Another way to streamline your cooking, and at the same time save a lot of money, is to prepare semi-finished chicken products yourself. Ready-made semi-finished products are very expensive, breast 250-300 rubles, legs from 150 and even soup sets, and essentially carcasses from cutting - from 80 rubles/kg and more. A whole carcass costs about 110-120 rubles, but is often sold on special offer. When there are discounts on chickens, I buy several pieces at once and “dismember them”.
Yesterday I bought 2 promotional chickens for 93 rubles/kg. The producer "Prioskolye" grows them at exactly 1.7 kg, i.e. 3.4 kg in total.
First of all, I trim off the excess fat and “butt” and throw it away. In principle, if someone likes cracklings, you can probably use chicken fat. I stand for proper nutrition(PP), and the chicken becomes “correct” only after all the fat and skin are removed.
Do this manipulation on both sides.
To cut off the legs beautifully and simply, you need to break them out of the hip joints. To do this, place the chicken in front of you and simultaneously break the legs back outwards by both thighs. From the front side, the border of the leg and the joint will be immediately visible.
Cut off the legs.
It is convenient to break the resulting frame in half outward. Then trim the meat from the sides.
Cut off the wings.
I use fillets to make gravy, fritters, chops and rolls. Legs - I just fry them for dinner, or use them for pilaf. And I make soups from the skeletons and wings.
For compact storage the wings can be stuffed inside the chicken's chest to create a compact briquette with a soup set.
I put them in bags, sign them so that later it will be easier to understand what’s inside and how long it’s been in the freezer and freeze them.
As a result, from two chickens I cut:
1 kg of legs, legs only. Many producers now add a backbone to their hams. The price of hams is 160-170 rubles/kg. 900 grams of chicken fillet without skin at a price of 250-300 rubles/kg. And almost one and a half kilograms of bones for soups: the skeletons, on which were the remains of white meat from the breast and red meat from the legs, plus wings at a price of 75-100 rubles/kg. I threw out about 150 grams of skins and butts.
We calculate: 160 rubles for ham + 250 rubles for fillet + 120 rubles for soup = 530 rubles
I paid 316 rubles for two birds. After I cut them, I got semi-finished products worth 530 rubles. The savings are obvious. In addition, without any hassle or additional purchases, I can prepare chicken broth 2-3 times, which is quite rich and meaty, i.e. each for 2-3 days, 2 dinners of legs and 3-4 dinners of breasts. For a family of 4 people.
Dear readers! Rhythm of life modern woman forces us to increasingly use semi-finished products. But when I come to the supermarket or the grocery store closest to home, I look with alarm at the store-bought convenience foods. I am always confused by the thought of what they are made from... Sometimes, having bought something from semi-finished products in order to quickly prepare something for the family, you are once again convinced of how tasteless and inedible they can be.
Homemade semi-finished products - benefits
Therefore, I decided for myself that it is quite possible to prepare these same semi-finished products at home. But I am sure that the food prepared from my semi-finished products will not affect the health of my family in any way. But can we save time on meal prep during the week? Quite. And for this you only need to allocate 2-3 hours on Saturday.
Knowing the culinary preferences of your family members and having prepared semi-finished products at home, you will not have to worry about lunch, dinner or the sudden arrival of guests in the future.
You yourself will understand in the very first week, firstly, how much free time you will save on working days, and secondly, you can involve children in the process of preparing semi-finished products - joint work raises children. And your spouse will be glad that you are together and, probably, you will have topics for communication during the work process. Let everyone help you as much as possible, in whatever way they can.
But the most important thing is that later, after a tiring day at work, you will have enough time to relax, be with your family or do what you love. Well, let's get started?
What you need for homemade semi-finished products
What is needed first for this? First of all, of course, you need to prepare food. Groceries can be purchased gradually throughout the week so that by Saturday you are ready. By following a few rules, you can easily provide your family with all the necessary semi-finished products for a whole week.
In most cases, prepared homemade semi-finished products must be frozen. In a frozen state, products will last much longer, and will not lose their nutritional and beneficial properties. This means that freezing equipment is needed for freezing. In the absence of such, semi-finished products can be frozen in the cold, but only if you have an enclosed cold room, such as a veranda or cellar.
By own experience I can say that modern freezers very convenient and simply necessary in modern life, because you can freeze literally everything in them: mushrooms, berries, most vegetables, and, of course, homemade semi-finished products you have prepared. How to properly freeze food, read
Semi-finished meat products
Despite the fact that nutritionists and endocrinologists, not a single family can do without meat.
Cooking broth
For the broth we buy meat with bones. It is better to cook the broth in a large saucepan with a capacity of 4-5 liters. After the meat is well cooked, we separate it from the bones. Our broth will be used for soup, and we can grind the boiled meat through a meat grinder and then use it to fill pancakes or make navy-style pasta.
You can add the broth right away and then just heat up the required amount of soup. But you can do it differently. We pour out a little of the total amount of broth and season it. IN in this case you will have a different soup every day. It is recommended to consume the soup daily, as the broth contains extractive substances that have a beneficial effect on digestion. Find out about the benefits of soups.
Making minced meat
You can make quite a lot of dishes from minced meat: dumplings, pasties, meatballs, meatballs, cutlets, zrazy, etc. And freeze it all in the freezer. If necessary, some of the above is taken out of the freezer as needed and then put into culinary processing.
Dumplings, of course, are worth making on Saturday. We then transfer the frozen dumplings into plastic bags and then it will take very little time to cook them. Before freezing, cutlets and meatballs should not be rolled in 
breading, this must be done immediately before frying.
But I like to do it this way: I put the cooked minced meat in small portions in plastic bags and put them in the freezer. In the morning, before leaving for work, I take the minced meat out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator: during the day it will gradually defrost. In the evening after work, all I have to do is, for example, season the minced meat with a bun soaked in milk and fry the cutlets. Or make pasta sauce.
Semi-finished fish products
Fresh frozen fish does not require any special preparation. It is enough to peel and gut it, cut it into portions, put it in a container and put it in the refrigerator for storage. When needed, all you have to do is take it out, defrost it, and then fry it.
You can make minced fish for cutlets. In the article “” you can find out how these cutlets are prepared; using the same principle, you can prepare cutlets from any other fish.
Vegetable semi-finished products
It is better to boil vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beets) in their skins. Carrots and beets take much longer to cook, so they can be cooked in the microwave. Read how to do this in the article “”. Store boiled and cooled vegetables in a container with a tightly closed lid in the refrigerator.
Raw vegetables (onions, carrots) can also be prepared in advance. Peel them 
Place individually in plastic bags or containers and store on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. Or you can immediately fry them and store them in a glass jar with a lid, and then season the soup with them as needed.
Boil eggs along with potatoes. Eggs may be useful for salads, but try to store them in the refrigerator for no more than 3 - 4 days. Please note that their shells are porous and eggs, especially boiled ones, absorb other odors well. Therefore, keep them away from fish and vegetables such as onions or garlic.
Buy enough vegetables and herbs for salads. You can wash them immediately, wipe them with a clean, dry towel, put them in a plastic bag and store them in the vegetable compartment. Salads made from raw vegetables are always healthy. They contain a large number of fiber and improve intestinal motility.
Pancakes
Bake some pancakes. You can make pancakes from them, with the same minced boiled meat or cottage cheese or something else, or you can just freeze them in a stack, and then defrost them in the microwave and serve them with sour cream or jam.
When I cook stuffed pancakes, I fry the pancakes on one side (this will save time), then I put the filling on it, wrap the pancakes in an envelope and put them away for freezing. The filling for pancakes can be any:
- boiled meat from broth, twisted in a meat grinder, with overcooked onions;
- cottage cheese with or without raisins;
- boiled rice with boiled eggs;
- minced mushrooms, etc.
Side dishes for the second course
A make-ahead option for side dishes is rice. Prepare fluffy rice, cool it, and transfer it to a container with a lid. Instead of rice, you can also do it with buckwheat and pearl barley.
Boiled “frozen” vegetables are also perfect for side dishes. Well, don’t forget about the preparations from the fall either: they will diversify your menu.
Well, you worked a little on Saturday, but during the week with this set of semi-finished products you will quickly prepare food for your family. And at the same time, you won’t spend a lot of time standing at the stove.
I gave several examples of preparing semi-finished products homemade. You may have your own options for semi-finished products that save you time, write about them in the comments. Young and novice housewives will most likely find these tips very useful.
Stuffed cabbage rolls
And cabbage rolls also help me out a lot. I have been preparing them since the fall. When I start fermenting cabbage, I remove the top leaves from the heads of cabbage; they come off very easily even without heat treatment. When I undress with sauerkraut, I scald the removed leaves in boiling water or put them in the microwave, in which after 5-10 minutes (depending on the power of the microwave) they become soft. I wrap the minced meat prepared in advance in cabbage leaves and freeze them.
As needed, I take out frozen cabbage rolls and then simmer them in sour cream sauce. There is a separate article on my blog and in this video there is another recipe for making cabbage rolls.
Olga Georgievna:| July 1st, 2019 | 1:07 pm
Thank you very much for your tremendous work. It's so great when you can spend more time with your family, grandchildren, fresh air. I transfer everything I learn to the dacha. Thanks again 🙏
Answer: Olga Georgievna, thank you!
Natalia: | January 22nd, 2018 | 2:59 pm
Dasha, please tell me, is it possible to freeze ready-made vegetable stew that contains potatoes?
Answer: Natalya, if you like the taste of thawed potatoes, then freeze them. Mashed potatoes tolerate freezing well and do not change the taste.
Svetlana: | November 20th, 2017 | 3:49 pm
LF: | October 13th, 2017 | 11:13 am
Good afternoon Tell me, how are breakfasts defrosted later? If you don't have a microwave
Answer: You just need to put the container (bag) from the freezer into the refrigerator in the evening. Everything will be defrosted by morning; in the morning you can reheat it if necessary.
Tatiana: | September 11th, 2017 | 1:46 pm
Dasha, thank you very much for your colossal work. It’s a shame I saw your site so recently. I'm retired, but I learned so many interesting things.
Answer: Tatyana, thank you for good words! You have time to please your grandchildren;)
Inna: | September 6th, 2017 | 7:01 am
Dasha, thank you very much for the recipes, for your culinary secrets. I would really like you to share the recipes for children’s breakfasts before school. How to quickly organize a child’s breakfast so that it is tasty, healthy and not late for school.
Answer: Thanks for the idea! Wait for the next newsletter, I’ll share it.
Valentina: | September 4th, 2017 | 8:23 am
Dasha, how smart, thank you very much!
Answer: Thank you!
Hope: | September 3rd, 2017 | 5:46 pm
Good afternoon Thank you for your ideas! I admire what a wonderful system you have come up with! I enjoy watching and learning from you!
Answer: Thank you! Glad I could help.
Lena: | September 3rd, 2017 | 1:44 pm
Dasha, I think there’s enough food here for a month))
Answer: It depends on which family. For a small group of two or three people, this is quite enough for a month.
Klavdiya: | September 2nd, 2017 | 10:44 pm
Thanks for the recipes and experience! I liked the video :-)
Natalia: | September 2nd, 2017 | 7:56 pm
super, I’m delighted with the site, I immediately got the desire to create in the kitchen, thank you for the site
Answer: And thank you for your feedback.
Valentina: | September 2nd, 2017 | 7:05 pm
Dasha, thank you, very interesting! I have a question, how much food by weight did you use for a large baking sheet with lasagna? Or how many times did you increase the basic recipe?
Answer: Valentina, I didn’t weigh it by weight, but I increased the ingredients of the basic recipe by 2-3 times
Irina Amulenko: | September 2nd, 2017 | 6:51 pm
Dashenka, your advice is priceless and really helps save time. It's great that there is such a necessary site. Good luck to you, dear.
Answer: Thanks to my subscribers!
Ekaterina: | September 2nd, 2017 | 4:25 pm
Daria, with a quick count, I got more than 20 dinners and breakfasts! Thanks for the live broadcasts!
Answer: Thank you!
Tatiana: | September 2nd, 2017 | 4:14 pm
I'm shocked!! Super! And how do you manage to maintain such cleanliness in the kitchen, with such intense cooking?👍 I’ll take an example, otherwise I’ve somehow lost my inspiration(
Answer: Tatiana! I'm glad I could inspire you!
Olga: | September 2nd, 2017 | 4:10 pm
Thank you for this live broadcast! Very clear and informative. I won’t dare to undertake such a feat, but partly I want to try to cook everything in a few days and in large quantities. You explain everything very clearly. Thank you!
Answer: Thank you! If you’re afraid to start a lot at once, you can first cook a little more every day than usual and freeze some of it. There will already be a supply. Then try freezing it for 2-3 days in one day. Perhaps later you will decide to do more.
Julia: | September 2nd, 2017 | 12:41 pm
Daria, thank you very much for your work. Now with a small child, everything is more relevant than ever. I came across your Instagram by chance and at the right time.
Answer: Julia, thank you too!
Ella: | September 2nd, 2017 | 12:35 pm
Thank you, Dasha!! I really liked it!
Answer: Thank you! I'm glad that it turned out to be useful for you.
Thanks a lot
Thank you Dasha, I enjoyed watching it.
Homemade preparations according to the flylady system
Homemade semi-finished products are a real salvation for a young mother! They save a lot of time and effort! We have already written about how to properly make such preparations. And today I decided to put together my small collection of ideas for homemade preparations, based on my experience and the recipes of our participating flies.
So, let's start with meat preparations.
- hedgehogs
- cutlets (you can freeze both raw and cooked!)
- stuffed pepper
- soup sets
- steaks (I fold chopped pieces of pork neck into a pyramid, covering each layer with film)
- meatballs
- meatballs (soup or stew for children with vegetables)
- pieces 2*2 (pilaf, goulash, soup, ..). I freeze in portions for one preparation.
- marinate pork (neck) in a baking bag and freeze. Then, when needed, I take it out, an hour in the oven and the delicious meat is ready.
- concentrated bouillon cubes. I cook the bones for a very long time, like jelly or jellied meat, I get a rich broth, or rather even jelly, I pour it into containers or ice trays, and when I need to quickly prepare soup, but there is no meat or there is no time to cook, I throw this concentrate into water and that’s it, broth it turns out super easy!!!
POULTRY (I take several chilled chickens at once, cut them up and freeze them)
- chicken cutlets
- I make sausages from minced meat
- soup sets
- wings (we love them in BBQ sauce!)
- thighs, drumsticks - go for frying, stewing, baking.
- breasts
- I cut some of the breasts into pieces 1.5 x 1.5 cm. After defrosting, you can stew it with onions and spices and it will be a filling for pancakes, or for homemade pizza or navy pasta.
- pounded breast steaks (you can quickly fry them in a frying pan, or after defrosting you can make rolls with filling and bake them in the oven)
- I cook chicken broth in large quantities and then freeze it in small containers.
- I make homemade boiled pork from poultry meat: I cut the fillet into large pieces, add garlic, pepper, a little salt, dry dill and paprika, add a pack of gelatin (just pour it in and mix). I place the resulting mixture in a clean, empty tetrapack, secure the edges tightly with a stapler and place in a water bath. I cook it over medium heat for 45-60 minutes, then cook it, and put the now cooled tetra pack in the refrigerator. After a few hours (preferably in the morning), I cut the tetrapack and take out the boiled pork.
- whole fish for baking (clean, gut and can be stuffed straight away!)
- minced fish
- fish cutlets
- fish steaks
- It’s very economical to buy whole trout or salmon: I usually prepare 1-2 soup sets, several steaks, and salted fillets. Everyone in our family loves salted red fish, so we eat some of it right away, cut the rest into thin slices, put it in a container and put it in the freezer.
- In summer and autumn I freeze zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers, greens, pumpkin, apples, cauliflower, broccoli, leek, green peas. I peel the vegetables, cut them, put them in bags and immediately put them in the freezer.
- I grate the carrots or throw them into a food processor and pack the already grated carrots into bags. It saves a lot of time: I took out the bag and threw it into soup or goulash.
- I clean the peppers for stuffing and string them on top of each other. And vitamins take up less space in winter. Pulled it out, quickly stuffed it and dinner was ready.
- tomato paste (in August-September, when tomatoes are the most fragrant). Convenient to freeze in silicone muffin tins. Then just turn out the mold and put the rounds of tomato paste into a bag!)
- potato or carrot-potato cutlets
- I also prepare dressing for soups and stews for future use - I fry carrots and onions with tomatoes
BERRIES-MUSHROOMS
- I freeze seasonal berries (blueberries, lingonberries, cranberries, strawberries, viburnum, chokeberries, black currants, cherries) for compotes, jelly, pies, dumplings. I freeze the berries dry, inflate the bag slightly and shake it periodically - this way, after freezing, the berries remain scattered and the air can be released
- “frozen jam” is something that everyone in our family really loves!
During the season, I grind berries and fruits with a blender, add just a little sugar, mix, pour into small containers and freeze! All you have to do is defrost and your portion of aromatic, delicious vitamins is ready! You can eat it with a spoon, add it to porridge, cottage cheese, pour it over pancakes, cheesecakes, ice cream, make milkshakes) Our favorites: fig peach, strawberry, melon with apricot, blueberry, black currant) - Boiled mushrooms
- mushroom pate
- apricot halves (for the pie)
- Fresh sea buckthorn juice in an ice container. I liked it very much! You're cheating warm water, a little sugar and a healthy tasty drink is ready!
REST
- dumplings
- vareniki
- manta rays
- grated cheese
- dough (I always make more)
- cabbage rolls
- lazy cabbage rolls
- dumplings with potatoes (or cottage cheese)
- lazy dumplings
- syrniki
- ready-made cottage cheese casserole - just heat it in the oven
- homemade pizza
- buns and cheesecakes
- filled pancakes
- finely chopped greens
- puree soup (vegetables, lentils)
- ready-made bolognese sauce. All you have to do is boil the pasta and dinner is ready!
- kefir for cottage cheese. Then in the evening I take out the kefir, get rid of the packaging and put the frozen kefir block in a colander. And in the morning there will be the most tender cottage cheese!
- shortbread dough. I roll it into a sausage about 6 cm in diameter and wrap it in film. Then the thawed “sausage” needs to be cut into round cookies, placed on a baking sheet and put in the oven! Homemade cookies are ready!
- liver paste
Girls, I will be very glad to see your ideas in the comments!
