LifeStyle

You do not have to go by the book to create tasty, easy, sociable food. Easy meal preparation is all about stripping cooking down to its bare essentials using little techniques and conveniences to make the most of your recipes. It is so simple Skip the fuss and follow your heart.

Here are some tips to take the stress out of cooking, whether you are stirring up supper for your mate or hoping to impress the new in laws

Dinners in a Bag

Make these dinner bags involving glorious aluminum foil and write on them,

25 minutes at 425 F, for example, with a marker pen. Even though Jools didn t like cooking, she never had a problem with cooking the bags. I just program the Favorites Cycle, in your  microwave . Here s just one version, but feel free to vary the recipe with things like grated parsnip, smoked bacon or red wine.

Chicken Breasts Baked in a Bag

Serves two

2 7 ounce skinless chicken breasts

1 handful of dried porcini

9 ounces of mixed mushrooms, torn up

1 large wineglass of white wine

3 large pats of butter

1 handful of fresh thyme

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

As any health conscious beverage drinker will know, rooibos tea is one of the most effective and natural teas available, with no caffeine and a wide range of health benefits to be enjoyed in every cup. Grown in South Africa, with the scientific name of Aspalathus linearis, rooibos means ‘red bush’ in the local Afrikaans dialect. This tea is known for its powerful antioxidants and health properties which are also found in regular Camellia sinensis tea plants, such as polyphenols, the antioxidants that protect against cell damage and counteract diseases such as age-related decline, cancer and heart disease. Rooibos does not contain caffeine however, which makes it even more effective as a healthy immune booster.

Additional health benefits of rooibos include far lower tannin levels compared to fully oxidized black tea or un-oxidized green tea leaves. This tea also contains a number of phenolic compounds, such as flavanols, flavones, flavanones, and dihydrochalcones. Rooibos is known to assist with a wide range of health problems, including nervous tension, allergies and digestive problems. In Africa the tea is used medicinally to treat symptoms ranging from infantile colic to allergies, asthma and dermatological problems.