Cooking Fresh Food - breaking the jar/can/bottle habit...

[TheBear]

Astrid - great article, just the kind of thing we're trying to tackle with this thread.

[Laranna]

Bear, I was wondering if you could give us a list of "core ingredients" we should always have stocked in our pantries/fridge?

I know I always get caught out with not having some spice or herb, etc when I am trying different recipes. It would be good to know what base ingredients are good to have on hand.

[Janie]

Laranna, I'll start with some things that I am never without........I'm sure Bear will add to the list!

tins of diced tomatoes
onions
garlic
pasta, different shapes, eg. spaghetti, penne
rice, different varieties, arborio, jasmine, brown, basmati
olive oil
tamari/soy sauce
oyster sauce

um, will think of more!

Bear, I'm after a really good, basic sauce for a pasta bake. I refuse to use jars, but I love the convenience of having a pasta dish made ready to put in the oven when I get home from work. My DH doesn't eat a huge variety of vegies, so I'm challenged as to what I can add to the pasta (apart from lots of cheese LOL)

[briggsy's girl]

i make a mean chicken pasta bake in the slow cooker Janie - diced chicken breast, tomato based sauce (which you can do from scratch), whatever veg you want, cook it up - when it's almost done, throw in par cooked pasta and let it finish cooking. freeze in meal sized portions, then when you want it, defrost over night, throw in the oven topped with cheese - beautiful!!

i also do the same with a vegie only bake with a creamy sauce - saute finely chopped veg in garlic butter (i tend to do onion, carrot, spud, swede, turnip, parsnip, zucchini), throw in some cauli and brocolli that's been blanched (and cut up small). make a creamy cheese sauce, mix it all through. mix through some pasta (and if you're wanting some meat, some diced chicken breast that has been browned). again, freeze in meal sized portions, defrost, and throw in the oven to heat/brown the top. you can top with extra cheese if you want, but i tend not to as i throw a fair bit of cheese into the sauce as i make it. i've dished this up to really fussy kids who won't eat anything other than spud and carrot and they hoover it down - the veg is all finely chopped so they literally have no idea how much they're eating in there!