Saving Money With Homemade Convenience Mixes

plzhelpmesave!

Hi all

Am trying to be more organised this year and more frugal with grocery shopping and cooking especially.

Today when I did my roast chicken, I knocked together the mix for some choc chip cookies as the oven was on, and also have prepared a rhubarb crumble for visitors tomorrow (crumble topping was an 8p tesco bargain 2 years ago and rhubard from a tin).

This is sooo not me, but I am really going to try from now! I was wondering whether people make their own cheats to make life easier in the kitchen, e.g. mix up dried ingredients for sponge cake in one go and store in freezer bags so I dont have to measure and get everything out to bake a cake. This means I could just take out my pre-prepared packet, add the eggs and butter and bung in the oven with the main meal.

Does this make sense and does anyone do it??

PasturesNew

I do that with dumplings. I buy a bag of flour that weighs 2x the weight of the box of suet, then tip them both into a plastic container with a splash of salt and jiggle them. Then, if I want a dumpling or two, I just jiggle the box again and spoon out just how much I need to make 1-2 dumplings. No weighing.

I'd do it with bread/cake mixes too if I cooked those regularly ... but as I've only ever made one cake in my life and about 6 loaves it's just not useful for me to ever think of doing that.

BitterAndTwisted

No, I don't. I suspect the time-saving is so miniscule that it's not worth doing. I'm never in that much of a rush in the kitchen

Pink.

Hi plzhelpmesave!,

I don't (apart from crumble topping that I keep in the freezer) but some Old Stylers do. You can read more in this thread:

Saving Money With Homemade Convenience Mixes

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

Aarons_mummy

o0o0o I never thought of this. Sounds like a good idea (and the mess factor is kept to the one time YAY!)

Thanks for the link Pink will have a good read of it. I this board.

missladyannie

Sounds like a good idea!

Aarons_mummy

Lots of links! Thanks for that, I'm going to have a good browse, it seems like a great idea having things pre-organised and will also ensure and help with the meal planning

Absinthe_2

What a good idea! I'd have never thought to do. Would make pancakes, cakes, biscuits, a doddle to have the basics already done.

Absinthe_2

Just got directed from another thread. Looks very time-saving. My first thread subscription!

rachbc

i freeze rubbed in fat and flour in the freezer -means I can do a big batch and only have to wash the fp once! Can then add sugar for crumble topping or water to make pastry - the time savings on getting out and weighing ingredients might be tiny but the cba factor is seriously reduced.