In a drive to eat more real food and fewer ready meals, I usually batch cook on Sunday afternoons. I'll make enough casserole, soup, stew, whatever, for a family of four, then freeze three portions. Over the course of a few weeks, that means I'll build up a variety of home-cooked meals in the freezer which I can take out in the morning to defrost, then zap in the microwave when I come home from work.
I also use the microwave to heat up Saturday night curries and such like, bake potatoes when I haven't got the time to wait for them in the oven, and cook some vegetables.
Otherwise, I fry, grill, casserole, toast, boil, mash, chop, peel, grate, um... etc.
I consider myself a pretty competent cook who doesn't cook as often as she'd like to. I used to bake a lot when I was a teenager, but these days, it's a once or twice a year thing - partly because my new oven is terrible and not worth the vast quantity of money I spent on it.
Yvonne
