Autumn comfort and joy!

Here's the thing – a meal should be a pleasure – it should make you happy – all the more so when the weather changes into Autumn - there's nothing more welcoming than “a comfort blanket” aka a slow cooker full of whatever takes your fancy.

The trouble is we live our lives at warp speed – constantly chasing our tails, juggling balls, whatever the description they mean the same. There are not enough hours in a day and it's so easy to resort to the ding of the microwave and a processed meal or rely on takeaways.

We don't have the time to cook from scratch every day and even if we did I'm not sure we would.

I've had a lot of practice planning meals. Three hours a day commuting to London every day before the advent of home delivery shopping taught me that life was too short to wing it. I planned weekly meals on the train and then made my shopping list. The earlier I made my weekly plan the better – it gave me an opportunity to check my store cupboard for the bits and pieces I'd forget about – you know seasoning, stock pots, condiments blah, blah. I gained valuable weekend time, was definitely less stressed and saved dosh too!

If you've been kind enough to follow my blog for a while you'll know that my mantra has always been to save yourself time, money and stress. If you're in the kitchen then make the best use of the time – what I call the “whilst I'm at it, I might as well” principle.

Here's what I mean :

If you have turned on the oven, fill it.

Bake half a dozen jacket potatoes – they don't take up too much space if, for example, you're cooking a roast. Prick them and wrap in foil – bake for an hour – check – depending on the size they make take a little longer. Set them aside to cool and then bag and fridge.

If you are cooking a roast, get into the habit of prepping extra veggies – you won't be sorry. Bag your extra roast potatoes and parsnips, carrots et al when cooled and fridge.

Slow cook a whole chicken – it takes 10 minutes at the most to place the chicken in the cooker and then spread with garlic and a stock pot (mixed to a paste) then sprinkle with oregano.

If you have sufficient space in your oven you could use a roasting bag until you

buy your slow cooker!

Grate mature cheddar cheese - bag, box and fridge. Grate Parmesan too – bag, box and fridge.

Start thinking about cooking more than you'll use so that you create your own home cooked ready meals to freeze, so, when you're suffering from the revolving door syndrome, it's easy peasy – it's in the freezer.

I have a plan!