Convenience foods you love... mse of course!

[Deleted User]

Oxo cubes, tinned baked beans, tinned pulses, tinned tomatoes and tomato puree all get used regularly and in the winter when fresh fruit is scarce I use tins of apple slices and tinned rhubarb for crumbles too. Most of what I make is home done with what we grow and I freeze masses of produce as it is harvested but some ready made items are indispensable and easy to store so I keep a supply in the cupboard.

hermum

Living alone I tend to buy just frozen veg nowadays, it's so much cheaper & no waste, I particularly love stewpacks, I can get a stew made in the pressure cooker & ready to eat in less time than I used to spend peeling & chopping.
Lazy garlic & ginger is always kept in.
Some tins,baked beans, toms, tuna, mackerel.

My favourite convenience meal is probably baked beans or tinned toms on toast with a couple of poached eggs.

Towser

Yes I hate to admit but my crumble is rubbish so I buy it from Sainsbury's

good every time

so apple crumble is a convenience pudding

melanzana

Towser wrote: »

Yes I hate to admit but my crumble is rubbish so I buy it from Sainsbury's

good every time

so apple crumble is a convenience pudding

Brilliant! I LOVE the admission of handing things over to a higher power!

But anyway... I go away for a few days, and look what you all have done?

Well.... you have certainly convinced me that convenience food is useful in certain circumstances.

I started the thread to show that sometimes, something that someone else cooks for us can be a major time and money saver.

And so it is.

There is only so much cooking we can do from scratch that is actually time and money saving at the end of the day.

Cottage_Economy

Ok, I'll admit it.

Aldi frozen mixed veg steam bags.

One bag does the two of us for one meal and they do in the microwave in 3-4 minutes. £1.20-ish for four bags.

givememoney

Little observation regarding frozen chips.


These were things I did keep in the freezer for speed. I usually just chop potatoes into chips shapes sprinkle a little oil and put them in the oven, but these did me when time was short or I had run out of spuds.


However, I digress. When I used the McCanns thin fries which I admit taste very nice, when I came to clean the tray there was a substance on there I can only describe as being like glue. I scrubbed and scrubbed at the tray and this gluey substance did not want to come off, it sort of stretched then snapped back on the tray. After a considerable time I mananaged to scrape it off.


What ever this stuff was that was coating the chips, I decided it wasn't something that I felt was going to do us a lot of good when we ate it so now, no more oven chips.

suki1964

Hmmm I thought I was pretty good

However thinking about it I usually have in

Frozen peas and frozen croquettes

Tinned pulses, toms, beans and sweet corn

Tinned sardines, kippers , salmon and tuna and corned beef

Stock pots, gravy granules

And I've just succumbed to lazy ginger as our supermarket only self fresh in bags which are never fresh

Oh and I buy ready made puff pastry. It's the only pastry I cba to make and I do tend to make pies with left overs or to stretch a meal further

Eenymeeny

melanzana wrote: »

Brilliant! I LOVE the admission of handing things over to a higher power!

But anyway... I go away for a few days, and look what you all have done?

Well.... you have certainly convinced me that convenience food is useful in certain circumstances.

I started the thread to show that sometimes, something that someone else cooks for us can be a major time and money saver.

And so it is.

There is only so much cooking we can do from scratch that is actually time and money saving at the end of the day.

I love the idea that this thread has become a bit like an AA meeting! My name is Eenymeeny and I occasionally use convenience foods...;):)
If it helps, just think of the energy saved, both personal and utility-wise. Less oven time, and less hot water used cleaning those ovens and stuck-on casseroles etc. I love my slow cooker but do often wonder if the hot water used to clean it kind of negates the savings....;)

MandM90

Eenymeeny wrote: »

I love the idea that this thread has become a bit like an AA meeting! My name is Eenymeeny and I occasionally use convenience foods...;):)
If it helps, just think of the energy saved, both personal and utility-wise. Less oven time, and less hot water used cleaning those ovens and stuck-on casseroles etc. I love my slow cooker but do often wonder if the hot water used to clean it kind of negates the savings....;)

My Russell Hobbs sear and stew is so non stick that a light wipe cleans everything away immediately!!

Lizling

I forgot about stir fry bags! The fresh kind - I don't like the frozen ones. No one's mentioned them yet, but they are so much quicker than finely chopping everything myself and I get less waste because buying each ingredient individually gives me too much.

Morrisons do a bag that's just the right size for me for 50p. I wish Lidl would start doing them too.