Posted by Caroline WrightIn Everyday Food's test kitchen, we're always considering ways to bring convenience to our recipes, whether through prepping ahead or learning what ingredients are the best to buy from the store.
Finding practical ways to make the most out of your time and money is what we're all about. (Many of you added to our list of favorite test-kitchen shortcuts, which is so exciting -- I learned a thing or two, too!) Freezing ready-to-heat meals is one way to cut down the time until dinner; keeping certain must-have at-the-ready foods in the freezer is another.
Read on for our ways (and some of our friends' ways) of bringing convenience to kitchen life without reaching for preservative-filled convenience products. Let us know which are your favorites!
Chicken Broth
Chicken broth is an ingredient I never buy because it's cheap, easy to make, and thrown together with leftover ingredients. Blogger buddy and chef Mark Tafoya offered a solution I love to use, too: tossing the bones from your roast chicken in a resealable plastic bag and keeping them in the freezer. When you find some time, simmer the bones in a pot of water with whatever extra pantry veggies and herbs you have on hand. Then, to make a good thing even better, freeze your stock in muffin tins for easy-to-use portions.
Pie Crusts
Speed up pie- and quiche-making by making your crusts ahead. Once you form the dough into disks for chilling, throw it into your freezer and store up to three months. They defrost in a few hours in your refrigerator and are cheaper to make than their store-bought counterparts. Here's our much-loved recipe.
Pizza Dough
I can't live without a few 1-pound balls of pizza dough in my freezer. Pick up your share at your local pizzeria, or buy it from your grocery store. (For store-bought, look for a dough with a short list of familiar ingredients.) Having pizza dough around makes pizza-making cheaper (and often faster!) than delivery. Try our recipe for Hamburger and Grape Tomato Pizza -- your family will love it!
Meats and Fish
Store individually wrapped meats such as chicken breasts or pork tenderloins, flash-frozen fresh fish, or bags of frozen shrimp for go-to dinner inspiration. This way, you take advantage of big-quantity deals at your grocery store and are one step closer to dinner. Although the possibilities are endless -- you can use your frozen meats any way you would from the store, simply defrost and go -- give one of our top five chicken recipes a try.
Bread
If you have a small household, it's hard to go through a whole loaf of bread. Instead, go ahead and freeze sliced bread. Jennifer Tantleff, an online foodie friend, freezes sliced baguette and crisps the slices in the oven for a quick bruschetta.
Fruits and Veggies
Store-bought frozen vegetables are often minimally processed, however, and are a favorite test-kitchen shortcut. Or take a cue from an ambitious Rebecca Gerendasy, of cookingupastory.com, who freezes washed and dried fresh berries on a tray and places the frozen berries in a freezer bag. You could use Rebecca's tip in lieu of frozen berries for this very quick compote, Ginger Berry Compote with Angel Food Cake. Also, cut corn off the cob and freeze the kernels for a very fresh summer reminder.
Dinner Ingredients
Make these versatile dinner components ahead, and build your dinner around them. Use one of these sauces -- fresh tomato, pesto, Ranchero -- as a dressing for pasta or meat. With meatballs on hand, you have a hearty dinner dish, sandwich filling, or appetizer. Although our freezer-friendly taco filling was made for tacos, it's also great in enchiladas, on salads, or as an unexpected topping for baked potatoes.
What's your favorite unexpected shortcut ingredient?
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