Tips and tricks for fast and healthy cooking

1. Make french fries in the oven

Sometimes when you don't have time to deep fry your favorite snack this is a good tip. There are a lot of different frozen french fries out there. Buy some and try just spreading it into the baking tray covered with some baking paper. You can season with some salt and bake in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes. Best fries ever and without all that extra oil!

2. Prepare meat portions, freeze them and bake in the oven 

Similar as french fries, you can prepare almost any meat and use the same trick. The difference is that meat has to be seasoned and oiled so that it doesn't dry up. My favorites, and you won't believe it till you try it, are minced meat patties, fried chicken or pork chops. When i buy fresh meat i prepare a lot of these and without thermally doing anything to them, i deep freeze them. So then i have a ready meat dish n 15 minutes and you can bake it without defrosting just separate them with transparent foil. 

3. Use baking paper to bring back life to stale bread

When you have a bread, any type really, that has been laying around for one or two days and you want to renew it's glory, all you need is a piece of baking paper. So you grab a piece large enough to wrap around your bread (all or slices). Then you crash that paper into a little ball, just don't tare it, and make it wet like that. When you open the piece of now wet baking paper wrap it around the bread, and if you like you can add a little oil or spices like salt and Rosemary. Put it in the oven on a medium heat for about 10 to 15 minutes and there you go. 

4. Make chicken stock and freeze it

Usually when i by chickens i go free range and i tend to take the entire chicken just butchered into pieces. When you do that you are left with a nice portion of meat but also with all those other parts that most wouldn't even look at. So i am talking about chicken legs, bones, neck... And it is really easy to use this parts for making chicken stock. Take a big pot fill it with water put in chicken bones, some onions, salt and pepper, a little parsley and boil for at least half an our in the pressure cooker, or an our in a regular pot. When it is done and cooled, drain the liquid (that is your chicken stock) and take out any leftover meat parts if there are any. You can use that meat for a salad or risotto. Take the molds for muffins (rubber ones if you have) and fill them with chicken stock you have just made. Freeze it for an our or so and after that take the disks out and store them back in the freezer in bags or what ever way you prefer. And that is it. So next time you want to prepare broth, chowder or soup you use those disks as the base. You can also use them in risottos and sauces. Just keep in mind that is concentrated version and sometimes needs a little more water added when cooking.

 

5. Wooden spoon over the boiling pot

The most often small accident or oversight in the everyday kitchen cooking is definitely boiling liquid that overflows the pot and makes a lot of mess everywhere. There is a simple solution to this problem that happens to all of us. Just put a wooden spoon over the pot while it boils :)