Are pre-cut spuds the best thing since sliced bread?

As Marks launches its latest culinary time-saver... YES

I’ve got better things to do than chop veg’

SHIRLEY CONRAN famously said: ‘Life’s too short to stuff a mushroom.’ And, in our more harried modern times, I’ve taken her thinking a step further. My mantra is now: ‘Life’s too short to chop potatoes.’

So, when M&S started selling presliced spuds, just right for topping a pie or making a no- fuss gratin (previously an oxymoron), I raised my oven gloves to the skies and said ‘hallelujah’ for every middle- class mum’s favourite shop.

I’m a busy working mother. every day, come 6pm, I try to work out what on earth I’m going to feed my four hungry children, raymond, 23, Leonard, 16, Jerry, 15, and Ottoline, 12. It feels like a Sisyphean task.

I’ve spent hours and hours peeling squash, de-stringing runner beans, podding peas, cutting up broccoli and chopping potatoes. healthy foods are always the ones that need the most complex hacking and trimming into something children will consent to put in their mouths.

Then there’s the shopping and cooking. It’s never- ending, so I’m always looking for short-cuts.

Over the years, I’ve discovered that it is possible to live in a world where stock comes pre-made, broccoli is already in florets, garlic is pre-peeled, beans already topped and tailed. Forget home-baked bread; I need mine sliced and ready for toasting.

And now pre-cut potatoes. What a marvellous idea for people like me, who prefer to do more interesting things than chop veg.

I know the spuds come in an ecounfriendly plastic bag (sorry) and are treated with antioxidants to stop them going brown but, frankly, you’d get more polluted walking down any high Street. And these new culinary short-cuts mean I can cook a meal from semi-scratch after a long day of work, and that’s got to be healthier than a ready meal or a take-away.

I know, too, that they’re significantly more expensive than standard spuds. But, then, the family car is expensive and I happily pay for that for the time it saves me, whizzing about instead of walking everywhere.

My time is precious. Between work and childcare, I never really manage to find minutes, let alone hours, to do anything for myself. And I know some women adore painstakingly crafting meals from scratch, and feel defined by the food they produce, but I’m not one of them.

My children don’t care if I produce a brilliantly made meal or not. They scoff it down and are done.

And, in the few minutes I save by using pre-cut potatoes — added to all the other minutes saved by the broccoli florets and pre-peeled garlic — I chisel out a little vital time for myself, to do the things I love.

I want to see plays, go to the cinema, read, do yoga and have fun with my children and my husband.

All of which will make me a better and calmer mum than if I stayed chained to my stove.