Sometimes I am shocked, and slightly embarrassed, by how little time I have to prepare dinner.

In between dropping off one child here, running errands, picking up one child from there, zipping to the shops to pick up something, meet up with someone else for a chat, then coming home for a grand total of 30 minutes of web work, only to have to leave again to pick up the first child from school.

There is hardly any time for me to prepare a meal.

And the ironic thing is, that I really like to cook!

So I have become the master of the Throw-In-The-Oven Recipe!

This week was roast chicken and roast vegetables, eaten with bread rolls.

It’s not exactly my finest culinary accomplishment, but with three children, cooking a roast chicken in time for dinner is worthy of a ticker tape parade, if you ask me.

And the best bit is… everyone loves a simple roast chicken!

How to Cook the Perfect Roast Chicken

Season with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, lemon, parsley and rub all over. No measurements – just throw some on! Toss with mixed potatoes, carrots and pumpkin.

And throw into a 180C oven –  20 minutes for every 500g of chicken.

Now that I think about it, it’d probably be much easier to BUY a roast chicken, but then that would spoil all the fun.