´óÏó´«Ã½

It’s the law of supermarket shopping: prepare to be judged on anything you put in your basket. At the final reckoning (aka the checkout queue), you can be sure that your fellow man will give the constituent parts of your weekly shop the once-over and assess you accordingly .

There’s no need to feign ignorance about this: no one can resist , if only to while away the time in the queue. Whether it’s the bumper pack of nappies shunting along the conveyor next to a litre of vodka that raises eyebrows, or the numerous blocks of butter, two dozen eggs and litre of cream (that’ll be one of Nigella’s recipes then), at no other time are the components of an individual’s lifestyle laid bare in such an itemised manner for all to see.

If you’re anything as nosey as me, you play a mental game of Ready Steady Cook with the contents of other people’s baskets. Mince + tomatoes + spaghetti = student cooking for housemates. Scallops + Parma ham + white wine = someone’s got a date they want to impress. Four loaves of bread + four litres of milk + four boxes of cereal + four blocks of cheese (+ a box of Valium) = a house of hungry teenagers and a lot of packed lunches.

Perhaps because of where I live or the time of day I shop, I find that most people my age are buying the same sort of thing. Invariably, lurking somewhere in their basket, will be the usual suspects: egg noodles, pre-chopped vegetables and a jar of ready-made sauce. No need for Ainsley and co here. That basket tells me one of two things: either that person wants a night off cooking, or they’re on a health kick. Either way, they’re making a stir-fry.

Not that there’s anything wrong with stir-fries. They’re quick, easy, healthy and tasty and you can fill them with your favourite foods – what’s not to like? It’s just that when you pull back and look at the bigger picture, and you contemplate the idea of most of the people in most of the supermarkets in most of the country buying the same packs of vegetables and noodles and sauce… well, it’s a waste of a good recipe database, isn’t it? Like the or the , stir-fries became big in the 90s and never really went away. Nice as all of the above are, from time to time it pays to shake things up a bit.

It’s easy to give the quick-fix midday evening meal a makeover. If easy, healthy dishes are your thing, an or are good ways to go. If you’re a sucker for noodles, try making this for a change. Or if you’re a fan of Far-Eastern cuisine, then recipes such as or vegetarian Malaysian-style noodles will endear you even more to the Orient. And even if you stick to stir-fries, you could have a go at a homemade sauce.

Do you like to have a butchers at people’s baskets? And what do you think they make of yours?

Nicky Evans works on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Food website.