Shortcuts

Since this is a housewife blog, I've decided to go all out housewife on today's post.

Let me start by telling you that I am not that girl who freezes everything and eats it later.  Leftovers in this house are unheard of - because we think they are gross.  I know that it is wasteful, but it's how we roll.

In my middle age, I have started planning meals ahead of time and being slightly less wasteful.  By the time I'm 80, maybe I will eat leftovers that have been in my frig longer than a week?

*** shudder ***

Let's not go there.

But for today, I will tell you that I now split recipes.  If it calls for a 9x13 pan, I'm putting it in two 8x8 pans and freezing one.  And because I'm neurotic, I always put the date on it so that nothing rests in the freezer for longer than a month.

Ew.

But what I really want to share with you today are my favorite shortcuts.  I love shortcuts.

Do you hate cutting onions?  I do.  Everything stinks after chopping them, including my hands.  I used to find moldy onions in my frig because I would wait too long to chop them.  I love onions in my food, though.
I now buy a few onions at a time and dice them all at once.  Put those onions in baggies in your freezer and take as much as you need when you need it.  Need 1/4 cup onion for taco meat?  Throw it in.  Need 1 cup of onion for soup?  Throw it in.  No need to thaw.

My mom doesn't buy into this.  When she is over here, I find half an onion in my frig.  It's stinky.  And you should see the look of horror in her eyes when I used my frozen onions in her guacamole.  She never did admit that it tasted just right, but it did.  I am picky and it was perfect.  She just ate in silence refusing to admit her wrongness.

My other favorite time (and money) saver is with chicken.  My sister buys the rotisserie chicken and plucks the meat off for casseroles and soups.  I like to buy the whole cut-up chicken and boil it.  It's messy, but not that much messier than the other.  You still have to debone it - and chicken cooked on the bone is always yummier.
The best part is that if you let the water cool, you can freeze the broth as the perfect soup base for chicken & noodle soup.  You can even freeze any of the chicken that you aren't using.  In the winter, I boil two at the same time since I know we eat a lot of soup.  Makes it easy to put together a King Ranch Chicken casserole on the fly as well.

You can trust me - it's still good.  I hate the idea of freezing food, but this works and it still tastes delicious!


Those are my favorite shortcuts.  What are yours?
Share a kitchen secret with us!




~Mrs. Priss

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