to think that people who buy ready-grated and ready-sliced cheese from the supermarket are nuts?

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I mean why would you bother. (Normal exceptions apply - people with disabilities etc who can't grate cheese).

How hard is it to grate cheese? Plus that ready grated stuff must be as dry as a bone.

Plus ready sliced cheese. Why would you now just slice your own cheese? What use are those slices anyway, they are thicker than a pound coin, you would choke on sandwiches made of that.

So expensive as well.

Thankyou very much Getorf.I will forever be in your debt.

Cannot take credit for it thunderduck as it was MIL's recipe and she got it from Woman's Own

Well you passed it on, so I am very grateful for that.

Ready made mash is great. It means you can make a very easy shepherds pie when you get in knackered from work, I can put up with chopping onion and carrot, browning mince etc, but the whole peeling potatoes, boiling and mashing palaver would finish me off. So I just top my pie with ready made mash, put it in the oven and bob's your uncle.

Or sausages and mash for when I have completely had it.

What happens to the disappearing magic plastic in liquitabs though? Where does it go?

It's magic GetOrfMoiLand.

That magic plastic is also on the poncey dishwasher tablets DH bought from Makro (100-odd tabs, I love buying stuff in bulk, I get all breathy and excited when I go). If your hands are even slightly damp, it starts to dissolve. Eeeeewww and yes, slightly sinister.

Are there many people who make their own bolognese sauce? I never even realised it was a possibility

Yes, it may be magic Morloth but it is black magic as evidence by poor old caaaaa's post.

Caaaa - put down the liquitabs, gently does it, dear

Hocus - does honestly taste nicer doing your own bolognese sauce, you can use passata or tinned tomatoes, onions and celery chopped and cooked in olive oil, mushrooms, basil, I put some worcester sauce in mine as well to give a bit more taste, plus a nice lot of seasoning, as well as mince of course.

Blimey this thread has opened my eyes.
I didn't even know you could buy frozen rice.
And to think I felt guilty about buying chickpeas in tins instead of soaking my own.
You slatterns.

Oh LadyGlencora, please don't look too closely at this thread if you feel guilty about tinned chickpeas! I am dishing out food advice above such as use ready made mash on top of shepherds pie. Can you imagine the carnage if I ventured on to the MN foodie threads

No, GOML, I am enjoying this thread immensely. Maybe one day I will even throw caution to the wind and buy some ready-grated cheese.

LOL eye-opener for me too.

I didn't know of the existence of frozen rice or ready prepared bolognese sauce.

Would never buy ready grated or sliced cheese - foul stuff, might as well eat plastic. I am a cheese snob and would rather not have cheese than eat that.

Likewise salad or veg in bags - it is sprayed with yucky stuff that I don't want to eat and which renders the vitamin content negligible.

MaybeAfterBreakfast, we actually call it plastic cheese in our house. I love it in all it's plasticy goodness.

We call it plastic cheese too. I love it too, I just separate it in my mind from actual cheese

I find it cheaper to buy ready grated cheese - which is a bit counter-intuitive I guess. I just find that if I'm grating it myself, then I grate half a block while thinking about something else, look at what I've grated and think 'Bit much, but I'll throw it in anyway'. Also if there's a block in the fridge then I'll cut myself a bit off & eat it from the fridge - but you won't catch me doing that with ready-grated - it's for cooking only.

With ready grated I pick out a tiny spoonful and sprinkle on top of things (home made pizzas etc). But I only buy it once a month or so as cheese is considered a luxury in our house - we can't afford it for snacking. I guess I could cut the cheese & weigh it before grating, but then you have that pesky tiny bit left at the end and grated knuckles from grating a teensy bit of cheese...

I cook from scratch otherwise. But will happily confess to canned pulses (inc chickpeas and I also felt a bit guilty about that!)

I buy washing powder tablets (they stack, we don't have much room, and I still have an slightly blue stain on the kitchen floor from the last big box of powder)

I buy grated mozzerella (easier for pizza and lasagne)

Make my own tzatziki, but too lazy to make houmous (or rather, keep forgetting to buy tahini)

Buy fake instant caramel cappuccino from Lidl because sometimes I can't be bothered to make coffee for just me (proper instant coffee tastes vile)

Buy cheap cheese and tomato pizzas and then jazz them up because I'm too lazy to make dough from scratch (today we're having salami, bacon, chicken, ham, olives, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes)

Make my own bolognese sauce though

I'd say I make my own bolognese sauce, but that wouldn't be strictly true, as I don't eat it. I much prefer meatballs. However if I did make it,I'd make the sauce myself rather than using a jar.

Oh yeah. Plastic fake cheese slices are essential if you're having burger inna bun, even if burgers are homemade. 'Proper' cheese doesn't taste right (brainwashed by McDs )

I like buying it because I am clumsy as hell and when I grate cheese, I serve up a lovely cheese/blood dish. I bet if I was ever arrested they'd be unable to process me because I've shaved my fingerprints clean off!

I like Monterey Jack on burgers, but the only place I have found it here is at Whole Foods so plastic cheese it it.

I buy ready grated cheese, and ready made crumble topping.

I am StickyLittleFingers and I like to save time...

I buy ready grated Basics cheese - am I beyond the pale? I find it's perfectly good in cheese sauces or omelettes and it is v v cheap. And it is so easy to just grab a handful. Plus it freezes really well so no waste. I also get slices of emmental for sandwiches because it's just so quick. It's also good for cheese on toast.

I had no idea you could buy frozen rice!

I buy grated cheese sometimes. Saves me a bt of time than doing it myself. It generally tastes fine IME and never noticed it being dry, esp when being used on top of a lasagne, pasta bake, etc.

Plastic sliced cheese is for BBQ burgers only surely?

No. Burgers should always be served with cheap plastic cheese.Anything else is wrong.