Choose recipes that work for your week

Start with the constraints, not a photograph

Mark the evenings when cooking time is short, when someone else will eat with you and when leftovers would be useful. Decide the number of portions before comparing recipes. If a recipe serves four but you need two, scale every ingredient consistently; think separately about how many whole packs you may need to buy. A 200 g requirement does not mean a shop sells exactly 200 g.

Read ingredients in their UK context

Look for grams, millilitres and oven temperatures in Celsius. Check whether an ingredient is raw or cooked, drained or undrained, and whether a tin size is specified. “One onion” is less exact than a weight, so note where quantity matters. If an imported recipe names a product you cannot find, choose a substitution by cooking role and flavour, then check any change to allergens or cooking time.

Seasonal availability, supermarket ranges and pack sizes vary. Build a list from the chosen recipe’s actual ingredients rather than assuming that a similarly named shop product is identical.

Build a repeatable menu

1. Pick a small set of dinners with different preparation times.
2. Reuse perishable ingredients while they are still suitable to eat.
3. Check what is already in the fridge, freezer and cupboard.
4. Combine like ingredients on one list and check pack size against the required amount.

Keep the menu flexible: if one item is unavailable, change the dish or substitution before you buy the rest of its ingredients. Food safety and storage instructions on the product take priority over a generic plan.