Chef’s five lazy food hacks revealed – and how cleverly jazzing up a 90p Asda pizza can turn it from ‘meh’ to ‘yeah’
Cooking can be a bit of a chore if you’re not a natural in the kitchen, and after a long day it’s not always possible to spend hours over the oven.
Luckily, there are a few savvy tricks you can try so you can still enjoy tasty grub every day of the week without all the extra washing up and hard work.
Here are the top five lazy food hacks people swear by.
Chicken done cheap
Making time to plan ahead is the best way to relax down the line, one way you can do this is have your meat for the week ready to go.
Posting on Reddit, one foodie shared the food hack they swear by, and there’s no cooking involved.
“I buy cheap rotisserie chicken at least once a week. I break it down and serve it for a couple of meals,” they explained.
“I use the little bits stuck on the bones for salads, and then I save the bones for stock. I could roast my own chicken, sure. But the rotisserie chicken is already done and cheaper. Wins all around.”
Pimp your instant favourites
Microwave meals might not always be ideal, but if you’re real in a rush they’re the most convienient.
The pros at Tasty shared some of the best ways you can do this, and adding left over veg onto your frozen pizza is a favourite.
You can grab a frozen cheese pizza for as little as 90p in Asda – then just chuck on anything you have that needs using up.
And while frozen chips might seem a bit bland, you can turn them into pizza fries using your air fryer.
Just cook them until golden brown, then pour over marina sauce and a sprinkling of cheese.
Bake again until the cheese is melted and dig in!
Use seasoning instead of fresh
Using fresh onions and garlic might be ideal, but if you’re in a rush and don’t have any at home you can still make a meal packed with flavour.
One foodie explained how they use jars of seasoning, they wrote on Reddit: “Garlic and onion powder. These spices have their place in lieu of fresh garlic and onions. They can be bloomed in water to revitalize more of a pungent flavour.”
Homemade hot chocolate
If you’re craving a tasty hot chocolate but don’t have anything to make one, don’t worry.
One food fan shared their hack to whip on up in an instant using dregs of Nutella.
All you need to do is “pour warm milk into an almost-empty Nutella jar and shake to make Nutella hot chocolate,” they explained on Reddit.
Freeze your sauces
Sauce can make or break a meal, so when you do get the time to make one your really like, make extra and freeze it.
You can do this in individual portions so they’re ready to go whenever you quickly want to whip up some pasta, or even a curry.
The same hack can work for other seasonings, like chilli pastes, pesto and more.
The pros from Taste of Home said: “Become an upcycling master! Egg cartons are ideal for freezing small portions of homemade sauce.
“Cover and freeze leftover basil and parsley pesto and transfer cubes to a resealable freezer bag.
“To use, thaw cubes in your fridge for 2 hours.”