Need some ideas for how to save time in the kitchen? Here are my top twelve tips you can use to save time cooking for your family!
We all need to eat and home-cooked meals are not only more nutritious, they’re usually way cheaper than eating out.
There aren’t many people who want to spend hours in the kitchen, though. In fact, you may barely have time to brush your teeth much less to cook a meal. There are only so many hours in the day, after all. You may not even like cooking and just want to get in and out as fast as possible.
Whatever your reason, here are my twelve top tips for how to save time in the kitchen.
How To Save Time In The Kitchen
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1. Get Organized
Being organized is my number one tip for how you can save time in the kitchen. An organized kitchen is so much easier to work in than a messy one. You know where everything is so you spend less time hunting for items you need.
Create four zones to improve your cooking flow:
- Prep Zone – This is where you prepare all of your ingredients before cooking. It should be an area with lots of counter space. Keep the items that you use most frequently when prepping food close-by e.g. a sharp knife, cutting board, bowls and a trash can.
- Cooking Zone – Of course, this is where all the cooking actually happens. Keep utensils like wooden spoons and other things you use during cooking e.g. oils handy in this area.
- Clean-up Zone – This will be at the sink as this is where you wash up everything you use during prepping and cooking. Clean up dishes and utensils as you go especially if you have a tiny kitchen. However, this may not be best practice if your kitchen is large and the clean-up zone is a good distance away from where you are cooking.
- Packing Up Zone – This is the area where you pack up food to place in your fridge or freezer. Place items like food storage containers, foil, cling wrap and freezer inventory sheets in this zone.
2. Refrigerator And Pantry Inventory
Organize your fridge and pantry so you know exactly what’s inside of them.
Completing inventory sheets for both areas makes it super easy to know what you have on hand and the expiration dates. There’s nothing worse than starting to cook, then realizing you don’t have an ingredient you need or that you have it but it expired a year ago.
3. Recipe Collection
Group tried and true recipes in a binder and keep it in the kitchen. Having a collection of your family’s favorite meals makes life simpler. Cooking becomes easier when you’re making a dish you’re familiar with and you can be confident knowing that your family will love the result.
If you use Pinterest, create a board specifically for recipes you want to try. After you make one, remove it from the board. If it’s a hit, print the recipe or write it out and add it to your binder.
4. Meal Plan
Take a little time each week to decide what meals you’re going to cook during the upcoming week. Make sure to use the go-to recipes in your binder.
Meal planning will save you time in the kitchen in the following ways:
- You won’t have to come home everyday and think about what you’re going to prepare for dinner
- No running around searching for ingredients that you can use to throw a meal together
- No waiting for meats to thaw because you didn’t know you would be using them
- You can even plan to cook meals earlier in the week where the leftovers can be used in other dishes.
5. Leftovers
This leads me to my next tip to help you save time in the kitchen, and that is to use leftovers.
There are some ingredients that lend themselves very easily to being used in other dishes. For example, baked chicken can be used later in salads, mixed with pasta, eaten with roasted potatoes and added to a sandwich. Use minced beef in tacos, meatloaf, make meatballs served with pasta and create a meatball sub.
Plan ahead and be smart with the meals you cook. Then, all you need to do is prepare the ingredients to mix with the leftovers. Instant time saver!
6. Meal Prep
Sometimes, the thing that takes me the longest in the kitchen is just prepping the food—chopping the veggies and seasoning meats. Do all of these activities in advance if you want to save yourself some time.
Gather your most-used vegetables like garlic, onion, celery and carrots. Chop large quantities of each and store them in the refrigerator or freezer. Then, as you cook, simply take out what you need and add to your meals.
You can also prepare meats ahead of time. Mix marinades and place in Ziploc bags. Add chicken or any meat of your choice and freeze. I like to lay the bags flat on a tray or in a dish and after the contents have frozen, stand them upright in a basket. This saves space in your freezer. Remember to write the name of the contents and the expiration date on the outside of the bag.
7. Batch Cooking
Instead of just preparing enough food for one serving, make a large quantity and use it throughout the week. Use this method for staples like rice or pasta, even salad. It takes the same amount of time to cook three cups of something as it does to cook one.
8. Freezer Cook
Whenever you cook, double or even triple the quantity of food and freeze the rest for later. This is a great technique to use with casseroles and soups because they freeze really well.
On a busy day, you can thaw a meal in the fridge the night before. In the evening, heat the food and dinner is served!
Another way to use this method to save time in the kitchen is to combine all the ingredients for a recipe in a Ziploc bag and place in the freezer. Then, take it out the night before it’s needed, thaw and cook.
9. Use Frozen Ingredients
Fresh ingredients are best but there’s nothing wrong with using frozen ones if it will save you time and not sacrifice the quality of your meals.
Vegetables are frozen at the peak of freshness. They come pre-chopped and ready to go. You don’t even need to defrost them before use. They’ll thaw as you cook.
10. Get A Crockpot
Crockpots are sent from Heaven. Seriously! You throw in some ingredients and out comes a delicious dinner in a few hours. No real supervision needed.
They are also great for tougher (and therefore cheaper) cuts of meat. The long cooking time makes them tender.
I love crockpot meals for days when I’m really busy (or lazy) and don’t want to spend lots of time in the kitchen. Combine the crockpot with a frozen meal you already prepared and you’re golden.
11. Keep It Simple
There’s no need to pretend that you’re a master chef. Your family doesn’t care if you cook a six-course meal every night using only the finest of everything, I’m sure. Stick to quick and easy recipes that take little time to prepare and cook. Spend your time eating at the table with your family discussing the day not slaving in the kitchen.
Plus the simpler you keep things in the kitchen, the less clean-up there usually is. Win-win in my book!
12. Get Help
Finally, get your family to help out! There’s no need for one person to do everything. Someone can cook while someone else makes a salad or you prepare the meal and another person tidies the kitchen and washes up. Everyone is eating this meal so it’s only fair you get help.
Simple tips like these can definitely help you save time in the kitchen. You may even learn to love cooking.
Do you have any tips for how to save time preparing food? Share them in the comments below!
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