As per my recent post on saving money, or at least spending less money at Pret/Eat/Pod/Itsu I’ve been making a conscious effort to take lunch into the office.

And so, for the past two Sundays I’ve been in the kitchen knocking up the delicious dhal with crispy sweet potato from A Modern Way to Eat the first book by Anna Jones (I double the amount of spinach, don’t always add the coriander and have never bothered to make the coconut chutney).

Aside from the addition of the extra spinach and sometimes leaving out the coriander I make the recipe as per the book. It’s super-easy to cook, mostly chopping and a bit of stirring. Once the dhal is in the pan and the sweet potato is in the oven you pretty much leave it alone to do its thing for 25 minutes. After dishing up lunch or dinner, I divide whatever’s left over into portions and pop in the fridge or freezer ready to take to the office. It’s easy to carry between home and work, heats up well in the microwave and is tasty and filling but doesn’t leave me feeling like I need a lie down afterwards.

So what’s the problem? Well I can’t just keep cooking the same thing every week. I mean I could, but it’s going to get boring quite soon. Obviously some research was needed ahead of next weekend.

Looking at some of my favourite websites and blogs I kept seeing yummy looking One Pot Pasta dishes pop up. The recipes sound easy, they’re heavy on the veg and (the clue is in the name) cook in one pot so less mess to clear up afterwards (just making a simple sandwich can result in chaos in my kitchen, a tidy cook I am not). I like the look of this Farmer’s Market One-Pot Pasta dish (pictured above) that I spotted on the Free People blog last week and which was created by Beth of Tasty Yummies blog. Over on The Pool they shared a recipe for Kale, Tomato And Lemon Magic One Pot Pasta from Anna Jones’ latest book A Modern Way to Cook. So between the two recipes that’s Sunday’s cook off and next week’s lunches sorted. But what next?

I’m hoping you can help. What are your favourite cook ahead recipes with a hearty, autumnal vibe that won’t have me scouring East London for hard-to-find-ingredients, are easy to carry to work (so not soup), heat up well in the microwave, will keep me full until dinner and don’t necessitate me being tied to the stove all day Sunday? Do share in the comments section below!