The COVID-19 outbreak has also changed shopping behaviour, with less trade on Sundays and more customers doing bigger midweek shops.

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“Our slow cooking and scratch baking adventures from last year have turned into meal shortcuts,” Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci said in an advertisement in The Sydney Morning Herald earlier this month, “and we’re seeing growth in chilled and frozen food categories that make life a little easier.”

Kathryn Cameron said she was purchasing more ready meals - curries, casseroles, lasagne - from her local supermarket in Castle Hill “along with pies and quiches because these meals are quick and easy to heat up”.

“When you want to cook something more elaborate it takes so much more time and also lots of ingredients,” she said. “Since we’ve been in this second lockdown I’ve wanted to spend as little time as possible in the supermarket and ensure I’m in and out.”

Ms Cameron said her family’s dining habits had also changed: “We now prefer something quick and easy during the week and perhaps more exotic when time allows on the weekend.”

Coles’ spokeswoman said shoppers were also looking for simple meals to make, with meatballs, pasta and chicken the most popular dishes on the supermarket’s recipe website.

“We continued to see this home cooking trend, with an emerging trend of convenience and ‘comfort’ food categories,” she said.

Supermarkets have sold more chicken meat during lockdowns, as sales declined in restaurants and food outlets, according to a spokeswoman for the Australian Chicken Meat Federation.

“Our understanding is that across both last year’s and this year’s lockdowns, total chicken consumption may have increased by a couple of percentage points,” she said.

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Ms Cameron said her family were eating more chicken because it is cheaper and versatile when creating a meal: “Plus a whole chook can feed us for a few meals.”

Sarah Leung spent last year’s lockdown making croissants, sourdough, pulled pork and other dishes that take a long time to prepare and cook.

“The motivation has definitely worn off,” she said. “We still try to make meals from scratch, but we are now cooking more simple meals that take less time to cook and prepare but also freezer friendly.”

Ms Leung’s family still has sit-down dinners, but the frequency has changed with smaller meals during the day.

Ms Leung, a dietitian, is also shopping more at Asian supermarkets for ingredients to make Cantonese dishes that remind her of her childhood in Hong Kong.

“I can get different and specific meat cuts, soup packs, flour and sauces that enable me to make those traditional comfort foods that are not overly complicated,” she said.

“I also like to make a big batch of pasta sauce and curry paste for the freezer as well as buying a couple more servings of meat and fish that can be cut up and frozen.”

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