Good food for busy parents

Quick main meals
Concentrate on quick to prepare recipes. In virtually the same time it takes to heat a ready-meal in the microwave you could:

• Stir-fry some vegetables and prawns and toss in cooked rice.
• Make a three-bean salad using canned beans and vinaigrette and stuff it into a wholemeal pita pocket.
• Grill some chicken with rosemary, lemon and olive oil and serve with steamed green beans and a tomato salad.
• Cook some pasta, such as freshly made tortelloni or ravioli and serve with tomato sauce and vegetable sticks.
• Steam some couscous. Fry some onions until translucent, add frozen peas, frozen spinach and chopped red pepper and cook until the pepper is tender. Add flaked smoked fish, toss together with the couscous, warm through and serve.
• Barbecue or grill fresh sardines and serve with salad and a hunk of bread to mop up the juices.
• Make an omelette bursting with cooked vegetables and flavoured with Parmesan.
• Make bangers and mash, but boost the nutritional quality by using at least 85 per cent meat sausages, and mash swede or parsnip with the potato and serve with peas and carrots (frozen is fine).
• Make some tiny falafel (from a packet mix) and serve with a yoghurt and cucumber dip and char-grilled pita bread fingers.
• Make an instant meal from fridge and store-cupboard standbys - cold meats, seafood salad, anchovies, tuna, olives, artichoke hearts, pickles, cold bean salad, carrot sticks and tabouli.