The Sunday roast: A quick fix meal

Young couple Rachel and Rob Upton enjoy a Sunday dinner, and are happy to buy it ready made on the shelves of their local supermarket.

The ready prepared and freezable ingredients fit in with their lifestyle and mean that they don’t have to worry about finding time on the day to make a trip to the supermarket.

“I don’t think that cooking a Sunday roast should lead to any stress or inconvenience. It is a meal that should be enjoyed. There are enough things to worry about without getting stressed over cooking a Sunday dinner as well.”

Rob DJs at a club until four in the morning on a Sunday, so an early start for slow-roasting the meat is out of the question. Rachel says,

“If I had to spend all day doing it I would want Rob to help, which I know he wouldn’t because he is so tired…we would probably end up having an argument about it. Sunday’s are our only day off together, its not worth ruining for the sake of saying we made the meal from scratch!”

The Ingredients


•Birds Eye Traditional Beef with Homestyle Gravy
• Aunt Bessies 12 Irresistable Yorkshires
•Aunt Bessies Honey glazed roast parsnips
•Aunt Bessies Delicious Sage & Onion Stuffing Balls
•Aunt Bessies finest roast potatoes•
Freshlink Sausage and Bacon Rolls
•Sainsbury’s cauliflower cheese
•Sainsbury’s
prepared vegetables
• Bisto instant gravy

The Schedule


12.20: The oven is switched on to heat up while Rachel prepares all the elements of the meal – taking them from packets to baking trays.

12.30: The Parnsips, potatoes, stuffing, sausage and bacon rolls and cauliflower cheese are put out into the oven for 25-30 minutes at 190 degrees.

12.47: Rachel pops back to the kitchen to boil the water for the bags of beef.

12.53: The microwave is set for seven minutes to cook the bag of vegetables and the instant gravy is made.

1.03: Just over 40 minutes after the oven was first turned on, dinner is served. Rachel and Rob settle on to the sofa, dinner on their lap, to watch Formula One.

1.30: Plates and cutlery into the dishwasher,the clear up is done before the kettle is boiled for a cup of tea.

Read part two of the feature ‘A family feast’ here

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