Time and hassle - tips for retaining sanity

hotcookie101

xrjtg wrote: »

You can blitz fresh bread to make breadcrumbs without too much trouble. Doing it when your bread has gone stale is mostly a tactic to avoid it being wasted (and if you were doing it by hand with a grater then using stale bread would be essential).

I do find you need the bread to be not perfectly fresh, or dry it in the oven (a la HFW) before blitzing, if its too fresh the bread sticks together rather than making breadcrumbs. If I am making meatballs and have no stale bread (or giant bag of crumbs in the freezer) I soak a slice or 2 of fresh bread in water or milk, squeeze out the excess and use that instead Often find then I don't need the egg to bind it as well :money:

JulieGeorgiana

hotcookie101 wrote: »

I do find you need the bread to be not perfectly fresh, or dry it in the oven (a la HFW) before blitzing, if its too fresh the bread sticks together rather than making breadcrumbs. If I am making meatballs and have no stale bread (or giant bag of crumbs in the freezer) I soak a slice or 2 of fresh bread in water or milk, squeeze out the excess and use that instead Often find then I don't need the egg to bind it as well :money:

I often make frickadellen (German Meatball) and the recipe always uses bread soaked in water... i always use an egg too... never thought about ommitting it... will have a go!

Okay... I will save my crusts and have a go at making breadcrumbs... because they are so expensive to buy! And it's one of 3 things I don't OS. The other two are curry sauce and custard (I don't use instant custard though!!)

rachbc

I shove any ends of bread in the freezer then whizz them into crumbs and freeze in a ziplock bag - very handy for stuffings, toppings etc.

Another god time saver is thriftlady's veg hash - whizzed carrots, celery and onions frozen ready to form teh basis of soups, stews etc.

p00

A tip I read on here somewhere sometime and do all the time now - put mince, mushrooms, peppers, onion etc in one bag portion size in freezer ready for spag bol or shepherds pies to save getting each ingredient out. Works with anything you make using different ingredients and makes it so easy to just lift out one bag for complete meal.

xxp00

ubamother

I'm a huge fan of keeping a good tomato based sauce in batches in the freezer. I use it for pizza sauce, to make bolognaise, just on cooked pasta with a bit of cheese on top. It's a good filler for curry-based dishes etc. etc. I don't add herbs/spices when I first cook it so it can be turned to pretty much any use!

I also keep meatballs in the freezer, and always cook lots of extra veg for Sunday lunch, which with the gravy and meat scraps becomes soup which I can freeze.

kate_pixie

When making up a pizza base I cut the dough into two and make a spare. I spoon the tomato topping on it and some cheese and freeze the spare one ready for a quick pizza with whatever veg or meat comes to hand on those nights when I have little time.

stiltwalker

We have lots of pasta dishes here too but TBH mostly find that dried pasta has had time to cook in the time it takes me to make the sauce, our favourite is macaroni cheese with stuff in! Basically I fry off onions, garlic and whatever bits of meat we have knocking about ( bacon, a lonely sausage, half a chicken breast) any other bit of veg (courgette, pepper, celery, mushrooms) lurking in the bottom of the fridge til soft then add a big spoon of plain flour to absorb the fat and then add milk. It's a simple bechemale but made in the same pan to save on washing up! I also add a dollop of mustard and a handful of grated cheese and there you go. Takes about 20/25 minutes and if you have extra time you can mix it with the pasta, pop it into a dish add a handul of breadcrumbs and a bit more cheeese and bung it under the grill to do pasta "bake". Will also reheat like this in the oven for half a hour if you make the day ahead while doing something else.

One of my big time savers when I have a busy week is to follow the Economy Gastronomy idea (did you see the telly prgramme?) whereby you make one big thing which can then be split down and turned into other things so you have one cookingy day then are just warming and altering leftovers for a few more. So beef stew can become beef pie with a pastry lid on, beef pasties for lunch boxes and even cooked down to make a pasta sauce (yes it does work madly).

kippers

This is just a little thing but i tend to have a day when i bake my rolls and bread for the week.

I weigh out my ingredients into my bread maker at the same time i weigh out duplicate ingredients into a bowl (but i don't add the water to the bowl)...when my first lot of dough is kneaded by the b/m and ready, i put the 2nd lot in the b/m then add the water and set it going. i then roll out dough into cobs....when the b/m is finished i take the dough out and make more rolls and then measure out the ingredients for a loaf and set the b/m going again.

After the rolls are cooked I freeze them when they are cool. I slice the bread and freeze for toast.

By doing my bread this way i always have bread in my freezer during the week and I don't need to wash the bread pan between each setting.

I hope i've made myself clear and you understand me

JulieGeorgiana

stiltwalker wrote: »

One of my big time savers when I have a busy week is to follow the Economy Gastronomy idea (did you see the telly prgramme?) whereby you make one big thing which can then be split down and turned into other things so you have one cookingy day then are just warming and altering leftovers for a few more. So beef stew can become beef pie with a pastry lid on, beef pasties for lunch boxes and even cooked down to make a pasta sauce (yes it does work madly).

Tell me more... I love this idea with the beef stew!

Any others???

maman

I think the time-saving starts even earlier than this. It's worth spending a little time writing a simple meal plan and shopping list (having first checked your fridge and storecupboard).

Then when you get to the shop (which I prefer to internet shopping) it will be much quicker (and cheaper) just picking up exactly what you need.