Whip Up A Hearty Meal With These Tasty Time-Savers

Getting late for work but don’t want to skip breakfast? How about some bread with peanut butter or mayonnaise? Or, eggs with baked beans?

High on taste and versatility, cool condiments and off-the-shelf foods can make your meals delicious, while helping you cut down on the kitchen time. And, they are sure to make your dishes absolute crowd-pleasers.

Here’s a list of five kitchen favourites:

Peanut Butter

High on taste and nutrition, peanut butter is one of the most well-liked breakfast spreads for children and adults alike. According to the United States Department of Agriculture National Nutrient Database, peanut butter is packed with proteins, carbohydrates, iron, calcium and zinc. A research paper published in the Journal of Food Science and Technology found peanuts to be an excellent source of phenolic acids, resveratrol, flavonoids and phytosterols that help lower cholesterol. You can use it as a sandwich spread, a base for an Asian dip or it can be had as a fulfilling mid-meal snack with a fruit.

Pizza-pasta Sauce

Whether you make it at home from scratch or buy it ready-made from a store, this versatile sauce can be a meal-saver. Other than its obvious use as a pizza or a pasta sauce, a spoonful of it can give your regular mix vegetables or pulav a tasty Italian twist. You can also use this herby tomato sauce in rolls, burgers, stir-fried vegetables or more to add a special zing to your meal.

Mayonnaise

An all-time favourite, mayonnaise is a kitchen counter staple in almost all households. Available in a variety of options today—from egg and eggless to diet and olive-oil based, flavoured with garlic or mint—the traditional mayonnaise has been tweaked over the years to suit every taste bud and to go with all kinds of cuisines. This versatile condiment can be used in sandwiches, burgers, it can add creaminess to sauces, and can be the perfect fish and chips dip.

Tortilla wraps

There are times when you have no bread at hand and no time to make fresh roti or paratha. Enter tortilla. Although a Mexican food staple, these amazing wraps can be used to make a variety of interesting dishes. Available in options such as whole wheat, flour, corn and multigrain, tortillas can be used as a pizza base, especially for the thin crust variety. They can be used to make vegetarian and non-vegetarian rolls and healthy wraps, baked in the oven to crisp as pita chips, fried to make a taco base and for that melt-in-the-mouth quesadilla. If you’re out of bread in the morning and scrambling for breakfast, use it to make quick egg rolls for a filling meal.

Baked beans

Immensely popular in the West, baked beans in sauce is now a breakfast staple. While baked beans taste great when paired with eggs and toast but that’s not all they can be used for. Usually made with white beans, which are a good source of protein and are high in fibre and low in calories, baked beans are packed with minerals such as iron and zinc and are a good source of Vitamin B. Paired with vegetables and eggs, they can make for a balanced and healthy meal.