slmkhoo:

You don't have to freeze entire meals. I have a small freezer too, and anyway, I don't like freezing vegetables as we like them freshly cooked. What I do is precook extra pork or chicken slices/pieces with some garlic and soy sauce, and freeze them in meal-size portions. They won't take much space if you use freezer bags. To prepare a meal, I defrost one of the portions, and cook with fresh veg and whatever sauce or seasonings I want, and I can get dinner on the table in 30 mins. The frozen meat can be used in fried noodles or rice too.

straffan23:

I have tried it all (in a way), so here goes - Thermal pot - First, don't get the cheaper no-brands. Do your research and believe me, it will be worth the extra money in terms of the quality of the pot, and the quality of the heat insulation.


Rice - rinse and put in water to boil for 5 - 10mins. Remove from fire and leave in thermal pot. Soups and stews - Ingrediants should be cooked, and for soups, try to keep it on the stove for 30mins before putting into thermos. If this is done at 7am, rice will be mildly warm at 6pm; and soup will be warm. Things in the pot will not spoil because they have not been touched - i.e. boil, termos.... reheat / eat. It's how some would bring their leftover soup for a boil and leave it on the stove for the next day.

Oven cooking. Roast chicken (legs/tigh/breast) will take a min of 30mins in a preheated oven. The whole chicken will require up to double that time. Some of the quick dishes with oven would be baked rice / pasta. Sauces and rice/pasta pre-cooked. 15 to 20mins.

Stirfry is quick, and so is steam fish. Good idea to do some practice / dry runs before actual cases!

slmkhoo:

For quick cooking, you can also look at the one-dish meal thread. To save time, even though I am a SAHM, I also sometimes cook in larger quantities when I have time and freeze portions of meat which can be combined with veg for quick one-dish meals. You can consider some of these ideas.

jnj0910:

I was just thinking of doing simple roasting in the oven...cut chicken/ pork ribs etc etc, thought if I defrost overnight and prep in morning, then can just pop into oven and let it roast/grill til cooked. Cut up pieces should cook quickly than whole chicken, for instance, so I am wishfully hoping it will cook in 30min or less, plus 10 min pre heat for gas oven... yay!!
I haven't tried it out though...

slmkhoo:

jnj0910:

Can anyone advise if Gas Oven is the same as Electric oven in terms of speed of pre-heating and cooking? ie the only difference is their power source: one is gas, one is electric?

Would be great if I don't need to get another oven, DH grumbling where got space to put another oven??

Should be the same. When I used a gas oven, the pre-heating was quite fast too. I don't understand why the combination microwave/convection ovens take so long to pre-heat. Once the correct temperature is reached, cooking time is the same.

I don't know what recipes you are planning to use, but my impression is that most oven-cooked meat dishes take longer than 30mins. I mostly cook stews on the stove-top as I find that is faster than cooking in the oven. You can also try using a thermal pot for stews - I've heard lots of good reviews and plan to get one soon.

slmkhoo:

I've tried all types over the years. The combination microwave/convection ovens take a long time to pre-heat, so if you bake often, go for a conventional oven as they heat up faster (under 10 mins). Toaster ovens are small and usually don't have temperature controls, so they are only good for small items which can take high temperatures. Anything else will burn outside and be cold inside. I have used gas ovens before, but a long time ago and not often, so can't really compare with modern electric ovens.

POA Teacher:

You don't have to preheat any ovens if you are so impatient. :evil: But then your food would be yucks It's not that the oven needs to be pre-heated, but that you need a constant and appropriate temperature to bake/cook your food. So preheat your oven to achieve that.