by Paul Knight

Created on: October 30, 2008   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

I know what your thinking is it really worth spending a large part of your Sunday cooking six or seven meals to freeze just so you can spend the rest of the week merely switching on the oven and shoving it back in to save some time? Well as a father of two with a full time job I can tell you yes it is. The joy of coming home to those pre-prepared meals that you just pop in the oven so you can spend the extra time helping with homework and getting the kids showered and changed is invaluable leaving you even more time for household chores so that when you do get to the next weekend you have little or nothing to do but relax.

However, I will not kid you that it is easy there are a few tools in my arsenal that I have found to be totally necessary, the first being a really good basic cook book that outlines the classics, my own one is in fact from the seventies I bought it for 1 at a local car boot sale but it does contain all the classics plus basic pastry (It's acceptable to freeze pastry) and baking recipes. The second of my secrets is a well stocked spice and herb rack, if like us you are on a budget and the kids have to eat chicken all week at least you can present it with a variety of flavours and influences from around the world. Finally and this may seem strange a pencil with eraser, "what!" I hear you cry, well with this piece of kit you can easily draw smiley or sad faces next to your recipes to let you know how they are received by your family or like me take a tally of how often you cook them so you know if you are starting to bore the kids ridged with the same old stuff week in week out.

Now you have all the equipment you need to be totally clear on what you wish to make before you go shopping that way not only will you buy things that marry well together you will also spend less. Firstly write out your meals and then simply list the ingredients you need for all of them it couldn't be simpler. I also discovered (and this is a shamefully lazy thing to admit) that supermarkets sell foil trays with lids in various sizes just like the ones you get from take away restaurants they go from freezer, to oven and then the bin and save on that horrid washing up. Lastly before I start to bore you a request please, please get the kids involved it makes the whole thing more fun and gets them excited about dinner time and trying the dishes new and old favourites the following week.

Bon apptit!

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