For me jars are usually too expensive. I have what i call my "emergency jars" in the cupboard - tinned spag bol (of the kind one might eat on toast) and tinned soups - they get used when i'm too tired or ill to cook for us. I generally use about 1 tin from the emergency a month.

I have 40 (literally, i took a delivery of 36 last week) tins of tomatoes (16 whole plum, 24 chopped plum) in my cupboard along with 2X butterbeans, 2X chickpeas and 6X kidney beans. I have the dried versions too, but unless i'm planning well ahead or using the pressure cooker (which needs no pre-soaking for small grains) i am notoriously bad at managing to pre-soak. So i can't claim i don't use tins! LOL. But i never buy a pasta sauce for example, i always make my own.

My basic sauce takes about 15mins BG, more if you're using fress toms, but i'll detail that too.

For fresh toms, begin by plunging into boiling water and removing the skins, then dice roughly into 2cm cubes.

To make a lot to freeze i generally use 3-4 cans of tomatoes (about 12-20 toms, depending on size) 2 onions, 4 garlic cloves, a big handful of basil and a generous pinch of herbes de provence, some olice oil, some tomato paste.

Finely chop or grate (faster but makes me cry more) the onions. Fry them gently in olive oil while you chop and add the garlic (if you crush it it's stronger and you'll need less) and the dried herbs. Let it all fry until the onions are softened then add your tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir together, simmer for 10 mins then boil hard (to reduce) for 5. Remove from heat, add chopped basil/herbs (if using fresh).

To this you can add later on:
chillis (for arabiata base)
meat or soya mince (for bolognese, tom part of lasagne sauce etc.)
chilli, meat (or soya mince), kidney beans, grated carrot (chilli con carne)
chopped grilled bacon, milk and flour (thickened tomato pasta bake sauce)
grated, boiled carrots and coriander and a dollop of creme fraiche (for tomato, carrot and coriander soup)
aubergine, zuchini, peppers (all roasted and then simmered in the sauce) for a ratatoui type thing
fish (i like mackarel or anchovies) and raisins (for a lovely fresh pasta sauce)
mint, peas, chopped roast lamb, paprika and spices (cinnamon etc.) (for a greekish dish that goes yum with potatoes)

I could go on, it's pretty versatile It's a great alternative to the "tin of soup" so many slow cooker recipes call for too.

My favourite salad dressings:
olive oil, balsamic, mustard
toasted sesame oil, lime juice, wasabi (great marinade for sashimi recipes too!)
groundnut oil, cider vinegar, smooth peanut butter (great with indian or thai food salads)

Raita recipe (for the cucumber) - 1 cucumber, 500ml unsweetened natural yogurt, 2 big handfuls fresh mint, 1 tablespoon mint sauce (from a jar! eek), little squeeze of lemon juice.
Grate the cucumber, squeeze some of the water out of it (i dump it in a clean tea towel and wring - if you dice it you don't need to do this bit) and set aside. Chop the mint. Put all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Add salt to taste (i use none, depends on the yogurt i find, some has a saltiness to it already). It's a great accompaniment to hot hot hot curries and DD often begs for a spoonful of it whenever i open the fridge

Pumpkin and sweet potato stew-
Flesh of 1 small pumpkin
2-3 sweet potatoes
some of my tomato base (above)
beef or lamb (lamb works best, particularly the "bad" cuts like neck/breast as the fat adds a lot of flavour)
paprika, cinnamon, a little nutmeg, pepper, salt

Peel the potatoes and dice them up, dice up the pumpkin, i get my butcher to bone out and dice my meat for me, but you could stick it in whole and take the bones out at the end because it goes all melty anyway. Some people fry off the meat to brown it first, i do if i can be bothered but i often can't. Stick it all in the crock pot, add enough tomato base to almost cover it all. I cook on medium for about 9 hours but it depends on how fast/hot your cooker is and how hot the kitchen is... I have also had to add seasoning (spices as well as salt and pepper) at the end too, depending on how well i managed to do it in the first place.

Serve it up with a tomato salad made of chopped raw tomato, spring or red onion, red pepper (capsicum), chopped mint and some cider vinegar/olive oil dressing.

I'm looking for thai, japanese or chinese type recipes of any kind

Bx