Author Topic: Convenience food  (Read 15110 times)

Tradies wife

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Convenience food
« on: September 15, 2012, 02:16:24 AM »
I thought I'd reflect today on what convenience food means to our family. Spring approaching here in Australia, and I imagine the cooler months to be approaching in the US.

A little background to how I came to hold these views. We challenged ourselves and were able to live on around $65 for 8 weeks. Things aren't that much different here, and they certainly aren't cheaper. The average family like ours chews through $300 a week in groceries. Mind boggling to me, but time and time again I was told by friends that their grocery bill headed towards that amount. During this time of limiting our shopping, I learned how to make yogurt, cheese, preserve fruits, bake bread, forage for food locally, garden and generally make do. Amazing things started to happen with my children's behavior. Without all the additives and preservatives in ready made products, my children stopped wetting the bed. My son toilet trained day and night before he was two in this time, and generally they were kinder towards each other. Parenting was simpler.

Coincidence? Maybe. But after looking a little further, I realized that I was not the only one finding these things out. Many had linked the additives and preservatives in foods to children's behavior.

Occasionally we slip up, and the kids have something that they shouldn't. Generally they became teary, emotional and aggressive. Their moods swings are terrible. They wake at night. We know that some time in the last two days they have had some annato (160b) or worse (282) which are the main culperates, but there are others that cause the kids to have stomach upsets.

Anyway, I was thinking of convenience food and what that means to this family and how that relates to our money. Convenience food means something that is quick and easy. The take-away shops for us,  are tempting, but cause issues described above. It takes more time to actually go down, order and get back with the food than it does to make something from home. So yeah, sometimes we just have fried eggs and tinned spaghetti (certain brands are ok) on toast.

The best convenience food that I've ever had is found less than 20 steps away. Our chickens supply us with the most beautiful eggs ever. I cannot simply go back to eating those pale yellow yolked rubbery white mass produced things. Boiled egg in the morning, lovely. Eggs have so many uses, they are natures versatile wonder food. Second best, must be the delight in picking a salad and a bunch of vegetables from the back yard. It takes hardly any time to pick, wash and chop. That is it. Seriously you can wait longer getting a subway sandwich. Picking a piece of fruit ripe from a tree is convenience.

Convenience is in the knowledge. Knowledge of what to do with ingredients, and how to combine them. Knowledge of how to keep a couple of chickens. Knowledge of how to garden. Convenience is not found in my opinion in the take away stores.

Planting a few seeds, and keeping a couple of herbs in pots take hardly any time at all in comparison to supermarket shopping or the average length of time in a take away store. They have huge added benefits, like a healthier diet and other benefits similar to what we have found.

I was a little sad to see my teenage cousins, who are city dwellers look at the ripe apples, peaches and nectarines hanging on the trees at my dads place. They were hungry as dinner was taking a little while longer than expected. While my husband, I and my kids were plucking some fruit from the trees. They asked "Do we have to do something else to the fruit before we eat it, cook it, wash it?". "No, just pluck it off and eat" was our response. Apparently, the fruit wasn't as uniform and shiny as the shop brought stuff, that is sprayed with waxes. A little knowledge goes a long way. 

It annoys me, that a delivered pizza will take 30-40minues to be delivered. Honestly, 1cup of SR flour mixed with 1 cup of yogurt taking about 20seconds, and adding left overs as toppings, I can have a pizza ready for the family in 20minutes TOPS. It annoys me more that it will cost roughly 10 times as much to have that take-away pizza and may just lead to the kids getting out of sorts.

I'm reflecting on what it means for convenience in today's terms. I'm reflecting because all I'm actually getting the understanding that convenience food means, a giant rip off of your time, health and money.

My plan is to gather more convenience in our lives when it comes to food. For us, this means planting out our spring vegetables and hopefully getting some more fruit trees to put in the back yard. The chickens have supplied the eggs for over two years now, and are also supplying the plant food. So costs of producing food in our small backyard is down.

I'd love to hear a US prospective on what convenience food means to MMM' people, and how generally people see convenience in the US.

madhadron

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2012, 11:14:14 PM »
I'm probably not the person to answer this, since cooking's how I relax in the evening, my family bequeathed me with both an old Italian food culture and an old New Orleans food culture, and I rarely eat out because there are only a few restaurants in Seattle that produce food significantly better than what I can toss together in ten minutes when I'm tired and not paying attention.

It is mostly knowledge. For me, convenience is having the meal halfway done. I roast two chickens a month, which provides me with meat for sandwiches and salads, and stock for my soups. I keep bulk frozen goods on hand (fruit, fish filets), and I make my tomato sauce in bulk and freeze it. In the winter I do the same with my ragu. For sauces like that, freeze them in ice cube trays. Do the same with pesto and pureed, roasted garlic. Ten pounds of onions and ten pounds of sweet potatos in the pantry. Black beluga lentils, which are certainly an indulgence, but worth it. Cook up quinoa, millet, and other grains with no flavorings and store them in the fridge. Make a giant pot of soup or stew and eat at it for a week, and freeze the rest in meal sized portions. Buy good bacon bulk and freeze it in packets of about a week's worth at a time. Keep eggs on hand. I live in an apartment, so I don't have any garden but my little herbs in the entranceway, and no chickens, so it's always a nuisance trying to poach eggs, but I'll often keep a bunch of hard boiled around.

I made my own bread once a week for years (except while I was living in Europe, where I bought my bread from the neighborhood bakery), though I don't now since my girlfriend's been trying to cut down on her carbs.

I recently taught yet another of my friends to cook, and started thinking I needed to write a book or a blog or something, since there's all this basic technique that seems not to get passed on. So many folks are convinced that tomato sauce or roast chicken is somehow hard. For example:

Tomato sauce: 4 cups of pureed tomatos, fresh or canned, 2 tablespoons of butter, and an onion, cut in half and peeled, thrown into a pot. Cook on low, uncovered, for an hour or two, stirring occasionally, until it's thickened into a nice sauce. Pour it into an icecube tray to freeze it if you want to use it later. It scales exactly, except that you cook it longer.

Roast chicken: Wash and drain the chicken, rub it inside and out with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Take two lemons, crush their insides by rolling them on the counter while pressing down on them with your palm, then puncture them all over. Shove them into the chicken's cavity. Put the chicken breast down in a pan, and put in the oven on 350F. After half an hour, turn it over. Put a meat thermometer in. When it's about 20 or 30 degrees below done for 180F, turn the over up to 450F to brown it as it finishes. When it hits 180F, pull it out and let it sit for ten minutes or so before carving. The lemons baste it from the inside. Carve all the meat off, then put the carcass, all the organs that should have come with it, an onion or two, and some celery and carrots, in a big pot, fill it with water, and cook it at a solid boil for hours and hours until all the flavor's leeched into the water and made it into stock. Freeze the stock. Ice cubes work if you've got enough trays. I use yogurt containers these days because I don't.

Given tomato sauce or pesto in the freezer, dinner is limited by what you want to put them on. Homemade pasta's also really easy if you get yourself an old style pasta machine. It freezes just fine, too. With stock, soup is very fast. Throw a few nice vegetables in, maybe a little barley, and season it to flavor, and you've got dinner.

The true test of a cook is simple things. How well can you make potato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich? If you can do those superbly, then the notion of ordering a pizza or going out to pick up a prepared meal from the store becomes laughable.

On the other hand, we go out to eat once a month, choose the place carefully, and really enjoy it. Generally it's something that I don't know how to make, or would be far too much work: a Salvadorean bakery that does heavenly fried plantains and papusas; a Japanese restaurant which gets seafood that I can't; a Chinese restaurant that does seafood dishes that I'm just not equipped for; Afghan and Ethiopian, where I don't understand the spice palettes; and several months have been going to an old Mexican taco cart where they giggle at my lisping, European Spanish. Notice the total absence of Italian on that list.

Which is all a long winded way of saying, "Good god, people, just learn how to cook."

kkbmustang

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2012, 08:05:54 AM »
Thanks for the tips on the roasted chicken and homemade sauce. It sounds fabulous. I love to cook, too, so your post was exciting for me. I'll cook or bake just about anything, but full chickens and turkeys. They terrify me. Probably because I undercooked a whole chicken right after I was married and it scarred me. Time to get over it.

I've bought already roasted chickens and made my own stock. Also, if you are buying fish from a fishmonger or at the fish counter, you can buy a whole fish and ask them to separate the fillets from the head and bones. You can use the head and bones to make your own fish stock. I've done that before, too.

Still not gonna do a turkey, though. That's what my mom and The Hubs' mom are for. :) Besides, I don't like turkey. At Thanksgiving I never eat it. Only the sides.

pippingeek

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2012, 12:35:10 PM »
I have only one day off a week between work and school, so convenience food is paramount. Here are some of the tricks I've been using to make sure I can still eat healthy without tons of time or money.

* Buy a head of lettuce, tear the whole thing, store in large tupperware with a paper towel on the bottom and one on the top. Keeps it from wilting or rotting for a good week, so I can just throw a handful into a bowl when I want some greens. Helps to add some lightly steamed kale to give it more flavor and vitamins, then I chop cukes and tomatoes as I eat them (or use half and save the other half for the next day's salad), throw in a small amount of canned beans, which are stored in the fridge until the whole can is used up, a little goat cheese, and maybe some chicken if there's some lying around. Toss it all with dressing and it's a super protein packed and delicious meal with 5 minutes prep time. Bonus points for making your own salad dressings which saves time on seasoning the salad if it's all in the bottle.

* I recently bought a slow cooker so every Sunday I try and cook at least one giant pot of something to last me through the week. This Mark Bittman rice and lentil pot recipe has also been a godsend, as it can be adjusted to change the flavors some but still always be healthy, and just a minute to reheat in the microwave and you've got a hearty meal. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40914494/ns/today-food/t/mark-bittmans-revolutionary-meals-your-new-years-diet/#.UFYaTY1lTjE

* With the slow cooker, I try and do one meat thing every couple weeks, preferably with bones in it. I then take the seasoned juices from that pot once it's done and use those to roast vegetables the next day. Not only do I now have meat to last for a couple weeks (to eat on its own or add to other dishes), plus several days of roast veg, but also when the veg are finished cooking you can pour off the juice and you've got wonderfully flavored stock to use as a base for other things. I also save my veg trimmings so that when I reach critical mass I can throw it all in the crock-pot overnight with some meat and bones and make amazing stock with pretty much zero effort on my part.

I figure the amount of money I've saved on shopping and ready-to-eat foods since I got the slow cooker has more than paid for it already in just over a month.

Jamesqf

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2012, 01:35:34 PM »
Still not gonna do a turkey, though. That's what my mom and The Hubs' mom are for. :)

Got to say I like turkey - and I can cook one, put dozens of packs of meat in the freezer to take out for sandwiches/quesadillas &c, and turn the bones & scraps into decent soup stock.

One of my conveniences is to make a crockpot of soup, then freeze it in 1-2 serving batches.

I make my own bread about 2/3 of the year - in summer it's just too darned hot to bake, so I make do with store-bought.  Don't know if I'd call it a convenience, really, but I enjoy doing it. 

Worsted Skeins

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #5 on: September 16, 2012, 02:22:10 PM »

One of my conveniences is to make a crockpot of soup, then freeze it in 1-2 serving batches.

I make my own bread about 2/3 of the year - in summer it's just too darned hot to bake, so I make do with store-bought.  Don't know if I'd call it a convenience, really, but I enjoy doing it.

It may be too hot to bake bread indoors in the summer, but grilled flat bread is easy--especially if you are already firing up the grill as we are doing today.

In cooler months I tend to make a crock pot of bean soup/stew weekly. Another great crock pot convenience food is pulled chicken.  (I use mostly thighs and a couple of breasts, skin removed but bone in, cooked with sliced onion and some barbecue sauce.  Freezes well and makes a great sandwich filling.)

Back to the OP:  yes, it is far more convenient for me to maintain a stocked pantry then to make regular trips to the grocery or take out. 

Those of you who bake dessert or sweet snacks:  have you noticed how appalling sweet most American commercial baked goods are?  I regularly make scones with fresh or dried fruit and a couple tablespoons of sugar.  No comparison to grocery sweet snacks with artificial this and that.  No wonder some kids bounce off the walls!

Jamesqf

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2012, 09:15:18 PM »
It may be too hot to bake bread indoors in the summer, but grilled flat bread is easy--especially if you are already firing up the grill as we are doing today.

Sure, IF.  But I don't grill at all - too much trouble when it's just me, and when it's with friends, they'd rather do it.

[guote]Those of you who bake dessert or sweet snacks:  have you noticed how appalling sweet most American commercial baked goods are?
[/quote]

Yes indeed.  I even cut down the recommended sugar in many recipes.  And then there are the sugar glazes on things like cinnamon buns - so much better without!  (And a suggestion: try making cinnamon buns, but replace the cinnamon with cardamom.)

bobthetree

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2012, 02:01:11 PM »
If it's too hot to cook break in the kitchen, I think MMM said he used to use a bread maker in the garage!  Since it is set it and forget it, and a separate appliance this could work well.  I recently noticed that my goodwill had several bread machines for $10.  I also just got back from a trip to Thailand and some of the people I met there's house had the kitchen entirely outdoors.  It was under an awning right out the back door and just consisted of some power plugs (Everything including burners is separate and not an appliance) and some cabinets / counter tops.  Keeping the heat out where it belongs!  This is convenient only because of the tropical client and room sized individual AC units.  Not sure my mom would have ever cooked for 3 hours outside in Texas!

kkbmustang

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2012, 03:30:50 PM »
I have a bread machine that I love, but never thought of having it run out in the garage. That's a great idea.

We use it to make a lot of things, but one of our favorites is pizza dough. We make the largest recipe, which is enough for 2 large pizzas. I can either freezer or refrigerate the second ball of dough for later. It's super easy and way cheaper than ordering delivery pizza.

totoro

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #9 on: September 17, 2012, 04:42:28 PM »
I love cooking.  The biggest convenience food for me is leftovers. 

I cook very big dinners and leftovers get packed for lunches for several days and reheated for dinners.  Friday it was roast lamb with minted potatoes, baked squash with brown sugar and cinnamon, asparagus with lemon, greek salad (easy to make) and wild blackberry crumble.  I made three crumbles and froze two for later.  We just finished the last of the leftovers for lunch today.

Tonight I'm cooking a whole salmon with potatoes and kale from the garden and bruchetta.  It will feed us for a few days and I will make a seafood chowder from some of the leftover salmon and potatoes. 

Cooking is not difficult and there are so many great recipes online.  Youtube videos can teach the basics.

Here is a great artisan no-knead bread recipe and you can store the dough in the fridge for fresh bread as needed:  http://www.food.com/recipe/5-minute-artisan-bread-325571  My son loves it dipped in balsamic and olive oil. 

I also often make pizzas for lunches using quick rise yeast and muffins are really quick to put together in different combinations.  I make 24 muffins at a time and it lasts a couple days around here.  I make tarts a lot too: raspberry, blackberry, pumpkin, pecan and lemon meringue.  I mix the fillings in advance and freeze them in batches enough to fill 12 tarts at a time.

As for processed foods, I have to admit a weakness for salt and vinegar chips and nice chocolate.  That said, we mostly eat our own cooking.  I find the biggest limit is my kids not liking some foods (like most cooked vegetables), but we work around it.




happy

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #10 on: September 17, 2012, 07:08:17 PM »
Basic home cooked meals are quicker than takeaway, although I find its usually the "can't be bothered to cook" , rather than the time component.
I have found batch cooking and freezing meals/ or the main part of a meal is important ahead of time.
I got a breadmaker and now bake my own bread. Its very quick to start a loaf in this machine. Previously I always had to drop back into the shops for bread through the week, since our freezer compartment is very small.  And of course picked up a few more non-essentials each time. Its quicker to bake another loaf of bread, than go back to the shops.  The extra freezer space I can now use for pre-pared frozen meals rather than loaves of bread. I am saving about $5-8/week, could be more if I sourced cheaper ingredients (on the to-do list).

igthebold

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #11 on: September 18, 2012, 07:22:52 AM »
Goldfish snack crackers are the convenience food we buy. We'll grow out of them soon.

Everything else is made at home. To me, a rice cooker full of rice and some fried eggs (plus soy sauce and Sriracha) are super easy and good in a pinch (everybody's tired and hungry). Given that baseline, there's no reason to pay for anything more convenient and less delicious.

happy

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #12 on: September 18, 2012, 07:52:24 AM »
Yes its really important to have some super easy no-brainer meals up your sleeve. Unfortunately  my teenagers are not excited by soft boiled egg and bread soldiers or canned tomato soup with toast cut up in squares to float on top, like they were when they younger.

My absolute rock-bottom emergency standby is " kids get your own night"....used to be a hit, now the concepts a bit worn but they still comply (albeit grumbling about why can't we have home delivered pizza). I often have to bite my tongue about what they choose to  get themselves, but console myself with the fact it doesn't happen often.

totoro

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #13 on: September 18, 2012, 08:55:55 AM »
A very quick teenager food they can do themselves is tortillas with tomato sauce and shredded cheese on top - put butter in frying pan and add tortilla until cheese melted - fold in half - serve with a side of raw vegetables.  My kids actually really like this and it is superquick and fills the pizza craving.

BTW I tried roasting chickens last night with half lemons inside and they turned out great - thanks Madhadron.

Tradies wife

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #14 on: September 21, 2012, 01:05:38 AM »
Tortillas! who would have thought a bit of sauce and grated cheese would make a great snack. I actually had to google tortillas to know what you were talking about.
Easy snacks/ lunches-
Crackers and Cheese with assorted spreads (honey, jam, vegemite (ok maybe not for the US))
Pancakes (especially if I have no bread)
Pizza. Either pizza bases I've made and placed in fridge, or 1:1 SR flour: Yogurt, sauce + left overs on top
Yoghurt and berries, drizzled with honey. (Home made yoghurt, the rest I buy)
Ommlette (yet again, great when I haven't any bread) with any veg hanging around the fridge.
Sandwiches
Egg (home grown) and tinned spaghetti on toast (usually made at home).

Thanks so much for all the ideas. I've just poached some chicken, so I can be even lazier creating some lunches during the week. 


Worsted Skeins

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #15 on: September 21, 2012, 06:01:26 AM »
Tortillas! who would have thought a bit of sauce and grated cheese would make a great snack. I actually had to google tortillas to know what you were talking about.
Easy snacks/ lunches-
Crackers and Cheese with assorted spreads (honey, jam, vegemite (ok maybe not for the US))
Pancakes (especially if I have no bread)
Pizza. Either pizza bases I've made and placed in fridge, or 1:1 SR flour: Yogurt, sauce + left overs on top
Yoghurt and berries, drizzled with honey. (Home made yoghurt, the rest I buy)
Ommlette (yet again, great when I haven't any bread) with any veg hanging around the fridge.
Sandwiches
Egg (home grown) and tinned spaghetti on toast (usually made at home).

Thanks so much for all the ideas. I've just poached some chicken, so I can be even lazier creating some lunches during the week.
This must be a cultural thing, but can someone explain "tinned spaghetti on toast"? Sounds like a varient of the British beans on toast?

kkbmustang

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #16 on: September 21, 2012, 07:50:39 AM »
Madhadron -- The whole chicken and lemons are on the grocery shopping list for the weekend. Wish me luck. :)

Tradies wife

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #17 on: September 21, 2012, 03:53:48 PM »
This must be a cultural thing, but can someone explain "tinned spaghetti on toast"? Sounds like a variant of the British beans on toast?
[/quote]

Sorry I guess in America they probably say 'canned spaghetti'
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=canned+spaghetti+on+toast&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvnse&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=PuFcUNKqCYyuiQeUnoGIDw&sqi=2&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1016&bih=624

Worsted Skeins

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #18 on: September 21, 2012, 06:09:05 PM »

Quote

Sorry I guess in America they probably say 'canned spaghetti'
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=canned+spaghetti+on+toast&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvnse&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=PuFcUNKqCYyuiQeUnoGIDw&sqi=2&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1016&bih=624

Is tinned spaghetti commonly served on toast? The double carb hit is sort of mystifying to me. I understand what the dish is, but I guess what I was wondering if this is comfort food in a certain geographical region or to a certain generation. Does that make sense?

c

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #19 on: September 21, 2012, 07:00:07 PM »
We grew up on Tinned Spaghetti on Toast! We always thought of it as such a treat, but looking back I see that it's what we got when my parents couldn't be arsed to cook. Also, it was only relatively recently that I realized that the stuff in the tin is actual spaghetti.

I have two go to dishes for when I don't want to cook/have nothing in the house

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/harissa-spaghettini-recipe.html I leave out the pine nuts as I rarely have those in the pantry, use a LOT less oil and add lemon juice. The great thing about this dish is that it's even better cold. The only real work is the kale. I'm eating this as I type.

and something we call "Vegan Bibimbab" It's not vegan at all, it's a sunny side egg on top of kimchi, MorningStar Meatless crumbles and left over brown rice. If you put the egg on upside down the yolk goes into the rest of it (when I was Vegan I had a more elaborate Vegan version).

For some reason this is stuff we always have in the house. It's like a bunch of wilted kale and left over brown rice constantly regenerate in the back of the fridge.

ETA: Thinking about tinned spaghetti made me remember "fried egg and chips", which was also a particular treat.
« Last Edit: September 21, 2012, 07:01:57 PM by c »

totoro

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #20 on: September 21, 2012, 07:12:55 PM »
I've never heard of harissa!  I'm excited to try that as it sounds like something we would like and we have tonnes of kale in the garden right now.   Love kimchi too.

I always have miso and chicken stock (paste form "better than boullion") that I use to make quick soups from whatever is leftover in the vegetable department along with chinese wontons (frozen) and usually sweet potatoes.  We sometimes add kimchi to the soups too along with an egg or two and green onions/cilantro.

c

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #21 on: September 21, 2012, 07:38:03 PM »
Harissa is awesome, I highly recommend it. It adds flavor to everything. I've been looking into making it myself from the recipe she links to as we get through so much of it. Currently we buy it. This is the brand I prefer http://www.thefrenchybee.com/dea-harissa-hot-sauce-423-oz-tube-p-333.html as it has a richer flavour and is hotter than some of the others we've tried.

I'm a big fan of the 101 site, it pretty much taught me how to cook again. Many of her dishes are made from random fridge stuff she has, use very basic cooking skills and almost all of them translate well in to leftovers for lunch or meals later in the week.

Nudelkopf

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #22 on: September 21, 2012, 10:13:02 PM »
Spaghetti on toast was Mum's-too-lazy-to-cook dinner, haha. Although a lot of people eat it for breakfast.

kkbmustang

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #23 on: September 22, 2012, 10:21:33 PM »
Just thought I'd share a super easy dinner I threw together last night. I was experimenting and it turned out well. Pretty sure it was less than $1 per person.

I took about 1 cup of quinoa (rinsed) and put it in a casserole dish with some water (enough to cover the quinoa) and the juice from one lime. Before I did that, I marinated some chicken breasts in a little bit of olive oil, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, chopped garlic, pepper and greek seasoning. I put the chicken on top of the quinoa and baked it at 350 degrees for about an hour.  After I did it, I realized I should have thrown some leftover veggies in.

But, it was delicious and took me no more than 5 minutes to put together. Even my son who is the world's pickiest eater ate it right up. I spiced mine up a bit with some Frank's red hot sauce, but it's versatile enough you could mix and match with whatever you might have on hand.

We fed 4 people dinner and had enough left over for 2 lunches. 

I figure the breakdown was this:
Chicken $4 (six pieces of chicken)
Quinoa $0.50 (guessing, we buy it in bulk)
Lime $0.15
Garlic $0.05 (guessing, it was a tablespoon from one of those enormous jars of diced garlic)
Olive Oil, Soy Sauce, Worcestershire and Seasonings $0.50

That's $5.20 leaving $0.80 for leftover veggies. Next time I'll do broccoli, bell peppers, carrots and/or chopped asparagus.

kdms

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #24 on: September 24, 2012, 08:46:13 AM »

It annoys me, that a delivered pizza will take 30-40minues to be delivered. Honestly, 1cup of SR flour mixed with 1 cup of yogurt taking about 20seconds, and adding left overs as toppings, I can have a pizza ready for the family in 20minutes TOPS.

Would you mind sharing the specifics of the SR flour/yogurt recipe for pizza dough?  I've been doing much the same as you and others here....making our own yogurt, bread, preserving, foraging, etc, and for some odd reason I am completely unable to put together a decent pizza crust.  I refuse to buy take-out pizza for the cost and lack of nutritional content (it makes both my son and my DH very out of sorts, and I'm being forced to admit that it doesn't really do me any good either) but I really miss the family pizza nights I had as a kid...where my dad made it from scratch.  I'm in Canada....what's SR flour?  All-purpose? Whole wheat?  Thanks.... :)

kkbmustang

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #25 on: September 24, 2012, 09:39:32 AM »
I think SR flour is self-rising flour. It already has baking powder and salt in it.

totoro

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #26 on: September 24, 2012, 10:27:58 AM »
I use cinnamon bun dough for pizzas and it is good.  Not authentic because it has eggs, milk and butter in it, but very tasty.  I make a big batch and keep it in the fridge.  I make cinnamon buns, calzones, pizza from it as needed in the toaster oven.  I use the pizzas for breakfast, school lunch or dinner once a week.  My kids don't like this pizza crust as much as store-bought, but they like it better than other home-made pizza dough recipes.

kdms

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #27 on: September 24, 2012, 11:45:25 AM »
I think SR flour is self-rising flour. It already has baking powder and salt in it.

thank you!  :)

kkbmustang

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #28 on: October 16, 2012, 12:50:48 PM »

Roast chicken: Wash and drain the chicken, rub it inside and out with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Take two lemons, crush their insides by rolling them on the counter while pressing down on them with your palm, then puncture them all over. Shove them into the chicken's cavity. Put the chicken breast down in a pan, and put in the oven on 350F. After half an hour, turn it over. Put a meat thermometer in. When it's about 20 or 30 degrees below done for 180F, turn the over up to 450F to brown it as it finishes. When it hits 180F, pull it out and let it sit for ten minutes or so before carving. The lemons baste it from the inside. Carve all the meat off, then put the carcass, all the organs that should have come with it, an onion or two, and some celery and carrots, in a big pot, fill it with water, and cook it at a solid boil for hours and hours until all the flavor's leeched into the water and made it into stock. Freeze the stock. Ice cubes work if you've got enough trays. I use yogurt containers these days because I don't.


I have now cooked this chicken twice and both times it was FABULOUS. Thank you so much for the instructions. I also made stock with the first one and will do so with the second one (I just pulled it out of the oven). It's delicious.

cosmie

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #29 on: October 17, 2012, 07:05:05 AM »
I use cinnamon bun dough for pizzas and it is good.  Not authentic because it has eggs, milk and butter in it, but very tasty.  I make a big batch and keep it in the fridge.
Store-bought or fresh? If fresh, would you mind sharing your recipe? I've been trying to find a good one.

totoro

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #30 on: October 17, 2012, 07:27:18 AM »
I use fresh.  Here is the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ooey-gooey-cinnamon-buns/

You can substitute some whole wheat flour and I make my own topping for the buns with just some melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.


cosmie

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #31 on: October 17, 2012, 07:54:58 AM »
You mentioned making a big batch and keeping it in the fridge. How long will a batch last in the fridge? (Cooking novice here: dunno much about cooking with yeast).

totoro

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #32 on: October 17, 2012, 08:15:22 AM »
I keep mine in an oiled ziploc bag and for about four days.  Not sure if that is recommended given that it has eggs in it - but we do it and it has been fine.  If you don't cover it well and put oil it gets hard on the outside.

I also highly recommend that recipe I posted for Artisan bread.  The dough keeps TWO WEEKS in the fridge and it is extremely tasty and low effort once you have the batch mixed: http://www.food.com/recipe/5-minute-artisan-bread-325571

frompa

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #33 on: October 18, 2012, 04:52:31 AM »
Hey KDMS, I think a crucial ingredient in excellent pizza dough is olive oil.  Lots of it, like half a cup to three cups of flour.  Also, I make pizza dough using all kinds of flour - from whole wheat and oat and rye to plain old unbleached white.  I also use yeast instead of baking powder/baking soda, so no self rising flour for me.  If I plan ahead and have a day to let it sit, I make it with my sourdough that I use for other bread making, and don't need to add any additional yeast.  If I add lots of olive oil, and roll or press it very thin, no matter how heavy the whole grain flours I use -- ooh la, it's a fabulous pizza.  Or I use the dough to make calzones - just roll or press out a circle of dough, fill half with cheese and/or veggies and/or meat or whatever, fold over, crimp the edges with a fork, poke a few steam holes in the top and bake in a hot oven for twenty to thirty minutes.  My gosh, it's not even seven in the morning here, and now I'm revved up for pizza!  Ah, cooking...

totoro

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #34 on: October 18, 2012, 09:04:36 AM »
Frompa, I would love your recipe if you are willing to post it.

frompa

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #35 on: October 19, 2012, 06:02:57 PM »
Sure.  Basically, use about three cups of whatever mix of flours you want, half to three quarters a cup of olive oil, two teaspoons of yeast, a pinch of salt, and enough water to make it hold together like pizza dough should.  Knead it for whatever the flours require to develop the gluten a bit (heavy whole grains like wheat require more kneading than plain unbleached white.)   Let it sit for a few hours or overnight in the fridge to rise, and you're good to go. Roll or press it out to whatever shape your little heart desires,  cover it with your favorite sauce and/or toppings, and bake in the lower part of your oven at your highest oven setting til it's done.  I hope this is enough detail to get you there. 

happy

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #36 on: October 20, 2012, 05:37:37 AM »

Roast chicken: Wash and drain the chicken, rub it inside and out with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Take two lemons, crush their insides by rolling them on the counter while pressing down on them with your palm, then puncture them all over. Shove them into the chicken's cavity. Put the chicken breast down in a pan, and put in the oven on 350F. After half an hour, turn it over. Put a meat thermometer in. When it's about 20 or 30 degrees below done for 180F, turn the over up to 450F to brown it as it finishes. When it hits 180F, pull it out and let it sit for ten minutes or so before carving. The lemons baste it from the inside. Carve all the meat off, then put the carcass, all the organs that should have come with it, an onion or two, and some celery and carrots, in a big pot, fill it with water, and cook it at a solid boil for hours and hours until all the flavor's leeched into the water and made it into stock. Freeze the stock. Ice cubes work if you've got enough trays. I use yogurt containers these days because I don't.


I have now cooked this chicken twice and both times it was FABULOUS. Thank you so much for the instructions. I also made stock with the first one and will do so with the second one (I just pulled it out of the oven). It's delicious.


I had a left over half lemon so I stuck it the cavity of  my roast chook tonight...I have to say the lemon is a great addition.

totoro

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #37 on: November 15, 2012, 06:23:15 PM »
LOVED the pizza dough recipe frompa - made it twice now.  Thanks!  Several pizzas and extra pizza dough now frozen in the freezer uncooked .  I estimate even with gourmet toppings (hot pickled red/yellow peppers/feta/cheese/red onion/olives/prosciutto) we are at max $7/pizza and only $3/pizza for plain cheese - all XL size.

Also, have just frozen a couple of shepherd's pies as well.  True comfort food and so easy to reheat in the oven.

Tonight I'm trying out a new recipe based on DH's request: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2182756/Recipe-Prawn-linguine-chorizo-amp-cabernet-tomato-sauce.html

Will report back :)

One Day At A Time

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #38 on: November 20, 2012, 02:54:04 PM »
Cooking is my creative outlet and I concentrate on 'real food' eg: unprocessed and no labels :)

I attempt to make everything at home, breads, crackers (smittenkitchen.com has a GREAT recipe for cheddar cheese crackers that are delicious), cook with fresh, organic produce, use only grass-fed beef, etc. Basically what y'all do.

The convenience for me is having a stocked freezer full of things like soups, sauces and stews that will allow me to pull together a dinner quickly. Tonight, for instance, we are having carnitas nachos using carnitas I made last month and then froze into meal-size portions. I keep a spreadsheet of what there is in the freezer otherwise I tend to forget about things.

meadow lark

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #39 on: November 23, 2012, 07:17:50 PM »
I love making stock from chicken or beef bones.  Whenever I have bones I either make stock then or put them in a plastic bag in the freezer to make stock later.  just place in a slow cooker and cover with water.  I usually cook about 8 hours, drain all the liquid and let cool, then place in ziplock and freeze.  I then put the bones back in the slow cooker and cover with water and let it cook again, anywhere from 8-24 hours.  Drain, freeze the liquid, throw away the bones.  the long cooking makes amazing bone broth that is supposed to be full of calcium and magnesium.

liquidbanana

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Re: Convenience food
« Reply #40 on: November 23, 2012, 08:29:03 PM »
I love making stock from chicken or beef bones.  Whenever I have bones I either make stock then or put them in a plastic bag in the freezer to make stock later.  just place in a slow cooker and cover with water.  I usually cook about 8 hours, drain all the liquid and let cool, then place in ziplock and freeze.  I then put the bones back in the slow cooker and cover with water and let it cook again, anywhere from 8-24 hours.  Drain, freeze the liquid, throw away the bones.  the long cooking makes amazing bone broth that is supposed to be full of calcium and magnesium.


You can also do this with vegetable scraps (like if you don't like broccoli or kale stems and usually throw them away or something) to make a vegan broth. :)