If serving flat, pizza-style you can now add this to a baking tray and place in oven for 5-8 minutes, until the top is hot and cooked grams of dried pasta 1 onion finely chopped 2 ends of bread - toasted 100g of cheese - grated ¾ jar ( 500g jar) of pasta sauce Once your pasta is cooked, drain and add to the sauce, stir until the sauce coats the pasta then and pour all the coated pasta into an oven proof dish You also won't waste food or money. If you go shopping at the start of the week, those sell-by dates will quite often have come up mid-week. But if you cook everything into portions for your fridge and freezer, you'll get to Friday and realise you've still got two meals left. What is The Batch Lady Planner? The Batch Lady Planner is a shopping guide based on all the questions I constantly get asked from people who follow me. How to work out what to buy in the shop, how do you work out what you've already got in your house.

If eating later, simply add the cold sweetcorn to the top, allow to cool, place in fridge and when ready to eat. Heat in over at 180 for 20 minutes, stirring ½ way through.

Multibuys

Start small. Focus on meals you like to eat on a regular basis. If you like fajitas and you've got a quiet night, double the recipe - one for your fridge, one for your freezer. When life starts to get busy again, you're covered. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and breadcrumbs and cook in a pre-heated oven for 10 minutes at 180oC until the top is golden brown If you are making spaghetti bolognaise, you will need chopped onions, mince and grated carrots. You also need those ingredients to make, burgers, meatballs, chilli, fajitas and lasagne: one large pot of veg and mince will serve as a base for six different dishes. You will have a few leftovers from your shopping list (you may have even more if you're only serving two children). These can either be frozen and can be used the next week, or if you have teenage children you may wish to use these to bulk out the lunches above. Wednesday: Macaroni cheese with sweetcorn crunchy top, served with a satsuma, biscuit and glass of juice

Making in advance and eating later? Simply make up until the final instruction above but do not put it in the oven for the 10 minutes, instead allow to cool, then cover and place in fridge until needed. Such an easy lunch, but who doesn’t love a bagel! This is a great on the go lunch for summer, simply serve it with fruit, a treat and a drink of juice to make a full child-friendly lunch. Next use a little oil and heat the onion in a pan until soft, add the ¾ jar of sauce to this pan and allow to heat for 3-4 minutes While the pasta is cooking you can now chop the onion, grate the cheese, toast your bread in a toaster and grate the toast so it becomes breadcrumbs

Creative Play

Each recipe also has all the information you need on how to freeze, store, defrost and reheat your fabulous dinners. If you’re going to make one meal, simply double the ingredients to make another. It will only take about 3 extra minutes!