Fast food for the working week … do you cook a Sunday roast?

My ethos has always been the same – since time is such a precious commodity I like to make the most of it. If I'm in the kitchen cooking a Sunday roast then I multi-task, I fill the oven, use my slow cooker - the net result is that I have part prepped and cooked my suppers for the following week.

The best way to illustrate what I'm going on about is to describe the last few days. Last weekend I'd taken advantage of a meal deal which included a chicken, ready to roast in its tray and bag. Whilst the oven was on I added 6 large jacket potatoes to bake. I also grated a bag of cheese and fridged. I marinated and baked the Asian Spiced Salmon.

Sunday evening supper, a roast chicken with trimmings – remembering of course to allow for deliberate leftover veggies. I fridged the remains of the chicken, cooled and covered of course!

Monday evening supper … no huge surprise, fast and meat free – a baked jacket potato, a sprinkle of grated cheese and baked beans. Nothing amazing I grant you but it took the time to split the potato and microwave, followed by the beans. Delicious and nutritious.

Tuesday evening supper … the Squeak – leftover potatoes and sprouts from the roast, diced chorizo and topped with a poached egg.

Wednesday evening supper. You might think what follows is completely random but bear with me. My friend's husband has been very ill in hospital but thankfully is now back home recovering after heart surgery – phew! What sort of “get well” gift do you take – a meal, for them both. The meal needed to be “one pot” and easy. It's my personal experience that the “carer” needs the support too not just the patient so an evening not having to think about food might help.

I need to consider all sorts of stuff – not too rich but plenty of flavour, nothing heavy duty like pastry - it's difficult to digest – no red meat again due to personal experience even patients who normally enjoy red meat find it too much. I need to appeal to the taste buds!

Time for a rummage – firstly the fridge - I had a 250g punnet of chestnut mushrooms as well as a pot of double cream – a good start. I check the freezer, I'm after stock and my rummage is rewarded, a bag of anise flavoured stock always taken from slow cooking a whole chicken. It's liquid gold and perfect for my morphing supper dish.

Read on for what happened next and photos too!