If you’re a cook from scratcher….

[CurlewKate]

…What one convenience thing do you buy and love? Mine is microwave pouches of puy lentils. So quick and delicious.

Yorkshire puds (actually prefer shop bought anyway). Custard, pesto and used to be shortcrust pastry, but since they took the butter out of it I no longer use pastry for anything because shop bought is now vile. Far too much bother to make from scratch!

Frozen mashed potato, puff & filo pastry, pesto, mayo, frozen chips, nachos and tortillas, frozen berries in the winter and microwave brown & wild rice. Not all of them every week, but fairly regularly.

I buy microwave pouches of rice and lentils but I don’t microwave them as I don’t have a microwave. (I hate microwaved food.)

Microwave rice and no plans to stop!

I live alone. Might be different if I needed multiple pouches every time.

Frozen chopped onions.
Garlic paste
Ginger paste

That's still cooking from scratch!

All my veg are frozen, except salad obviously. Prep uses too much energy, plus I waste fresh ones. It's still real cooking unless they're already in a sauce or something.

I forgot to confess to oven chips, though. I bloody love 'em. 'Naked' chips, just potato & oil, but definite convenience food.

Pastry, ready rolled. It's the one thing I'm scared of making.

I got a mini rice cooker for Christmas, which does just one or two portions.

Microwave rice but thinking of switching to Nice Rice
bold bean co - jars
merchsnt gourmet lentils /grains

Like many others frozen onions, frozen garlic and frozen ginger. Not having to prep those three ingredients has made evening cooking so much quicker.
Quick cook pasta and pesto, a fairly easy packed lunch option in a food flask,
Pataks curry paste, usually a Rogan Josh, cartons of custard, I was raised on Bird's custard but my family like ambrosia,
Frozen fish fingers and frozen chips,
Puff pastry but make my own short crust,
Biscuits, but always home made cake,
Sauces like ketchup or mayo,
Corned beef, I love corned beef hash.

Waitrose frozen potato
Patak's curry pastes
Confit duck (store cupboard essential here; the French make it better than me)

M&S Chicken Kiev with the little bone on the end. Divine.

M&S frozen garlic and herb butter and frozen bone broth. They have stopped doing the frozen truffle butter (I think) but I buy it fresh (M&S) and cut into into slices and freeze. My go to lunch is spaghetti with a disc of truffle butter, Parmesan, fresh lemon juice and spinach or other green veg - quick, easy and delicious.

Oh and jars of cooked chickpeas - game changer - tinned chickpeas were never as good but the jars you get in Middle Eastern shops are amazing.
they also sell frozen broad beans with the skins off

Fresh pasta, it cooks so much quicker than dried, and tastes better.

Not averse to a M&S sauce to go on it - but I do add my own extras from the fridge eg slice up a chilli, or slice and microwave cook mushrooms to add to cheese sauce

Hummus, custard, mayo, filo and choux pastry as I cannot make them. Cubes of frozen garlic from Morrisons as I CBA.
I make my own soffritto and tons of carrot and swede and cauli cheese which I freeze in muffin moulds.

Pastry, pasta, bread, hummus.

mayo , stock (I can and I have but don’t) I would never use a jar or packet sauce - but we don’t really eat like that. One DC has coeliac which complicates matters somewhat. I don’t understand why anyone would buy guacamole or or would make hummus or tzatziki from scratch.

Well, we're cook from scratchers, so nothing! Well, I mean, we buy milk & cream because we don't have our own cows/goats to milk lol. But we make our own butter. We don't own a microwave either. We make our own stock, and portion it out so that that's handy for each required meal.

We usually will buy ice cream though, we have an ice cream maker but still buy ice cream as well as make our own. My DH buys tahini paste though, oh and nam pla, soy sauce, I think that's about it, dried herbs & spices, and booze (for DH).

Stock cubes and wine stock.

Frozen mash
Frozen onions
Frozen peppers

I wont use fresh in time to use a whole bag of potatoes which end up in he bin etc, so frozen is best from a finance and waste pov.

DF was a master baker, but even he used frozen puff pastry to make the sausage rolls at Christmas. It's such a faff making it from scratch.

Rotisserie chickens
Chicken pies (new discovery just this winter)
chicken gyoza or wontons for snacks or soup
pesto
Quinoa salad

all from Costco

Those of you who use frozen mash, I have a friend who freezes hers in a shape that fits the dish she makes her shepherd’s pie in-then just chucks it on top of the filling and puts it in the oven like that. I am expecting her to take over the world one day soon.

Same here