Cheats.............

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Gravy Queen

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Over the rainbow
..............the cooking kind..

What are your favourite shortcuts?

I do occasionally use frozen ready chopped onions, onions are a bugger to chop for me. And I've tried every trick in the book, they kill me. The only thing that works is wearing my sons swimming goggles. I bought onion goggles but they arent as good as the swimming ones but they will do.

I have also been buying ready chopped garlic, ginger, and chillies. Great to have in and they do save time.

For a freezer standby I like frozen mash and frozen colcannon and bubble and squeak. Easy to have in to serve quickly with a good steak.

Do you cheat?;)
 
Big believer in cheating. Shredded cheese. Campbells "cream of ..." soups. Frozen vegetables. Stocks and broths. Near East brand couscous and taboule are my very favorite summer stand-bys. I usually take whatever shortcut I'm using and add my own twist to it, so a lot of people who've eaten at my table think I've done it from scratch because it doesn't taste like it tastes straight from the package. If all we did was eat fresh vegetables "local and in season", us in northern climates would only eat fresh vegetables in August and September, period. Wouldn't make for a very nutritional diet.
 
Due to the increase in the cost of our gas and electric rates this past year, shortcuts make a lot of sense. Just because my utilities are included in my rent, does not mean I can be wasteful with a clear conscience. So making a daylong pot of stock is replaced with a packaged one. Do to my age, shelling fresh peas when I don't feel up to par, is replaced with frozen ones. I do have an ice cream maker. But sometimes the ingredients are beyond my purse So I buy it already made. The days of the pioneers are two centuries past. I don't cook out on the trail nor do I own a covered wagon. Nor do I wish to. And being part Indian, I would have to attack my own wagon. Even my own people gave up living in teepees. The 'good ole days' weren't that good. :)
 
Yes, I cheat. I don't have the space to do everything homemade, but I try to when I can.

The things I use the most are frozen veggies and store-bought broth. I even buy frozen french fries or tater-tots. I still always have fresh veggies and fruit on hand. The price of produce these days is ridiculous. It gets expensive, but I love to have fresh.
 
Frozen veggies, broth, instant mashed potatoes (for thickening soups), canned tomatoes (much better flavor than fresh). After reading Tomatoland, I don't think I can have tomatoes out of season anymore unless they're canned.

Gravy Queen, I wear my onion goggles with my contacts and I have no problems whatsoever. Onion goggles alone, I still have a bit of trouble.
 
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I guess I have only two shortcuts. One is making enough for multiple meal nights. I do all the cooking and work 40+ hours, and it's nice to just reheat a portion of the giant batch of gumbo from Sunday. The only other shortcut is through the drivethrough at one of the best barbecue places on Earth, and I don't do that often.

I'm very much on a thing about working from scratch, so my shortcuts are tomato sauce in a can (actually a quality choice in winter) and ketchup in a bottle. The tedious part of cooking is so different from the tedious part of employment work that I enjoy it and don't try to shortcut it. And we otherwise don't have the pressures of kid activities and such to give us a strong motive to save time.
 
I have the frozen chopped onions, peppers and celery in my freezer. If I have the time and the items I'll use fresh but if not, frozen is fine. I also do the Campbell's cream of soup thing along with the canned tomatoes, instant potatoes, and canned broth. I have gravy mixes to fill out if there's not enough drippings for a good amount of gravy. I'll occasionally make my own broth if I have a carcass and occasionally I'll cook 2 chickens just to debone for recipes and make broth but that happens only occasionally. Liquid smoke is another cheat I use to add that smoked flavor to a dish since I don't have a smoker!
 
I use cheats, I also make sure I buy cheats with the least amount of chemical preservatives. There is the occasional purchase of a certain boxed dinner that I must have. But, for the most part I do cook from scratch.

Cheats: Bertolli Marinara, it tastes just as good as I can make. Minced garlic and jars of crushed ginger. Shrek prefers the taste of packet hollandaise to scratch, so why should I make it? Frozen vegetables, canned tomato products for cooking. Progresso soups, for taking to work, when I've run out of ideas or time.

Cheats are a time saver for me.
 
Beef and chicken stock in the enviro pacs. Sometimes I will use canned pasta/tomato sauce for some applications where I can save time, but I find it too salty and smooth, so I add stuff to give it a bit more texture and character.
 
I use stocks, frozen veggies, sometimes a jar of marinara, canned tomatoes, sauce and jarred garlic. My main cheat is Bob Evans mashed potatoes because my child wants mashed potatoes almost everyday. If it isn't after a work day I will make them fresh.

I still have a bit of guilt about the potatoes, I can still remember going to a friends house in 3rd grade and was served instant mashed potatoes, I didn't even know what they were but I dont think the BE ones are as bad. :ermm:
 
I do occasionally use frozen ready chopped onions, onions are a bugger to chop for me. And I've tried every trick in the book, they kill me. The only thing that works is wearing my sons swimming goggles. I bought onion goggles but they arent as good as the swimming ones but they will do.

I have also been buying ready chopped garlic, ginger, and chillies. Great to have in and they do save time.

For a freezer standby I like frozen mash and frozen colcannon and bubble and squeak. Easy to have in to serve quickly with a good steak.

Do you cheat?;)

I buy chopped onions in a two pound bag, divide it into 1/2 cup portions in sandwich bags, place them all in a Zip-Loc freezer bag and stash them in the freezer. The company that makes them, Gill's Onions, is literally down the street from m my house and they use local produce so I know they're fresh. In fact, if the wind is right I can smell the onions being processed from my back yard.

If chopping onions makes your eyes water you can wear swim goggles and even use a snorkle, but leave the swim fins in the closet. You don't want to look silly.

I also buy chopped garlic and ginger in tiny little jars and stash them in the butter keeper of my fridge. I still like to chop my own peppers and chiles, but I will buy bell peppers and jalopy peppers in bilk at the 99¢ Only store and cut what I am not going to use within a couple of days into slices or dices and freeze them in Zip Loc freezer bags.

I am constanly making double or triple portions and using my Rubbermaid dinner thingies to freeze additional meals for another occasion. Right now I have two roast beef, mashed potatoes and petite white corn meals in the freezer and one mahi-mahi in coconut caramel sauce with brown rice and mixed cauliflower, broccoli and carrots vegetable medley.

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Another short cut I use is when making Gramdma LoVullo's Sunday sauce with meatballs and Italian sausage I will make a double portion of the meatball mix of 2 parts ground beef, one part ground pork and one part either ground veal or ground turkey, make about ten meatballs and put the rest in a large Gladware container, which is conveniently shaped like a meat loaf, and freeze it to make a meatloaf at a later date. I make my meatloaf free form on a broiler pan so it doesn't boil in grease.
 
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