On 30 Apr 2008, at 20:56, tray.b wrote:

> Ashley, rather than roast, could you grill, pan-fry or broil smaller  
> cuts?
> It only takes a few minutes to do up a steak.

Possibly yeah, the only downside is this limits you to less fatty cuts  
of meat, which means more effort getting fat in some other way.


> And rather than mince, you could do up stir-frys with meat and veg -  
> even
> cut the meat/veg beforehand so all you have to do is remove them  
> from the
> fridge/defrost and pop them in the pan. Even chicken cooks up fast  
> this way.
> You could also do up a bunch of mince at once, portion it out and  
> freeze it.
> It does keep in the fridge as well.

Freezing food is probably a good idea.  I used to use a large stock  
pot to cook, I could easily cook 3kg of mince with 2kg of veg in it,  
freeze it and eat it over the next few days.  Good idea!  I will have  
to fetch the stock pot though, it's at my parents' house about 1.5  
hours' drive away.

This would have the advantage that if I wanted to eat less often I  
wouldn't have to wait long for the food when I did decide to eat :)

> I can see how things take a long time if you're doing all the prep  
> at the
> same time - could you spread your prep work out, or do it all at  
> once for
> the week? Cut veggies/meat and vacuum bags are good friends. Even  
> just in a
> zipper bag for the week would be fine.

Again that's a good idea.  I could peel/chop all the veg in one go and  
freeze it...

Also, again it reduces the food response time from being hungry to  
having a prepared meal to eat.


> Crock pots make doing up larger meat cuts easier, and are a cinch to  
> use.
> Making stews, chilis, soups etc is easy - add ingredients and walk  
> away.
> Then you have leftovers!

You're on a roll tracy :)  I will try all this as soon as I get the  
cooking equipment I need.

Cheers
Ashley