Make the cooking part of the weekend, not a chore attached to it
I've stopped treating the Sunday pot as a task to get through. It goes on while I'm doing something else entirely — putting washing away, listening to something, having a long phone call in the kitchen. A heavy pan on a low heat asks almost nothing of you once it's going. By the time the light fades, the house smells like somewhere people live, and the week ahead has a floor under it.
How long will a cooked base keep in the fridge?
As a general rule, cooked beans, stews and ragùs are good for three to four days in a covered container in a properly cold fridge, and they're happiest reheated thoroughly rather than warmed through half-heartedly. If you know you won't get to the last portion, freeze it on day one rather than day three — cool it quickly, box it flat, and label it, because every unlabelled frozen tub eventually becomes a mystery nobody eats.
What should I cook first if I'm not confident in the kitchen?
Start with the roasted vegetables. There's almost nothing to go wrong: cut carrots, parsnips, onions and squash into similar-sized pieces, toss with oil and salt, and roast hot until the edges catch. From there you can make a bowl, a soup or a frittata without needing a recipe, which is exactly the kind of confidence that makes you want to cook again on Tuesday.
