AIBU? Butternut squash, sweetcorn.. whats next?! Educate us!

[CocacolaMum]

I am 31 and mum to 2 school aged children. I have got to this point in my life without killing anyone off with my cooking but in the last week I have learnt 2 things..

1. You can bake a butternut squash whole. No peeling, deseeding or anything

2. You can microwave a corn on the cob in its husk (is that what that's called? the leaves?) and then just chop off the ends and it slides out ready to munch

So AIBU to wonder what else I never knew I never knew?

I never knew how delicious cabbage is until I stir fried it with garlic and added a splash of soya sauce at the end.

Works best with Savoy cabbage but any kind will do.

The microwave bacon works great!

Put the slices next to each other - 3 sheets of kitchen roll under & 3 sheets on top, on a plate.

5-7 mins in microwave depending on how crispy you like it. All the fat comes out onto the paper, not spattered all over the oven like usual!

You can wash your hair with a bar of soap. Okay, so it's not a cooking tip...

You can microwave swedes, just like jacket potato. Score aroud it and nuke for about 12 minutes, then test, you may need to put it back in for another couple of minutes.

Once done, cut in half, scoop out and mash!

You can make a perfectly good white sauce without butter, just mix flour and milk to a paste then slowly add more milk then microwave to thicken.
Much healthier than using extra fat especially if you are going to add cheese.

You can make cheese on toast without a grill or toaster.

Toast the bread in a dry pan/on a hot plate then (quickly) put the cheese on top and stick it in the microwave for 20 seconds.

Speaking of white sauce, you can make it with cornflour rather than wheat flour by heating up most of the milk, making the cornflour into a paste with a little bit of cold milk and then stirring it in quickly. Not done it for a while but try a tablespoon of cornflour in a pint of milk and if it's not thick enough repeat in half tablespoon increments.

If you're low carbing (or just lazy) then melted philadelphia makes a nice white sauce - just add milk, cream or stock to get it to your preferred consistency.

Ooh - I missed your one MammaTJ. As a low carber I have to say that I love you. I love swede mash but dealing with raw swede is a massive pain in the bum.

Philli can be replaced by quark, which is very low in fat, in most recipes that use it. I make a carbonarra sauce half a tub, three eggs yolks, and a little bit of parmesan. Mix that with onion, garlic, mushroom and ham that have been fried in fry light, mix with cooked pasta.

QueenStromba, I love mashed swede, but have carpol tunnel syndrome. Not a chance in hell I could peel and chop one. I use mashed swede on top of cottage pie! Lovely.

Oh, and to make low carb easy peasy fishcakes-mashed swede, tin of salmon or tuna, herbs of your choosing, mixed and formed in to fish cakes. Grill, fry or oven bake.

You can easily make a 3 egg omelette in 3 minutes. Food Doesn't get faster or easier than that. Tasty too.

Heat butter in pan
Whisk 3 eggs, salt, pepper with fork.
Add to hot pan
Gently move cooked egg to centre.
Add grated cheese if you want
Done.

I use frozen cauliflower defrosted and whizzed with a hand blender for things like fish pie topping but if I wan't mash as a side dish I go for swede.

Ooh - BeCool's tip reminds me that you can make 3 scrambled eggs in about a minute (plus pan heating time obviously) by doing them in a frying pan.

Microwaved bacon on kitchen roll?!
When I cook it for myself I do it in the microwave with no kitchen roll. Didn't know kitchen roll was safe in the microwave?!
Just couple of slices of bacon in the microwave, on a plate for approx 3 minutes. No more. No kitchen roll
If it's for the kids though I do it in a pan!

Things in a frying pan cook twice as fast if you put a lid on. Perfect for if you want your sausages to be cooked before they go black

Queen many is the time I've rushed in the door with a starving small child, and prepared scrambled eggs with child on hip before we've even got her coat off! By the time the toast is done the eggs are cooked.
Eggs are the most wonderful transformative food they really are.

If you fry eggs in a frying pan with a lid on it cooks the tops too so you don't need to faff about flipping them over.

For perfect rice and pasta, boil water, add rice or pasta, bring back to the boil and then turn off heat and leave with the lid on for 12 mins.

Mamma That's a brilliant recipe thanks (i've got some cooked celeriac in the fridge it'd be good with that).

Another speedy tip is have a cooking day once a week or whenever you have the time e.g. cook whole rice like Wonderwhy says or any stews\soups,curries, but leave out the garlic, and cook much more than you need then freeze in portion boxes. They take 3 mins to defrost in the micro.

My life was revolutionised (oh, all right! Made a bit easier ) when I learned how to peel an orange properly.

You cut it into quarters from top to bottom and the skin will peel off each quarter in one piece

Hours of my life I must have wasted before I discovered that one

I never ever fry sausages, just bung them in a baking tray in the oven, you don't even need to turn them and they taste better too.

I was just about to add the sausage in the oven tip. They're even better if you sling some balsamic vinegar over them. They go all sweet & sticky.

I also am addicted to microwave poached eggs for breakfast. They take 1.5 minutes and there's no washing up. Put one in an IKEA kids beaker (unless you're using it for your penis of course). 1 min at 50%, quick stir to loosen the whites & then 30s at 50%. You might have to tinker with the timings & settings depending on the wattage of your microwave.

I had no idea IKEA cups could be so versatile

can you explain the butternut squash whole thingy? how long etc.