Things I learned recently and made my life easier

[user1471523870]

This place is awesome for finding out new tricks!

What I learned so far that I have also implemented successfully:

• you can buy chopped frozen onion. Revolutionary! I then discovered I can buy chopped shallot (feels very posh) and that I prefer the M&S chopped onions as cut finer than others.
• you can buy mashed potatoes and it tastes really good. Not as life changing for me, but super useful for when my toddler decides he wants his tea now, not in 20 minutes after I boil the potatoes.
• on the same trend, I now buy sliced frozen sweet peppers. Great for my fajitas. I always keep frozen chicken and a box or two of Fajitas kits for emergency.
• my latest frozen discovery is stir fry veg. We have a stir fry every other week-ish but I have to make sure to plan it carefully as the bags of fresh ready made veg only last few days. Not anymore now! Frozen veg, frozen salmon, packs of sauce/noodles and ta-daaaa.

Any other suggestions that work for you?

Frozen Sofrito from Tesco
Cube or slice lemons and/or limes. Open freeze then put into freezer bags. Use instead of ice cubes in drinks. Also doesn't water them down.
Bulk buy mince and cook it off with diced onion. Put into freezer bags and flatten and store using library sysyem. Pree cooking and stacking uses about
A third of my very limited freezer space. Defrost as needed and mince alrrady browned off so meal prep also much quicker.

@sashh

Hang on.... you can freeze ginger?? Whole and raw?! The ginger we’ve wasted because I use a ‘thumb sized piece’ once a month!

If you put it in a plant pot surrounded by compost it will actually grow.

Spring onions, chop an inch or two above the roots, put the roots in water and they regrow.

I've never got this tip - surely the inch or two is the bit that you want to eat, but you only make another spring onion for it?

@JumpLeadsForTwo I use all the onion up to where it becomes separate leaves, so about 6 inches.

Placemarking!
I love all these freezer hacks but don’t have any to add.
My contribution: you can make mayonnaise in 15 seconds with a stick blender!
In a Pyrex jug, measure out 250ml light vegetable oil, 1 egg, salt, pepper, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, a squeeze of lemon or light vinegar. Put the stick blender over the egg and blend for 10 seconds, then move up to emulsify the rest. You can add turmeric for colour, curry powder or garlic for aïoli, or make Marie Rose with a splash of sherry, tomato paste and sweet paprika.

Yy to soaking and then planting out spring onions (once used down to a stub, otherwise it doesn't work IME). Now we have an endless supply, and they grow so fast!

Don’t throw away most of the spring onion! 😮😮

You can use the greens too! Almost all the way to the top where it starts to look a bit straggly.

[quote sashh]@JumpLeadsForTwo I use all the onion up to where it becomes separate leaves, so about 6 inches.[/quote]
Hang on - so you plant the green bit and that miraculously turns into a new spring onion (white bit)?

Hang on - so you plant the green bit and that miraculously turns into a new spring onion (white bit)?

No the roots and a bit of white onion, the onion grows.

MN converted me to freezing whole chillies and ginger and just grating them into dishes.
Also freeze lemon and lime chunks for G and T, or just with T.

Iceland sells packets of frozen ginger, garlic, etc.

Freezing Coriander - I buy a big bunch, chop off about 1cm from the stems, then split into 4 smaller bunches. I loosely roll each bunch into a sausage shape, wrap in clingfilm and freeze. Once frozen, I just crush a clingfilmed pack in my fist, unwrap over the pan and the coriander is shattered into small pieces - no need for any chopping!

@sashh

Hang on - so you plant the green bit and that miraculously turns into a new spring onion (white bit)?

No the roots and a bit of white onion, the onion grows.

Okay.... Got it. So the bit you chop off before you use it. Got it. That does make more sense. was seriously confused there!

@Limerto be a bit more environmentally friendly you can wrap it in newspaper - I learned that from an elderly Pakistani lady, useful if you get the bunches from the Indian grocer where you get a huge bunch for £1.

I've always frozen whole chillis and chopped bits off them with scissors, but have never considered freezing fresh coriander!! Why on earth did that not occur to me, I usually end up throwing some of it away!!

Now if you could only freeze lettuce...

oh and the frozen ready chopped garlic is much nicer than the stuff in vinegar.

You can freeze hummus and ginger??
Loving all the suggestions on here. Going to need a bigger freezer ...

I love threads like this.

Hummus can be frozen?! mind blowing!!

Now if you could only freeze lettuce...

Use spinach instead and freeze leftovers. Some of our favourite meals are made with this and it is so nutritious.

@TwentyTwentyOne

Now if you could only freeze lettuce...

Use spinach instead and freeze leftovers. Some of our favourite meals are made with this and it is so nutritious.

It's more being able to store lettuce in the freezer for a salad that i was thinking of. Frozen spinach is not going to work in a ceasar salad!!

You can freeze Brie. I got a whole wheel at Christmas (reduced to 20p 💪) cut it into wedges, wrapped in greaseproof paper, all in a freezer bag, just take a wedge out, let defrost and it's all good.

Freeze ends of veggies (carrots, bottom of celery, centre of cabbage etc) I cut them to about 2cm ish. They get added to a large freezer bag of ends, then once 2 bags are full, I make a stock out of them :) (which goes in the freezer 😂)

Is freshly made stock really worth the faff compared to stock pots? I've never made it!

@JumpLeadsForTwo

Is freshly made stock really worth the faff compared to stock pots? I've never made it!

Taste wise, not necessarily £

I buy these ready chopped veg all the time. It's a mixture of onion,carrot and celery. Perfect for adding to bolognese sauce or risotto. I've put it with basmati rice and cooked it together. It's got many uses.

I didn't answer my own question- just forgot to add that!!