Cooking Shortcuts by Risa Attrell

Below you will find some cooking shortcuts. No, this is not a list of easy recipes. Rather, it is a list of ideas and suggestions that will make whatever you’re cooking for dinner a little easier, and will hopefully inspire you to think of your own ideas.

Forget The Eggs
Eggs have cholesterol and they cost money. People use eggs where they don’t really have to, because they believe it serves as a glue to make things stick. They therefore add eggs to ground beef when making meatballs, or dip the chicken in eggs before breading it, to make the breadcrumbs stick to the chicken. But this is not necessary.

Ground beef has a sticky quality on it’s own. While your meatballs may hold together better if you add eggs, (and flour) if you make your meatballs small, and compress each meatball in your hand into a tight ball before dropping it in boiling water, they should stick together. Furthermore, if you work directly from the package of meat when forming your meatballs, you will save yourself a bowl to wash. If you add eggs and flour to your meat, you will need to use a bowl, and thus will end up with a dirty bowl to wash. You can still spice up the meatballs to give it flavor, and if you pour tomato sauce over the whole spaghetti and meatball dish, it will taste pretty good.

A word of caution though. Don’t try this when making meatloaf. If you try to serve your family meatloaf without eggs and flour, they will think that you just spiced up some ground beef and stuck it in the oven; and they would be right.

You can also make breaded chicken without the eggs. Though this time, you don’t get to save yourself a bowl to wash. True, the breadcrumbs will stick better with the eggs, but if you just rinse each piece of chicken in water and then dip the wet chicken in the breadcrumbs, it will stick. You’ll save your family from the unnecessary cholesterol, and you will save yourself time.

2. Don’t Boil the Lasagna

You might think you need to boil the lasagna noodles before making the lasagna. But actually you can get ‘No Boil Lasagna’ in your supermarket. And here’s a secret: Even if the package isn’t labeled No Boil, you still don’t have to boil it. Instead, create the lasagna as you usually would, but with raw lasagna noodles. The trick is to add a generous amount of sauce between each layer. The lasagna will cook and become soft in the oven if there is enough sauce between the layers. And make sure you add sauce on top as well.

3. Use Frozen Vegetables

I’m all for fresh vegetables. And I love salad! But this is about making dinner preparation easier. We all have times when we are busy, tired, or both, and just not up to spending too much time in the kitchen. Here is where frozen vegetables come in to the picture. Your freezer should be stocked with frozen broccoli, frozen cauliflower, and whatever other vegetable your family enjoys. When you need to make an easy meal, you just take the frozen vegetables out of the freezer, put some in a baking pan, and pop it in the oven shortly before dinner. I have even heard that frozen vegetables have more vitamins than fresh vegetables, because it is frozen fresh with all the vitamins in it, while vegetables left unfrozen lose their vitamins over time. Whether this claim is accurate or not, I’m not sure, but I’m sure frozen vegetables have nutritional value. So use them when you need an easy side dish.

4. Use Canned Soup

I bet you didn’t need me to tell you this one. And it needs no explanation.

5. Use Disposables

Obviously, this one will save you time, not money. If you want to save yourself time from washing dishes, pots and pans, then use disposable everything. Disposable plates forks, spoons and knives. And disposable baking pans. (Sadly we still don’t have disposable pots.) If this is too expensive, at least use disposable baking pans. There is nothing harder and more annoying than having to stand and scrub a baking pan. I won’t comment about the theory that cooking with aluminum increases the risk of Alzheimer’s. I don’t know much about that subject. You can make your own decision about that. I am merely pointing out that baking in a disposable baking pan will save you the time of rubbing and scrubbing a baking pan.

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