Three ingredients at peak ripeness, fresh herbs for aroma, and not a single dish that takes more than thirty minutes. That is the entire method behind this weekly menu for the last week of August - and the most useful thing about it is not the recipes, but the fact that the decision gets made once.

The difference between a planned week and an unplanned one is not taste. It is the number of decisions. Anyone who has cooked knows the hardest part is not the pan, but the seven-in-the-evening question of what to eat - and how often that question ends with something ordered in.

Monday: spaghetti with fresh vegetables for lunch, tomatoes stuffed with tuna and a prawn salad for dinner. Tuesday: chicken and avocado salad, and in the evening sole with mushrooms, rosemary and a little chilli.

Wednesday: fish and seafood soup, then a French omelette with cheese and thyme. Thursday: pork fillet medallions with tomato salad, and for dinner breaded sardines with red pepper.

Friday: green pasta baked with egg, in the evening a salad of chickpeas, tomatoes and parsley. Saturday: stuffed beef in sauce, and in the evening a broccoli and salmon quiche.

Sunday: Valencian paella for lunch and courgettes stuffed with tuna for dinner - the one day on the list when cooking is an event rather than a task.

The structure is worth more than the list itself. Each day has a heavier dish at midday and a lighter one in the evening, fish appears four times, and vegetables carry almost every dish - not as a side, but as the base.

This is also the best week of the year for that move. Tomatoes, courgettes, peppers and vegetables are at their peak in August and at their cheapest, and in September that is no longer true. The list is worth photographing.