If you are busy and short on time when it comes to cooking the evening meal then you have to either cook quickly (stir fry, pasta, risottos, noodles), cook long and slow (stews and casseroles) or cook in advance and bulk store meals in the freezer (pies, Bolognese, lasagne, curries).

Whichever is you preferred route the key is being prepared with ingredients and planning ahead for at least that day's evening meal.

If you are happy to cook on the spur of the moment then make sure your cupboards are well stocked with dry goods that are quick and easy to prepare such as noodles, rice, pasta, pulses and cous cous. They all cook in a relatively short time; they will keep for ages and are dirt cheap. If you want to cook fast meat then make sure you have meat that can be cooked quickly, safely. The last thing you want to do is give your family and yourself a dose of food poisoning. You could of course always consider a vegetarian protein alternative and cook tofu, soy or cheese. In fact a grain and a pulse eaten together constitute a complete vegetable protein and I assure you are every bit as filling as a lump of meat.

If you are going to cook long and slow then make sure you either have a slow cooker so you can cook really slowly marinate cheap cuts of meat diced finely for at least twenty four hours to tenderise them. If you do this then you can treat them like a stir fry but give the meat a good twenty minutes cooking time. This gives the flavours a chance to get involved in the meal.

If you have managed to put a day to one side for bulk cooking then hopefully your freezer will be stuffed with all sorts of yummy things. The advantage of bulk cooking is that if your supermarket, butcher or fishmonger has a special offer then take advantage of it and buy as much as you can afford then have a baking day. There is no reason why you shouldn't make vast amounts of curries or meat sauces or pies or whatever you want then bag it all up into convenient portions and bung it all in the freezer.

Above all treat your meals with your family as the best time of the day, get to know each other over a bowl of mashed potato, or share a joke with a sausage.

Learn more about this author, Ian Pauley.
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