Tag: sundays

The Sunday roast: A family feast

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For the Cousans’, the Sunday roast marks the end of the weekend. A day for the family to get together and cook a traditional Sunday roast from scratch.

Their Sunday routine is long established; where they once used to go to Grandma’s for Sunday lunch, Mum has taken over the reigns and now cooks for her children and mother.The Cousans’ are conscious of healthy eating so have a lot of fresh vegetables accompanied by meat, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings.

Mum, Sarah, likes to source things locally where she can.

“On a Saturday I make a trip to the butchers and greengrocers for the veg and meat. Anything I can’t get there I pick up at the supermarket.”

A family of Northerners, the Yorkshire pudding plays a main role in their sunday roast. Son, Tom, inparticular won’t accept anything less than 100% homemade from his Grandma’s recipe. He says,

“I can tell instantly if they’re not homemade – I won’t stand for an Aunt Bessies pud!”

Dinner dominates most of the afternoon in the Cousans’ home. Sarah can do little else as the food needs constant tending to, though she is happy to do it:

“I don’t mind cooking a large meal, I enjoy seeing everyone appreciate the food.”

The Ingredients

•Roast beef from Leo the butcher
•Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts from the local grocer
•Yorkshire puddings homemade according to a family recipe
•Roast potatoes homemade from supermarket potatoes
•Gravy made from meat juices

The Schedule

11.15: Sarah turns on the oven to heat whilst she prepares the beef and peels potatoes.

11.35: The beef goes into the oven and Sarah begins preparing the veg.

11.53: Sarah makes the Yorkshire pudding mixture according to her mum’s recipe.

12.00: Sarah spends 20 minutes cleaning up the mess made by making Yorkshire puddings and preparing the vegetables.

12.30: Potatoes are put on the stove to part boil.

12.45: Potatoes are transferred to the oven to roast.

12.59: The Yorkshire pudding mixture goes into the oven and the carrots are put on to boil.

1.05: The peas and brussel sprouts are add to a pre-boiled pan of water to cook for seven minutes.

1.10: The meat is taken out of the oven and its juices are mixed with instant gravy granules.

1.14: Exactly 15 minutes after they went in, the Yorkshire puddings are cooked to the satisfaction of Tom.

1.24: With everything out of the oven and the veg cooked and drained, dinner is served. The family eat at the table.

1.59: After dinner, Sarah spends 35 minutes clearing the table and cleaning the kitchen, before retiring to the lounge with a glass of wine. Three and a half hours after dinner was started, Sarah can relax.

Read part one of this feature ‘A quick fix meal’ here

The Sunday roast: A quick fix meal

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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