"Cheat" products that you love?

[DomesticSlobbess]

As much as I love cooking, there are the odd occasions when dinner comes "pre-prepared" in some form.

Products I love and would recommend are...

Colman's sausage casserole mix
Swartz roast chicken gravy

What are your recommendations for jars/packets/ready meals etc that you love to use?

I always mashed my own potatoes and thought smash type stuff was horrid, but then I tried the 20p a bag smart price from asda -I think the difference is that you mix it with cold water and then microwave it seems to mean no lumps or anything. I put it straight onto a shepherds pie and it was fantastic. Do add some butter though.

I use frozen garlic from asda freezer section-saves cleaning the garlic crusher!
Frozen peppers are much cheaper and no difference in a cooked dish.
Frozen forest fruits make really lovely puddings-just with icecream or as a crumble/muffins etc and much cheaper than fresh.

Frozen herbs from Waitrose transformed my life. Well, my dinner anyway. And frozen chillis and ginger from Tesco. I know you can freeze fresh ginger, but this way I don't have to chop it.

Oh, boil in the bag rice is awesome too! So much easier to clean up after..

Frozen garlic, onions and mash.aldi cauliflower cheese

Frozen ginger, gravy, yorkshire puddings

Frozen Yorkshire puddings are evil. Theyre too dryband crunchy

Evil must taste good

Sainsburys fresh ready made mash for fish pie

Asda hot Biryani sauce in a jar. Bung cooked leftover chicken, uncooked rice, a jar of this and water into an oven proof dish. 50 mins later a lovely spicy meal. I get a tub of ready made Tzatsiki and Naans to go with it.

How could I forget Sainsbury's fresh mash? I'm completely shit at making mash. Tastes disgusting and always lumpy. Fresh mash you bung in the microwave for 5 mins is perfect stuff.

Waitrose frozen chopped onion.

Crispy fried onions from Asian food shops. Brilliant sprinkled on noodle stir fry dishes!

Mrs happy bee how much water and how much rice? Can you add veg too? Does this rice cook properly?

m.tesco.com/mt/www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=278656748#

Tesco frozen ratatouille mix - is great mixed into a chilli or with quorn or chicken for a fajita filling

The courgettes are really nice, you wouldn't know they had been frozen

Tideford tomato sauce, georgeous, much nicer than my home made.

Frozen berries are brilliant.

Both kids love Heinz minestrone soup, heigh hoh, there are worse things to eat...

And we all like potato waffle dc

I am definitely going to look into this frozen diced onion. I don't get bolognaise sauces, because surely you would want to add a load of veg and the meat. For a fully home made bolognaise at mine, the additions are tinned tomatoes, half the tin of water and a bit of a stock cube, a splosh of wine (if I have it- tried port the other day and it was goooood) and some worcester sauce. So how does a jar of sauce make things easier, or do they come with lots of veg in them already?

Yy to frozen berries. I am a big fan of microwave rice and lentils even though they are more expensive, they are just so much easier.

Colemans do an amazing country herb potato packet, you just chop some baby potatoes then add a spoon of water to the bag then micro for 9 mins. Not a health food but quick and easy and so delicious!

The Aunt Bessie's home bake yorkshires taste better (I think that's what they're called), the ones that come in the little metal trays.

Garlic oil and Pataks curry paste.

Colman's packet hollandaise sauce
Waitrose frozen coriander
Madeira Wine packet gravy mix (Colman's or Shwarz-can't remember who makes it)

Tescos chipotle Pulled Pork

Things I buy routinely and refuse to feel guilty about are:

those little cubes of frozen spinach

Heinz tomato soup

Bisto onion gravy

Yorkshire puddings

Pataks curry pastes and a Thai paste but can't remember the brand offhand

Frozen nut cutlets - Goodlife are best but Sainsbo's okay too

Puff pastry (and occasionally even shortcrust)

Ready made custard from the fresh aisle

Frozen blueberries for pancakes and raspberries for mixing with yoghurt and oats for a kind of Bircher Muesli thing.

Quorn mince

Can you freeze your own home chopped onions?

I was doing some batch cooking yesterday and chopped the onions in the food processor (really quick) and I just wondered if I could do loads and freeze them - would it be any different to the commercially frozen chopped onions you buy ?

Yes. They'll freeze in a lump but a quick bash breaks them up.

My kids adore frozen mash, from Aldi!!!! Apparently it's as nice as school mash

Actually the cauliflower cheese also, anything from the freezer at Aldi