farmer. The shortlisted meals are:

Best Budget Meal – Spaghetti Bolognaise, Beef Stroganoff and Cottage Pie

Family Favourites – Spiced lamb with cous cous, Pork with creamy bacon and mushroom sauce and Scrunch top steak pie.

Member's Own – Pork with honey, soy and ginger, Spicy lamb meatballs and Yummy plummy pork

Jennifer Robertson, registered dietitian and QMS health and education coordinator, who is on the judging panel said: “One of the main aims of QMS is to help people understand how to enjoy Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork as part of a healthy, balanced diet.

“Ensuring your whole family eat healthier is even easier when you can choose from a wide variety of tasty, family favourites such as meatballs, bolognaise, lasagne and cottage pie. All these delicious meals can be made ahead and frozen until you need them, perfect for when you're on the go!”

Quality Meat Scotland has produced a series of simple, healthy and economical meals for the whole family that will get your year off to a healthy start, for more information about these, visit the recipes and downloads section of www.feelgoodaboutmeat.co.uk

Further information from: Louise Welsh, Director of Communications, Quality Meat Scotland. Tel: 0131 472 4112. Mob: 07739 900653.

The QMS website is at www.qmscotland.co.uk