Ninja Cooking Skills

[tortoise]

Grating the butter?! That's genius! I might try making a pie crust again with that tip!

 

[lcertuche]

Grated butter is good if you need some for supper and forgot to leave it out to soften. I'm loving all these ideas.

 

[lcertuche]

@Hinotori that is spot on advice about slightly freezing the meat and having a sharp knife. I always have my steel next to me if I'm cutting anything. The older you get the harder it is on the joints but a sharp knife helps.

 

[MoonShadows]

Are these ninja tips...I am so much not a ninja...don't even know what a ninja is....

Cook on the weekends when you tend to have more time and refrigerate or freeze. Then at the end of a long work weekday, dinner just needs to be heated up.
We make 2x what we need for a meal (or 6x when making meatballs and sauce) and freeze it. An easy defrost and heat up, and dinner is ready.

I'd be lost without my George Forman grill. I have one of the old ones. The cooking finish is not as good as it used to be; I just use a little cooking spray. I looked at the new ones, but they are making them so cheap. Great grill to cook a fast meal on.

 

[MoonShadows]

We drag out our bread machine it seems once a year...use it for a week or two...then it sits there and gathers dust until we put it away....Then, we drag it out again a year later...don't know why that is since I love the homemade bread it turns out.

 

[lcertuche]

I like to freeze cookie dough when I make it up. I'll mix up several batches and freeze dough shaped like the kind you see in the grocery store refrigerated isle. Take out of the freezer and slice to bake.

I bought a bread machine a few years ago for something like $7. DH and the Wildbunch loves fresh bread so I use it frequently. With the price of decent bread over $2+ in the store the homemade probable doesn't cost more than 50 cents/loaf and probably much less since I buy flour on sale most of the times.

Check out the Dollar Tree. You never know what you'll find. DS got Himalayan sea salt at the Dollar Tree. I have bought canning salt there, canned roasted red peppers, and spices of all kinds. Not everything is a bargain but there is some. I like to buy parchment paper, waxed paper, etc. for a $1.

 

[sumi]

You guys shared some brilliant tips here. The only things that come to mind right now is when I make soup, I cook a huge batch, then spoon leftovers into freezer bags, which I place in a soup bowl for measuring. Once the bag full of soup nearly fills the bowl, I know I have a portion in there and I tie the bag and freeze it. Also, when I make pies, I make a big batch of smaller pies, which can make a meal with added vegetables/salad. These go into the freezer too for quick, easy meals.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Those are great tips Sumi! I love the soup bowl for measuring.

 

[lcertuche]

Have a list of quick meals on the refrigerator. I like things like Taco Soup which is a few cans thrown in the pot with a little bit of cooked meat, or breakfast for supper, spaghetti or whatever it is you make that is quick. I did this when I was going to school. It is so much quicker to throw a few things in a pot then go fight traffic and sit in a drive through fast food lane or go to the store when everyone else is doing the same. Not to mention healthier. I cooked up roast pork on the weekend and the rest of the week it was tacos, barbecued pork sandwiches, fried rice, pot pie.

Most my recipes use much the same ingredients so I would prepare all my vegetables ahead of time. Throw some meat and veggies together with rice, potatoes, or pasta.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Great ideas!