As our lives get ever busier, it becomes increasingly difficult to fit in time to make a proper, balanced meal.

Even Saint Delia recently endorsed using shortcut products such as frozen mash when putting together a dinner.

But while quick may be easy, it isn't always healthy.

Ready meals can contain large quantities of salt and fat, and may not help towards your five a day fruit and vegetable portions.

This has lead Jamie Oliver to go back to basics, and look at advice given by the Ministry of Food during the Second World War on growing your own and making the most of your rations.

His new series will focus on encouraging families to cook from scratch rather than resorting to junk food or ready meals.

Terry Windsor, coordinator and lecturer on the NVQ hospitality courses at Peterborough Regional College, said that time is definitely a major factor in the rise in popularity of ready meals.

He said: "I just think people's time goes somewhere else. Priorities are not food. I think the trouble with the English is that we eat because we're hungry rather than eating for pleasure."

Terry believes that while food and cookery ideas are everywhere, particularly on TV, there is not always the desire to make good meals.

"There's lots of cookery programmes on TV, but I think we're in the environment where people just don't want to do it. It's easier to buy things than it is to make things," he said.

Terry said his wife is a big fan of Delia and admits that her recipes do always work.

He added: "I think what she's trying to say is 'look, if you haven't got time, there is another way' but it sort of contradicts what people are saying, that it should be fresh."

Terry is adamant that you don't need to resort to ready meals or frozen mash in order to feed your family.

He said that good preparation can help you save time every day.

At the weekend, Terry chops up vegetables and puts them in containers in the fridge so they are ready to use every evening when he gets home from work.

With the ingredients ready, it is just case of knowing what to cook.