I’ve been trying to balance making the most of my time off work to get ready for the weeks ahead, with resting and taking some down time. It’s a tightrope! I sat last night and tried to work out where I struggle most during a typical week and dinners are always it. When I’m frazzled, dinners are the first plate to stop spinning. Takeaways cost us a fortune last year and I’m so sick of it being such a big deal. I spent this morning batch cooking - two cottage pies, a lasagne, a bag of bolognese, roasted a chicken to have dinner later and will strip the rest of the meat for a curry for the freezer too. So six dinners all in and took about 90 mins to make. Now going to spent the rest of the day chilling, might watch a wee movie or go out for a walk. No NYE plans - anyone got anything going on?

Base meals are meals that are simple, use readily available ingredients, are repeatable, and tasty enough to be enjoyed on rotation. They can also be easy to prep, freeze, and cook so that on busy days, dinner becomes less of a chore and more automatic. The attached meal plan is based on our family's likes and dislikes. There is a mix of traybakes, roasts, carb-based dinners, flexible meals and soups/stews. On free days when I have the energy, I will batch cook several of these meals for the freezer. On busy, or low-energy days, I use something I've already made or choose from the Flexible Meals section. We don't always rigidly stick to this. We can swap meals in and out depending on seasonality, price, or personal preferences - but, having the base meny removes a lot of the thought, decision making, and effort, making dinner feel less cumbersome.