Does that snarkiness come from sweeping annoyingly prolific and persistent spammers out of Mudcat-land?

Setting up a slow-cooking stew is fairly quick and easy and then, the stew looks after itself for a couple of hours and afterwards you get the joy of sitting down to reap the benefits. For that slow-cooking joy I can highly recommend beef & Guinness (aka stout), or beef & prunes, or beef Bourguignon (i.e. with red wine), or lamb and apricot.

My other trick to make life easier is: when I fry onions, with garlic added right near the end, I always make at least double the amount, place the unused portion(s) in little plastic bags and freeze them. Then, next time I'm making something which requires fried onion and garlic I can cut the prep and pre-cooking time down a bit by just defrosting the amount I need. If I am making an Asian dish I make extra portions of rice too and freeze them in little bags.

If I have leftover stew I freeze that in portion sizes as well, for those days when I really don't have the motivation and/or energy to cook. Then, I just have to boil some pasta et voilà, meal ready in minutes. Quicker than going to Macca's and more tasty, satisfying and nutritious, especially if there are yummy vegetables slow-cooked in the stew as well.

[But - truth time - I have only been to Macca's five times in my whole life and I wasn't impressed. :-D ]