Posts filed under ‘Cooking’
Cash Saving Tips No.6 How to save time on jacket potatoes
Aren’t jacket potatoes great? I love them!
I realised a while back that I wasn’t cooking them as often as I’d like too due to them needing 1 1/2 hours in the oven. I knew you can cook them in the microwave in about 15 mins but they’re just not the same without that lovely crispy outside!
One day I had a brain wave…I cooked my jacket potatoes in the microwave as normal then popped them in a hot oven for about half an hour whilst the rest of my dinner was cooking. Then they were all ready at the same time and had a pretty crispy skin too!
If you’ve got any time saving tips like this please do share them with us all below 
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How to make home made chicken nuggets
Reading Time: 2 mins
This recipe is so quick and simple it’s become a staple in our weekly menus I owe this recipe to a good friend from California – you know who you are cos you taught me when our children were toddlers together XX
Ingredients:-
- 1lb diced chicken (recipe is for 3 adults)
- 3 tbs flour
- 1 egg
- shake of pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp mixed herbs
- lots of oil (I use olive oil)
How to:-
- Get a small bowl and beat your egg in it;
- Get another small bowl and add the flour and seasoning to it, mix them well together;
- Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a deep frying pan until it’s pretty hot. I expect you can do this in a deep fat frier too but they scare me so I don’t own one
; - Using metal tongs pick up a piece of your diced chicken dunk it in the egg;
- Then put it in the flour and roll it around lots until it’s well covered in the flour mix;
- Then put it carefully in the hot oil;
- Repeat this process for the rest of the chicken pieces;
- Cook them all thoroughly until they’re nice and crispy and brown all over. I guesstimate this bit myself but it’s probably a good 20 mins to cook the larger pieces as you need to make sure they’re well done in the middle too.
And that’s it – simple
If you enjoyed this post you may like these ones too:-
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Cash Saving Tips No.3
You know when you’re cooking pasta on the hob and you bring it to the boil and then turn it down to a gentle simmer and allow about 12-15 mins for it to cook? Well what you can do instead is once it’s come to the boil is turn it straight off and keep the lid on.
Your pasta will be cooked in more like 20 mins instead of 12 but you’ll have saved 10 mins worth of gas or electricity!
This works because pasta doesn’t take long to cook and so with the lid on the water retains it’s heat long enough to cook it without the heat source.
Happy saving
Cash Saving Tips No.2
Quick and simple one this.
I’ve often heard people suggesting that you only boil the right amount of water that you need. Personally I’ve not very good at guesstimating this and my kettle needs a minimum amount of water that is bigger than the one cup I’m often making.
So instead what you can do is when you’ve boiled the kettle for your cuppa you put the left over water into a thermos flask and keep it for the next one!
This way even if the water isn’t hot enough to make a drink straight from the flask you can at least pour it back into the kettle and it will boil loads quicker saving you electricity! Simple!
Cash Saving Tips No.1
Reading Time: 3 mins
Welcome to the first in my series of ways to save yourself a bit of cash.
One of my more recent ways I’ve come across to save a bit of cash is to cook using the ‘Hay Box’ method. My Mum says that during the war her family cooked alot in this way. It’s ideal for cooking meals like casseroles, stews and well anything in a sauce basically.
All you need:-
- a large cardboard box, say about 3′ x 3′ x 3′ (1m x 1m x 1m);
- a large old blanket or sleeping bag;
- a cooking pot or saucepan that you’d cook a casserole or mince dish in.
Not too hard so far, eh?!
If you haven’t got a cardboard box that big you could ask your local supermarket for one or use something similar in size like a large clothes basket.
Your blanket or sleeping bag ideally needs to be one that you don’t mind the odd drip of food on.
To prepare the meat and sauce of a bolognaise:-
- First of all prepare and cook your meal in the normal way but 6 hours before you want to eat it – cook your mince in a saucepan on the hob as normal but only up to the point where you’ve added all the ingredients and would then leave it to simmer for say 20-40 minutes.;
- Whilst this is cooking get your ‘Hay box’ ready. Put the cardboard box on the floor out of the way somewhere with the lid open. Then take your blanket (insulation) and line the box with it but so that there is plenty left over to cover up your pot with afterwards. Try to make sure the bottom is flat so that your sauce doesn’t tip out;
- Then turn off the heat under your pan and very slowly and carefully lift your pan and lower it into the bottom of your blanket lined box;
- Then cover over the top of your pan with the left over blanket and tuck it in firmly round all the edges so that it’s 100% wrapped in thick layers of blanket. If the lid shuts that’s a bonus but it seems to work fine either way.
- Leave it for 5-6 hours.
And it’s as simple as that!
When you open up your ‘Hay box’ having made (in the case of Spaghetti Bolognaise) the spaghetti seperately, your meat part of the meal is still very hot so be very careful when touching it. You’ll most likely still need oven gloves to protect yourself. Your meat is then ready to serve straight away, and it’s all the better tasting as it’s been sitting in it’s own juices for so long! Yum!
The meat and sauce for Spaghetti Bolognaise can be ready in only 4 hours whereas a dish like stew with big pieces of potato can take more like 6 hours.
This way of cooking is perfect for preparing before you go out in the morning and it’s always ready when you come in at the end of the day. If you’re an hour late it won’t even spoil, the worst that I’ve had happen is potatoes being crumbly as they’ve cooked a little too long and when that happened to me it was after 8 hours!
Here’s a site that has loads of good links to other Hay Box information sites.
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