Home Cooking Hacks: Time-Saving Tips and Techniques

We live in such an advanced age where time seems to be a limited commodity and hence, cooking a meal at home appears to be a mammoth challenge. In other words, this cannot be made more simpler. But while being a working professional, single parent or simply someone who wants to increase productivity in the cooking process, these set of time saving tricks and techniques will allow you to relish the taste of home cooking without having to spend unnecessary time on prepping.

1. Create A Meal Schedule For The Week

• Reason: Creating a meal schedule makes everyday meal decisions like what to have and when to have a lot easier. Such a strategy also helps reduce the last minute delay which increases anxiety levels and also contributes towards ensuring that you have all the required materials available at a single glance.
• Implementation: Invest 2 or 3 minutes in a week setting up a schedule for the week or days ahead. The particular recipes you select should incorporate similar ingredients and utilize them in such a manner that there is no waste created. This can even include creating dishes which would consume leftovers in a wise way such as if you had chicken roast, the next day, you can consume chicken salad.

2. Make The Necessary Ingredients Ready In Advance

• Reason: The time set aside for cooking can be significantly reduced if the necessary ingredients are cooked in advance.
• How to Do It: At the start of each week, consider marinating proteins, batch prepping and storing sauces and soups, and doing some grain cooking. However, it is crucial to wash and chop vegetables, store them neatly in airtight containers, and place them in the fridge. Since ingredients have been prepped, the assembly of a meal can take place rather quickly. 

3. Refrain from using multiple pans and one pot and sheet pan recipes will do

• Why It Works: This method is effective as it reduces the time that one utilizes for cooking as well as cleaning. 
• How to Do It: There are recipes that include all components in one container for instance pasta dishes, casserole, stir fry, and roasted dishes. All these foods do not only save you time but are also completely flavored as all ingredients cook together. 

4. Investing in time saving kitchen instruments is advisable

• Why It Works: Many people sometimes find cutting tough meat to be too tedious, however, for a pressure cooker such a transformation could have been done in minutes. Alternatively, devices like colanders, shredders, and knives are useful for the prep stage as well. 
• How to Do It: Whether you are busy with work or not, it is easy to throw things in the slow cooker or microwave to be cooked and blended together.

5. Use Frozen Ingredients

• Why It Works: Using frozen fruits and vegetables is beneficial because they do not require any thawing and are clean and chopped vegetables provided to clients, thereby saving the client a lot of time. They have a longer shelf life which helps to reduce wastages even further.
• How to Do It: Always have some frozen vegetables, fruits, and even herbs available in your pantry. They can be easily incorporated into soups and stews, smoothies, and also stir fried dishes without any thawing needed.

6. Bulk Prepare and Store

• Why It Works: Preparing your meals in one large batch is very useful as it allows you to have meals ready for the week while also saving you time when you actually have to prepare the dish.
• How to Do It: Prepare bulk meals that include pasta sauces, soups, and casseroles. Make small portions of these and keep them in yogurt containers in the fridge or freezer, and then you can pour it out and warm it up on those cold days.

7. Repurpose your Food Smartly

• Why It Works: People who repurpose their leftover food into new meals save time and money. 
• How to Do It: For instance, for dinner you can serve a whole grilled chicken so that the leftovers can be used in sandwiches, salads, or soups the next day, or you can spare some rice for a stir fry or grain bowl.

8. Simplicity and taste pair up nicely in a dish

• Why It Works: Recipes with a pretty simple outline are easily achievable and so can the outcome with perfect finger licking tastes.
• How to Do It: Try garlic butter pasta, or lemon herb chicken or even stir fried Seasonal vegetables with soy sauce and sesame oil, the focus here is on the use of fewer but strong tasted ingredients only.

9. Set up a layout of the kitchen which will save time during cooking

• Why It Works: If the tools and ingredients are in sight, you won’t waste minutes looking for them during the cooking process so a neat casual arrangement of the kitchen will come in handy.
• How to Do It: Place all essentials together so that they can be easily reachable. Label the containers in the pantry and keep your countertops uncluttered to make working a lot easier.

10. Clean your workspace as you progress with the dish

• Why It Works: A well organized working area will allow you to completely focus on the dish rather than irritatingly waiting for mess to get cleaned up.
• How to Do It: After using a spoon or plate or board, simply rinse them instead of stacking up dirty dishes which will lead to a bigger mess. Maintain the order with cleaning and washing surfaces and loading the dishwasher while cooking.

Conclusion

To sum up, cooking at home does not need to be a painstakingly long task. As stated above, with the use of these ‘cutting corners’ techniques, things can be speedy, smooth, and fun. With proper strategies, smart designs and a bit of skill, you will discover that the idea of preparing home food can be incorporated in the busiest of schedules. So go ahead, prepare some meals and relish the beauty of home-cooked meals sans the chaos!

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