Cook double

There is a line of Bear's that annoys people when they first hear it. Nobody eats well by accident.

It means that willpower has almost nothing to do with it. The person eating well on a Wednesday night is not more disciplined than you. They cooked on Sunday. There was something in the fridge when they got home tired, so the takeaway never came up. The whole game is played in the kitchen on the days you have time, and the weeknights just collect the winnings.

Our two habits for this are simple. First, cook double. Whatever you are making, make twice as much and put half in the fridge or the freezer. It costs almost no extra time and it means there is always a real meal that only needs heating. Second, the Sunday roast, whatever you can afford it to be, followed by the bones going straight into a pot with water and an onion for stock. The stock goes into everything for the week and the roast feeds two days.

This is cooking as logistics rather than as a hobby. It is also why the recipe page on our site is ordinary food and nothing fancy. The scoop goes into the thing you were making anyway.