As much as I love to cook making the decision on what to eat each night can be a real pain. Added to the fact that, like many of us, I'm trying to make sure I eat a more healthy diet meant I jumped at the chance to review the new Nintendo DS game 'My Cooking Coach'. With the blurb telling me it would ‘improve my culinary skills and find out how to cook healthily with my very own cooking coach’ not only would the decision of what to cook be taken out of my hands but I would be a better cook at the end of it too, win win surely?

First things first …..create a profile. It seems that anything you do these days requires a profile and I can almost do this in my sleep, give myself a name,,,, check, age…. check, nothing too difficult there. Next I have to tell the little DS how much time I have available, how many calories I do or don’t watch, my experience level of cooking (no question there!) and, most important of all in today’s climate, how much budget I have for food. With that done it’s onto choosing foods I don't like so they're excluded from my menu choices, good idea. I worked my way through the screens removing things such as lamb (the other half’s most hated food), olives and a couple of other pet hates.

Then do the same but for foods I like. Now surely this could have been done at the same time as the ones you dislike, especially as you go through the same screen a second time. But it’s a minor gripe and it is a good idea to be able to tailor the menu to suit dietary/personal needs and likes/dislikes. I was asked to make a note of the cooking equipment I own and what units I prefer to use. Being an old fashioned girl it had to be imperial and good old pounds and ounces etc. Finally it asks how many people I normally cook for and surprisingly it doesn’t give the single person option so its time to invite friends for dinner or find a partner for you single people!

So now all the information is set I was excited to see what happens next and to be quite honest I was expecting a little more than I got. My daily suggestion turned out to be grilled steak…. This is, of course, a lovely meal but something I could have thought of by myself and, in my opinion, not worthy of the time and effort I put into creating a profile. I am also not convinced that it closely watches what info you have provided as when I scrolled through some of the other recipe choices I found it was going over my time and budget constraints. Again this is not the end of the world but it could be a bit frustrating if you are sticking to a strict regime.

After this disappointment I found myself asking whether I would buy this and the honest answer, being a more accomplished cook, is no. However, bearing in mind that the title is ‘My Cooking Coach’, I would buy this for someone who had little experience or was beginning to learn how to cook.

There are over 200 recipes to try, this will be lowered by dislikes and time etc, so all in all it’s like having a digital book without having to take the time to read through whether the recipe is suitable for you. The other plus side is that you can take it shopping with you to buy the ingredients you need so there is no need to write a separate list unless you need more loo rolls!

My Cooking Coach has an RRP of £19.99, and is available online from Amazon and at the usual retailers