The most useful kitchen gadget?

Dozey_crow

We have a griddle \panini sandwich press thing which is amazing. I wasn't sure what we would use it for aside from sarnies but we do Mediterranean veg, fish, sausages, frozen onion rings, hash browns, oven chips, burgers, toasted bagels on it and it's fantastic. Of you eat neat you could also do chips, steak, chicken etc on there very quickly. Everting is very quick, all the day congress or and it's easy to clean. Win win!
By far the most useful thing in the kitchen for me.

Anoneemoose

Fruball wrote: »

My act!fry is my favourite kitchen gadget. I do whole breakfasts in it, roast potatoes (so easy and good you can have them every night!), chips (obviously) sausages, chicken wings...

I cook potatoes with low fat sausages, bacon until just about done, leave overnight and then put on in the morning for 6 minutes for an easy cooked breakfast!

I wouldn't be without it now.

Sorry to hijack the thread...do you mean you cook the bacon, saus and pots in the actifry and leave them in there overnight?

I have just got one and I love it even though I have only used it for chips and stir fry up to now. I kind of wish I got the 2in1 but that is far too much to spend!

I have thought about doing homemade kfc style chicken using the takeaway secret recipe but then I would need to keep that warm while making fries to go with it!

BrassicWoman

RedCola wrote: »

One of the reasons I don't use my slow cooker much is just because I haven't had the want to. I really wasn't very well at all, and I didn't even think about it at the time. However, I will have a look at recipes for them ( is there any on here?)

I find it very hard to cook at the moment & my food seems to taste awful when I do. However, I need (& want) to start cooking properly. I have got another thread about this too.

I am also going to look at 'How to feed your whole family a healthy balanced diet.........'

If you are a meat eater, start by slinging in a joint of meat, with a bag of pre-prepared veg and spuds. There you go, Sunday roast! With only the effort of taking the plastic off.

If you are veggie try
- bag quorn mince
- tin of tomatoes, tom puree, tin of kidney beans, tin any veg you have kicking about
- chilli powder or flakes

switch on, give it a stir an hour in, come back 5 hours later.

all my veggie dishes are a variation on that theme, sometimes with pretend chicken and curry powder instead.... or frozen spinach and a tin of chickpeas....

Good luck - I swear, it's a lazy way to cook or I wouldn't do it!!

retromother

Being left handed I'd say the electric can opener!

RedCola

Lots of good advice, thank you. So I downloaded 'How to feed your family...' onto my tablet, following the suggestion on here.

I made the leek & potato soup ( swapping herbs & using dried instead of fresh) We have just had bowls with slices of tiger bread. Went down nicely and I'm so pleased everyone ate it. My husband finished work at 3.15pm today, as he started at 6am. Was so nice to serve him up some food

There is a 'Tesco Finest - Autumn Fruit with Almond & Pecan Crumble, with sweet Stanley plum & morello cherries' in the oven now. I know its not HM, though it was reduced to 75p from £3 & is plenty to feed the 3 children.

I'm very pleased (sad, I know) as the last few months have been me serving up cereal / sandwiches / ready soups / instant noodles etc to the kids for dinner , and I cant remember the last time I cooked for my husband.

Would love to keep this going, though I know I will find it hard. I did find it a bit of a faff without a stick blender though, even though the jug blender (?) worked fine.

wifeforlife

That's great news already and all done without a gadget! :j

Preparation is key with cooking, we all cheat and all have bad days when of course nobody wants to cook, I've lots of them

Batch cooking could be your key to contentment :T

RedCola

Yes, I think that batch cooking may work - though not sure how confident I am on actually preparing it all etc. I know meer53 recommended freezer pots and a good cookbook.

Any ideas on how I could do this? Or any recommendations for slow cooker / batch cooking books/ websites?

RedCola

Also, I meant to ask - I have leftover soup as I doubled it. Can it be frozen? ( added milk to it once cooked )

Anne_Marie_2

Well done Red Cola, great achievement. Little steps at a time, so that you don't get overwhelmed.

Must admit that my stick blender is one of my most used gadgets, and use that a lot rather than digging out the food processor/blender. I got a more expensive Kenwood one with a few attachments, as I knew I would use all the bits, and I do. It's brill. (The older version of this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenwood-HDP406-Blender-White-Silver/dp/B00MX3LIPI/ref=dp_ob_title_kitchen).
However saying that, after I bought mine, bought one for my daughter from Lidl for about £15 which had a few attachments, and it's really good too....could have saved myself a bit of dosh.
http://www.lidl-service.com/cps/rde/SID-1D1885C4-80E87975/lsp/hs.xsl/product.html?id=3105871&title=Frullatore

Anne_Marie_2

RedCola wrote: »

Also, I meant to ask - I have leftover soup as I doubled it. Can it be frozen? ( added milk to it once cooked )

Yes you can. It may separate a bit when defrosted, but should mix again quite nicely.
Generally I portion off the soup before adding milk or cream, and only add that when heating up to serve.