to think frozen mash is a work of genius?

[BriechonCheese]

I had resisted for ages but bought some on a whim earlier this year and found it incredibly handy for those nights when I'm picking up and ferrying DC to various activities. It doesn't beat the real thing but it comes pretty damn close.

Does anyone else have any genius home or food products that they expected to be crap but now use to happily to survive family life?

I bought frozen mash recommended by work colleague - she said she had tried them all and thought Asda was the best

Frozen chapattis are very good! Inexpensive from Indian supermarkets
2 minutes in a dry frying pan

Thanks to whoever it was that shared the genius idea of microwaving baking potatoes, halving them, then putting them through a potato ricer. Have just served them with Sunday dinner and everyone asked what I'd done with the mash and declared it the best ever mash! I added salt , pepper, grated fresh nutmeg and milk.

Waitrose definitely do have frozen soffrito:

www.waitrose.com/shop/DisplayProductFlyout?productId=493206

I am not keen but McCann frozen jacket potatoes are ok

I like Aunt Bessie's frozen carrot and swede much nicer than the various mash I've tried but needs lots of butter adding to it

McCain ...

I use from Waitrose frozen chopped onions, soffrito, the Thai and Italian spice/herb mixes that are frozen the are all good

Frozen chopped onions
Iceland frozen cauli rice
Steam bag vegetables
Rice pouches
Frozen Yorkshire puddings
Iceland frozen 5% fat mince

All great for short cuts. Only reason I dont buy frozen mash is cause I don't like mash.

I didn't know you could get frozen cauliflower rice!

If your own frozen mash is too watery, reheat it in a pan once defrosted. You can cook the excess moisture out that way.

I find it baffling that people are vaguely apologetic about using frozen mash etc. Convenient foods like this definitely make our family eat healthier food, because it's a choice between frozen mash or chips some nights when we're busy, or I'm exhausted. If I didn't have foods like frozen mash and decent chicken nuggets in the freezer I'd be more likely to just bung in chips, or, horrors, head to McDonald's or something.
Frozen mash, frozen green beans etc mean we always have the makings of something vaguely nutritious in.

I’d love to try the frozen mash but I don’t own a microwave-can it be cooked in the oven?

Frozen veg and mash are great.

I have a freezer full of frozen veg. The fresh just goes off before I need to cook it sometimes, on my own here boo hoo. So if I didn't have the freezer stuff I would eat total crap.

When the veg bags go down to the crumbs and the little bits I make soup.

I sometimes make a huge vat of spuds for mashing and freezing. Trick is to steam the spuds not boil, boiling brings too much moisture in. When soft and ready, just mash with nothing, no butter, no cream, no milk, no salt, nothing. They will not be watery on re heating that way. Well that's my experience anyway.

Portion up and freeze. Then after m/w them you can add butter, cheese, salt, a bit of cream etc. whatever. Mmmmm.

Buggerlugs - you can heat it in a pan, I'd add some milk to it though. We use it when camping and heat it through on the hob while sausages cook on the bbq

I buy ready chopped onions (white diced and red sliced), peppers and tubes of squeezy garlic. DS is doing food tech this year and keeps asking if we have an onion, garlic clove etc and I have to buy them especially! I buy trays of fresh mash as I really can't be arsed peeling, boiling, mashing and most of all washing it all up afterwards. My kids like cheesy mash, so I stir in some (ready grated) cheese at the end to jazz it up.

People are so snobby about pre-prepared food, but why would I bother slaving over an eye-watering chopping board, peeling and chopping onions, when I can have someone else do it for me and always have them on hand. I used to buy them tinned and ready sauteed too, (Eazee onions I think they were called!) but then Tesco stopped selling them. It was a Delia cheat ingredient. She did a whole book/TV show about it, including frozen mash, but she was a bit patronising about it, and you could tell that she didn't really approve!

I'm all for making my life easier and if that means buying a bag of salad instead of chopping up half a lettuce, then having the other half go brown living in my fridge for a week, so be it.

I also buy pre-chopped mango and pineapple. Mangoes are really difficult to get right, they're either too hard or go brown and the window of opportunity to get them perfect is pretty small, so I buy it cut up so I can see its a nice orange colour. Ditto pineapple, then I also don't have to fill my food waste caddy with a massive pineapple top!

Yes Kew - the mini yorkshires cook from batter are much better than those dry hollow ready cooked ones.

I remember SIL being horrified when I confessed to weaning DS1 using dried potato (not Smash, it was pure potato flakes with no salt etc) but it was just so much easier to add a little cheese or some of whatever we were having to a tiny bit of mash for him to try. Most of it went in the bin, so having tried making it from scratch and freezing it in ice cube trays with various veg, this was just the easiest vehicle to add some nutrition with minimal effort!

"I forgot that I used to puree all my leftover veggies and freeze them. I would thaw out the mystery veggies and smuggle them into spaghetti bolognese sauce very successfully."
That's brilliant.

Frozen peas and sweetcorn work for me but any other bought frozen veg (tried broccoli, carrots, green beans, cauliflower) but doesn't come out nice in my kitchen, they turn soggy rather than 'al dente' am I doing something wrong?

I'd try frozen mash, does anyone know about the salt content and artificial taste maximising additives?

Also whilst we are at it, what are the nicest, tastiest, least seasoned with artificial additives chicken nuggets please?

I use sainsburys own

Potato (84%), Cows' Milk (12%), Butter (Cows' Milk) (3%), Salt, Pepper.

0.5g of salt per 100g which is moderate

kaitlinktm Obviously your soup will be made now, but I just stopped peeling potatoes for soup! If you're blending anyway then it doesn't seem to make that much difference!

Thanks SheRaaargh

Frozen roast potatoes? Frozen veg? That stuff is not allowed in my house, I find them completely revolting

Revolting??.... seriously? Not just a teeny over the top with that description?

Aunt Bessie's swede mash!

Aldi frozen cauliflower cheese is fantastic! From the freezer, in a dish, into the oven. The best one I've had so far!

I buy ready made mash from the chiller cabinet for the dc it's fine and a lot easier.

Oh and aunt Bessie's swede and carrot is lovely too

I'm going to try the Swede mash today. I love Swede but it's a bugger to prep