As all those following the Slimming World diet plan will know, finding new recipes to negotiate your way through the rules while sticking to plan is all part of the fun.
The popular slimming club uses a "food optimising" technique, where different foods fall into different categories.
There are "free" foods like most fruit, vegetables, meats, fish and even things like pasta, rice and potato that you can eat without needing to weigh or measure - while treat foods like cakes and biscuits have a "Syn" value.
READ MORE: I ate Slimming World Iceland frozen meals for the week and this is what happened
And then, each day, you get to choose two portions of measured "Healthy Extra A" (HEA) for calcium - like milk or cheese, and one portion of "Healthy Extra B" (HEB) for fibre, like cereals, oats, wholemeal bread or wraps.
No one seems to know exactly how it works that you can eat quite so much food and still lose weight (well, aside from the founder of Slimming World I suppose) - but genuinely it does work, for a heck of a lot of people out there.
It still doesn't stop people moaning that it can't be healthy as it doesn't encourage portion control.
But hey, all I know is it's the only diet plan I've been on that's helped me shift four and a half stone in a year - and actually kept it (mostly) off for another year.
So, with that in mind, here's my ponderings on the foods and recipes that you only seem to know about when you sign up to Slimming World.
And, just like everyone else at Slimming World, I love discovering new recipes and low-Syn treats, so do share your favourites in the comments section below or on our Facebook page.
Discovering Quark
It's a truth universally accepted that no human has EVER encountered the substance called Quark until you become a paid-up member of Slimming World.
It's a "fat free soft cheese", but in Slimming World terms, it's a food of the gods. Because it's Syn-free, and if you play around with enough other low-syn substances (like those hot chocolate Options sachets) you can make it sort of taste like cheesecake or mousse.
And making things taste like dessert is one of the main goals of life while on Slimming World.
But one of the great mysteries of Quark is this - when you're on plan it's the greatest thing you'll ever eat, you'll say "Oo why would I ever eat normal cheesecake again now I've got this".
When you're off plan, it could be the last remaining food in your fridge and you'd still give it a swerve. Bonkers.
Using oats to make "cake"
Grinding up oats to make cake? Yep, this is one of the magical things you learn at Slimming World.
And as it's a way of making your HEB transform into a treat that you want, we all give it a go.
In my years of sitting at Slimming World group sessions, one of the most oft-asked questions is "does anyone know a low-syn cake recipe that actually tastes like cake?"
Well, this is it.
Amazingly, the humble porridge oat can take on a whole new lease of life if you mix it up with eggs, sweetener, yoghurt and a dash of baking powder. Stick it in the oven and within 10 minutes you've got an actual spongy CAKE like substance.
Infinitely better if you use 4.5 of your Syn allowance by slathering it with Lotus Biscoff spread, or plonking a singular chocolate orange segment on top (4 syns), in my experience.
In more good news, grinding up oats is also another low-Syn way of making pancakes too - same sort of batter as the cake mix, but stick it in the pan rather than the oven.
Diet Coke chicken
Who knew a can of Diet Coke had magical powers to make the tastiest chicken dish EVER?
This recipe is almost a rite of passage for Slimming World members, and involves adding a whole load of "speed" vegetables like peppers, onions and beans to a pan, simmering it in Diet Coke and other assorted "free" store cupboard staples like soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and tomato puree.
It seems like a lot of effort until you eat it, and then pow, you won't want to eat chicken in any other way again.
Using all known substances known to man to make "pizza"
You will get very excited when you learn that other HEB options might help to feed your pizza addiction without the prospect of using up something like 25 Syns on one slice of fast food chain pizza. (Side note: NEVER try to work out the full Syn value of an entire Domino's pizza as this will make you weep).
Who knew tortilla wraps could actually make an OK sort of substitute for a thin, albeit crispy pizza base? Close your eyes and you're almost in Naples.
Or even a butterflied Pitta bread pizza base?
Some people even swear they can use chicken breasts to make a form of pizza base but I firmly believe these people clearly have too much time on their hands.
The Greggs steak bake fake
There are lots of attempts at "fakeaways" by Slimming World members, but none quite so satisfying as the Syn-free steak bake fake.
Get one of your HEB wraps (WW are my particular favourite), slap a tin of Syn-free stewing steak on half of it, flip the other half over and stick down with a bit of egg and pop into the oven for 15 minutes or so and boom, steak-bake-esque heaven.
The M&S tins of chunky steak in gravy (Syn-free!) are the best for this in my humble opinion, although they are rather pricey and always seem to be sold out at the moment, which makes me think the whole of Slimming World has cottoned on to this particular recipe.
Hi-Fi bars
The appeal of the Hi Fi bar is this - they offer a bit of a sweet/vague slither of chocolate hit and you can have TWO of these bad boys as your HEB for the day.
Until fairly recently you could only get these little bars of goodness from your Slimming World group, or from the company website direct.
So imagine the scenes when lockdown hit. While the rest of the nation were stockpiling loo rolls and tins of baked beans, Slimming World members across the country were panic bulk-buying six-packs of Hi Fi Fruit and Nut and Choc Orange at will.
I think the poor Slimming World website near crashed with the volume of people trying to order them. I pity the poor SW consultants who no doubt used up every day's "daily exercise" by going door-to-door delivering emergency packs of the things to desperate members.
Thankfully, they now seem to be in plentiful supply and you can even get them down Iceland where you can bulk buy to your heart's content.
Overnight Weetabix
A relative newcomer to the Slimming World vocabulary, thanks to someone on Instagram (probably) discovering that soaking Weetabix overnight with a load of yoghurt or vanilla Kvarg on top sort of tastes a bit like cheesecake.
And lo, now every Slimming World influencer is having a crack at it.
I'm yet to try this one, but naturally it's on the top of my list of things to create, photograph and share at will on social media come the weekend.
Especially now the SW official account shared the above video this weekend as well.
Overnight oats
On a similar theme, oats can apparently be very tasty as a substantial breakfast if you soak them overnight in a jar layered up with frozen fruit and yoghurt.
I have not once made this taste in any way yummy or desirable, but there are members who swear by it.
Putting "speed" with everything
"Speed" is the name given to the foods on the plan that are not merely free, they're somehow super-powered, and yes, everyone has a titter about the word when they first join.
But by adding more of these special "speed" foods like broccoli and kale on your plate they will apparently boost your weight loss. Presumably by speedily making their way in and out of your system.
If you've ever had one of those annoying weeks where you think you've stuck religiously to plan and STILL haven't lost weight, you can bet your bottom dollar you will be quizzed about your speed consumption for the week.
And then mentally prepare to add a much bigger green salad to your massive pile of lasagne in the week ahead.
There's also a thing called "SP days" (where you just eat "Speed" and "Protein" foods to super-power your weight loss) but I swear very few members of Slimming World actually know how these are supposed to work.
As whenever people are asked for their "favourite SP recipe" in group they say things like "stir fry noodles".
Grape nuts
You'll one day hear the words "Grape Nuts" and wonder how you've made it this far through life without knowing they're a thing.
Grinding these bad boys up is the closest thing you'll get to a cheesecake base, and handily count as one of your HEB options for the day.
Just imagine the excitement when you get to marry up Grape Nuts with quark and realise you've almost gone and got yourself a full on Syn-free cheesecake.
Contrary to their name, they're not actually that fiddly bit from inside a grape, although for some time I truly believed they were.
Living in fear of them changing the Syn values
It was a dark day in Slimming World groups up and down the country when certain well known brands of low-fat yoghurts transformed from being your go-to "free" treat to having a Syn value. A dark day indeed.
Probably for the best though, as clearly scoffing about eight Muller Lights a day to stave off hunger is not a sustainable (or affordable) way to live at all.
That Syn change sticks long in the memory though, and I think most members live in fear of the day something currently "free" gets a Syn attached to it.
Most recently it happened with Mug Shots and there were near riots in church halls up and down the country when that one was announced.
Getting very excited when Syn-foods become free
The reverse of that, of course, is that sometimes very exciting things happen - and foods that previously had a "Syn" value, become magically "free".
It's just happened in groups in the past few months with the exciting news that FRESH pasta is now free as well as the dried stuff.
Carb-lovers everywhere rejoiced.
Trying to make the creamy bit of Lasagne
One of the great joys of Slimming World is being able to still eat all the pasta dishes you love - just with the odd tweak here and there. You can make wonderful spaghetti bolognese and carbonara without even noticing it's Syn-free for example.
But lasagne is a little trickier to nail - thanks to the "non-diet" version having all that lovely oozing creamy bechamel topping with crispy cheese on top.
Now, we can all save up our HEA cheese portion for the sprinkling on top, but how to replicate that bechamel without using up too many Syns? It's a toughie.
However, the new Slimming World Iceland ready meal version seems to have cracked it - by mixing up butternut squash with that old favourite Quark. And there's even a bit of speed in there too.
Wine stock cubes
All wine, and indeed all alcohol, has a Syn value on Slimming World.
But wine STOCK CUBES don't.
So you add them to any old stew or casserole and dream that you're actually drinking a glass of full-bodied Merlot, when you're really, really not.
Trust me when I say they make everything taste better though (in particular the Tesco-own brand ones which are my fave).
Also trust me when I say making them into a pot of stock and cooling said stock down to see if it actually tastes like wine is not a good idea. At all.
The fruit and veg paradox
You'll learn that smooshing up a load of vegetables to make soup is OK - but don't even think about blitzing up some fruit as a smoothie.
Because mashing up fruit with other stuff makes them not "free" anymore. You naughty naughty fruit.
It's all to do with not loading up too many sugars/calories I think, but it does make you go a bit "aww come on that's not fair" when you first find out this rule.
Adding spice to everything
Variety is the spice of life? Erm no, spice is the spice of life when you're on Slimming World.
You never knew how much of a friend cumin, cajun and chilli flakes could be until you realise they're Syn-free and make a watery based dish taste absolutely great.
Get the latest What's On news - from food and drink to music and nightlife - straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter.
