Preparing meals in advance, or “meal prepping,” is an excellent way to save time and ensure you and your family are eating healthily. 
Research shows that people who plan and prepare meals in advance are generally healthier. A U.S. study found that people who spend more time preparing food at home eat more fruits and vegetables and spend less money on fast food. U.K. research also found an association between food preparation and a higher-quality diet. A French study found that people who plan meals eat a healthier diet and are less likely to be obese. 

It’s the first time in the history of the prestigious Portuguese guide Boa Cama Boa Mesa that a single resort takes away all three awards in a year: Platinum Key, Platinum Fork and Chef of the Year, the top prizes awarded by the Expresso national newspaper group.

James Mayor talks to Paul Symington about his time as Chairman of Symington Family Estates, the family company which has played a leading role in the renaissance of Port and the emergence of world class Douro table wines. 

Most Port lodges, as Port wine cellars are called, are places of peace, where Port serenely ages in row upon row of barrels or giant vats. Not so the cooperage at Cockburn`s, where I meet Paul Symington. The conversation begins with Symington shouting to make himself heard above the hammer blows being inflicted on a huge barrel by a burly cooper.

The fresh fish and tomato flavours present in the Algarve's gastronomy during the summer also accompany typical dishes on winter days. These are combined with seasonal ingredients to become delicious comfort meals - "stewpan foods," as they are called, which warm our soul and our palate during the shortest days and give us a warm hug during the longest nights of the winter season.

Although we live by the sea, the Algarve region is rich in customs related to land and agriculture. Now it’s time for the peanut harvest, and Mar d’Estórias is focused on the whole process associated with the cultivation of the “alcagoita” as it is called here.
The four-month plantation begins in May when the dried peanuts are sown in the land. 

Rachel Ramirez and Kevin Gould, one an internationally acclaimed artist, the other a former travel writer, turned restaurateur and owner of Chá Chá Chá in what now is the coolest part of Olhão, one block back from the famous fish market.

Rachel is the restaurant’s August artist of the month and a wide selection of her work, centred on the creatures and plants of the Ria Formosa and, latterly, man’s discarded objects collected while beach-combing, is on display and for sale.

It’s in the confection details as well as the knowledge acquired from the past generations, that the richness of Portuguese regional gastronomy is based. If there are dishes that identify the Algarvian culinary heritage, the carapaus alimados (horse mackerel Algarve style) is, undoubtedly, one of them. Characteristic of the Algarve coastal area, when it was necessary to preserve the fish in the brine, this dish illustrates the simplicity and purism of this ingredient so appreciated by us, the Algarvian people.

To the Praia dos Pescadores in Armação de Pêra and the new beachside restaurant, Só Verão, for a summer lunch with friends.

So good to be out of town for the day, taking the wooden walkway from the parking area at the eastern end of dear old Armação with a view over open countryside to the north and the sand to the south leading to a crystal blue sea.