What's your non OS guilty secret?

mummyroysof3

frozen onion and yorkshire puds..and mash sometimes lol

Hardup_Hester

Yorkies, I can & do make them, but a few frozen onea stretch a meal if extra people turn up & pastry, I can make pastry, I can even make puff pastry that is just as good as frozen, but I often cannot be bothered.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Those already cooked yorkshire puds that only take a couple of minutes to heat are very handy if you have a last minute thought for yorkshires.
Some of them taste very nice too.

thefourgeorges

oh dear I have a few:

Condensed mushroom soup for sauces (chicken n mushroom pie, stroganoff, captains pie, carbonara etc)

gravy granules

dried onion for stews/gravy- work great and handy to have in for when feeling knackered

lazy garlic & tomato puree

passata

CH27

Frozen mash to top cottage & shepherds pies when i'm bulk cooking for my dad.

lazymummy

Yep-the frozen ready-chopped onions, I HATE chopping onions so buying these means I will cook from scratch.

lisa26_2

I didn't think I had many till I read this!!

Ready made pastry

Jars of prepped ginger and garlic paste and also lemon grass

SMASH!!! But only because I prefer it on cottage pie or fish pie! I hate them made with real mash! The rest of the time I do proper mash.

I also buy the sauce mix sachets for chilli and a few other things, particularly in the winter for casseroles and stuff.

I use gravy granules always and also, bisto do cheese sauce granules that you make up in the same way as the gravy, they're brilliant as you can just make as much as you need. i use them for the 'white' sauce on lasagne!

CCP

Ready made cheese sauce - white sauce making is a skill that continues to elude me, despite all the tips passed on by nice OS forum members. (And the M&S one in a jar is just delish, and not a bad price if you get it on special offer, which it often is.)

Ready-made curry pastes - my efforts at homemade curry have been less than successful in the area of 'tasting nice'.

Lazy ginger and (sometimes) short crust pastry, which is sheer laziness on my part!

fairtrade

Mash potato powder - doesn't really taste of anything and very useful for thickening soups,stews and caseroles.

Mrs_Arcanum

Cheats - Pre made yorkies, granulated veg stock and puff pastry.

Now I have a big enough food processor again Shortcrust is easy.

Bay leaves - use these in the water to cook cabbage.