The world around us have become more fast paced and demanding than ever before, and the last thing that you need is to get home and have to worry about what you are going to eat. While the amount of free time that you have is shrinking, you still understand that you cannot live off of take out. It seems that the more committed you become to eating healthy, the less time you have. Fortunately, there are some steps that you can take to simplify and speed up the cooking process.
When you take the time to plan and write out your menu for the week, you will make sure that you have all of the necessary ingredients on hand. Creating a menu will also relieve the stress associated with pondering what you are going to cook when you get home.
Making those after-work trips to the grocery store and not only inconvenient, they are usually unproductive, because you have so much on your mind. Additionally, shopping after work means that you will likely be hungry, and hungry shoppers have a tendency to buy convenience foods instead of healthy food.
All experienced chefs and cooks keep a well-stocked pantry and freezer, so that they can easily go in and whip up a meal at short notice. When you keep your freezer and pantry stocked, you will avoid being limited in what you can cook at any given time.
When it comes to food preparation, the most time consuming element is food-prep, which includes cutting and chopping food. This means that improving your knife and cutting skills will shorten the process. You will also want to invest in a good set of knives, as well as a wooden cutting board. A quality wood cutting board, like the ones sold at novelty cutting boards, will help protect the blade of the knives, as well as reduce food contamination.
One of the best ways to save time in the kitchen is to cook food in bulk. You can literally cut your weekly cook times in half by cooking in bulk. This means cooking one large batch of spinach or squash could provide the vegetables for two to three meals.
When people think of quick meals, they tend to lean toward stir fry recipes, and while stir fry is usually simple, it does require that you stand there during the entire cooking process. Fortunately, when you use the over, you can take a more hands-off approach.
When you use the slow cooker, you can literally prepare meals while you are at work. It is important to realize that using this method requires that you plan ahead and start early.
You can warm up leftovers in a matter of minutes. While there are people who swear that they don’t like leftover, for the busy person, leftovers are a lifesaver. While the tips presented here are proven, the key is to systemize your cooking to minimize your cooking time.
