Useful food buys to save time.

Thank you, Doodledog! I have just copied your recipe on to a sticky note on the desk top.

What a good topic this is!

Sallywally, I think so too! I am old and frail enough to need to keep my energy for other tasks than preparing big batches of vegetables.

I use garlic puree in a tube , much easier than messsing around with proper garlic.

Never could manage a roux, so I've devised my own method for cheese sauce. Put flour into a nonstick sauce pan and slowly mix in milk and Dijon mustard using a wooden spoon. Drop in butter roughly diced, season and slowly bring to simmer mixing all the time. Should be simmered for at least a minute to cook flour. Then add grated cheese and bring back to temperature.

My favourite 'cheat' meal if my children come round unexpectedly is to fry a bag of Birds Eye Veggie 'meatballs' (I use Donald Russell ones if serving omnivores) and pour over a jar of pasta sauce. Meanwhile, I make macaroni cheese, and spoon it over the top, sprinkle on a mixture of panko breadcrumbs, grated cheese and mixed seeds if I have them in, and bake until heated through and golden.

I use a shallow hob to table dish for everything except the macaroni cheese, so there is very little washing up. A bag of 'meatballs' and a pint-of-milk quantity of MC makes enough for 4 generous portions, particularly if served with garlic bread.

I like using mashed potato for thickening soups and sauces instead of cornflower. It blends in more easily and tastes better too.

chelseababy, jocork I've just shown my husband the swede trick. His favourite, but it's such hard work cooking it fresh and it's not so good bought frozen.
We'll give it a try, thank you!

All the celebrity chefs use ready made pastry. As one who was taught to do it all by hand I can say it is quicker and better.

I liked the sound of McDougalls' thickening grains, until I looked up what they are made from.

The ingredients are given as potato starch, maltodextrin, palm oil, dried glucose syrup, emulsifier (soya lecithin).

I have no problems with the potato starch, but maltodextrin and glucose syrup are sugars - what are they doing in a product like this? Palm oil without details of its source are a bit iffy, and at a personal level, anything soya based, even processed to make something else, are banned in our house as DDiL has a soya allergy, sufficient to need an epipen, so I avoid anything that I could accidentally stir into a dish without thinking.

I have recently started using porridge oats as a thickener. They work very well in slow-cooker meals because I put them in at the start of the cooking and they cook so long, they completely disintegrate to give a smooth thoickened sauce. They work pretty well in other dishes with shorter cooking times, but I have yet to use them in a cheese sauce or sweet sauce, I only use them in gravy.

During the first lockdown, when we couldn't find cornflour anywhere in the shops, I spotted a tub of McDougalls' "thickening granules" (the last one on the shelf!) so I snapped them up. DH has found that they're perfect for adding to casseroles in the slow-cooker; he says that they're even better (and notably easier) than using cornflour to thicken. Now he buys them especially for slow-cooker dishes.

I buy prepared fresh raw veg soup mixes from Tesco, and freeze them on a tray, bag them and then use portions roasted for low carb days as a side. E.g. last week we had roast sweet potato, butternut, red onion and chili mix which is sold as a soup mix. It's cheaper and less waste than buying and preparing the veg individually.

The other cheat I always have in the store cupboard is packets of Colman's Cheese Sauce.

I'm also a fan of frozen veg.

Just discovered the Uncle Ben's packets of cooked rice. The basmati one is particularly good.

Keep homemade breadcrumbs in freezer, for when you need them. Garlic can be peeled and left in oil in the fridge for a week or so to add as you wish Instead of peeling a garlic each time.
Frozen onions and veg definitely.
Make dips out of leftovers to go with flatbreads or fresh crudités. Add lemon zest and juice to mayonnaise to make it taste home made.

Whenever I make a casserole or ragu I always make enough for 4 and freeze half. I also make a large batch of tomato sauce while making something else and freeze it in portions. I make mashed potatoes by putting all the potatoes in the Aga to bake while doing another job then scoop them out and mash. Frozen peas and veg and puff pastry in the freezer and I will be trying the frozen chopped onion to see if it helps with my reflux the chopped ginger sounds good too.

Sallywally1 I use the simply cook pots, I started when I was working but found them so easy I kept up with them. If you’d like a link for a £1 box as a guest just let me know. Xx

jocork I second the suggestion re microwaving swede! I usually slice the skin round the middle (like if doing baked apple) and microwave for 10 minutes, turn over and do another 10 ( depending on size. Once cool enough to handle slice in 2 and scoop out, mash etc.

Cooking for two every night now with no hols/meals out. My best 'cheat' is the ready made chilled mash and gratin potatoes in a vacuum pack from Lidl that can store in fridge for few weeks. My hands thank me for no more potatoe peeling!

I sometimes use jars of pasta sauce for cssaeroles. Chicken and tomato is a particular favourite.

I still use tins of condensed soup - mushroom added to the minced beef and onions along with half a beef stock cube makes a lovely shepherds pie, and tomato reduced with chicken stock and added to sautéed onions and risotto rice makes a nice tomato risotto. Nice with homemade meatballs. I’ve also used the mushroom one in a chicken pie.

We find frozen or bought mash too smooth!

And Aunt Bessie's frozen Yorkshire puddings. Can't believe that for so many years I was a Yorkshire pudding snob!!!

Jocork. With regards to swede, have you tried the singing swede trick? I haven't but my friend , who loves swede, does it all the time. Just put a whole swede in the microwave and wait till it sings! Then cut it open and spoon it out.

I buy a bag of potatoes, peel, cook and mash with butter and milk and put into small dishes to freeze. Tedious to do but worth it for the time that they last. I don't find them watery when defrosted.

I have started buying far more frozen veg. Especially frozen sliced peppers and onions and mushrooms ( though they tend to have an odd taste) also things like frozen herbs, garlic and ginger. Definitely just throw everything into a slow cooker. Forget all that browning malarky. Last week bought a soup maker. Awesome!! But it is best if I put it through the process twice. Did buy a bag of frozen mince from Iceland, but I am not really keen. Will mix it with fresh mince and do a large batch cook.

So many lovely ideas but most of these things aren't available here in Germany. Does anyone remember when the first "cheats" did the rounds - using a tin of cream of mushroom soup for a chicken casserole, for example? Tins of mushroom soup are still not available here.

I like mashed swede as a veg but find fresh swede really difficult to chop up so I have been known to buy the ready cubed variety from Asda. I've bought a few packs when it is reduced for a quick sale, cook it all, mash with butter, then freeze in portions to reheat in the microwace. I do bulk cook quite a lot as living alone makes some things difficult to buy for one so having home made 'ready meals' in the freezer is always good. Some can just be reheated in the microwave, though some, like shepherd's pie, are best left to defrost then reheat in the oven.

I do buy some ready meals from supermarkets too, especially if they are in the reduced section, as sometimes can't be bothered to cook from scratch as it's just for me. I received a leaflet advertising parsley box ready meals. I wondered how many of you have tried them? I haven't yet but thought they might be handy as they don't need storing in the fridge. With lockdown meaning going shopping less often I sometimes struggle to fit everything in the fridge with a big shop! I'm only recently retired so bulk cooking is my best option but as I get older I wonder if I'll rely more on ready meals.