I think it’s really important to make time for cooking, but at the end of the day, there are only so many hours in the darn day. In fact, I probably get the most emails and have the most discussions about time. These days, people just have a hard time finding the time to cook everyday.
So I thought I would brainstorm a few ways that everyone can save a few minutes (or in some cases a few hours) in the kitchen. Hopefully they are helpful!
1) Use leftovers in today’s dinner. Leftovers can sometimes be better if you use them in a new dish rather than just nuke them in the microwave. Try to think about a few ways to make a quick new meal out of leftovers instead of heating up an old meal. Leftover rice can go in a fried rice or stir fry. Leftover pasta can be baked with some cheese on top to make a great dinner.
2) Weekly or even monthly calendars are necessary. Planning just a bit allows you to do the first tip even better. I’m not the best at keeping paper schedulers so I do all my planning in a google calendar.
3) Chop for the days ahead. If you know you are cooking three meals throughout the week with onion, just chop enough onion for all of the dishes and save the extra chopped stuff in the fridge. It’ll be just fine a few days later. For most veggies, you won’t know the difference.
4) Double it. Or Triple it. Should go without saying but for some dishes it’s just as easy to make twice as much. So that makes for easy meals for the next few days!
5) Small cooks fast. Some meals it’s important to have large veggie chunks, but for a lot of meals you can cut your time down on the cooking just by cutting your meat or vegetables into smaller pieces.
6) Learn to love soup. It might sound counter-intuitive because soups can take a long time to actually make, but the great thing about soups are that you can make a huge amount, freeze it, and it thaws easily. Add a grilled cheese or quick salad and pre-made soup can make for really simple and fast meals.
7) You gotta get organized! I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best at organizing my pantry and fridge. I’ll also be the first to admit that it costs me time because I’m pretty much always searching for something that I know I have. I’ve seen some people even go so far as to alphabetically organize spices, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get there. Some basic organization though can pay good dividends.
8) Categorize by cooking time. This is an idea I’ve been playing with, but have yet to actually test. Instead of organizing your recipe cards alphabetically, I thought you could organize them by total cooking time. Then if you need a 30 minute meal or a 15 minute meal, you have a group to pick from! It might be a good idea to copy your cards for this because it might be helpful to have an alphabetical list sometimes also.
9) Get a crockpot. Love it. Ok. This is another rule I don’t follow. For some reason I don’t have a crockpot. It’s on my list though don’t you worry. There are so many meals that you can make while you are doing other things and the crockpot does all the work. Then you have a great, warm dinner waiting for you!
10) Frozen is fine. Fresh is always best, but for most dishes frozen veggies work very nicely and can save you a lot of time. Some veggies that freeze very well are peas, corn, spinach (for dips and stuff especially), broccoli, cauliflower, and edamame (soy beans).
11) Keep a few flavor burst ingredients handy. There are a few ingredients that are really easy to add to standard dishes like pasta that make them taste like an entirely different dish. Thinks like sun-dried tomatoes, olives, capers, real Parmesan cheese, and roasted red peppers can save serious time and add big flavor to recipes.
12) Get some helpers. Nothing like getting your spouse or kids in the kitchen to help out. They’ll be learning something and you’ll have a spare set of hands.
13) Try some food hacks. Sometimes not helpful, but sometimes helpful! Websites have a lot of fun food hacks to try out. Search on Tiktok on Instagram for food hacks and see what comes up!
14) Learn to do it right! A lot of time is wasted preparing things incorrectly. Spend a few minutes to learn the best way to chop a veggie and you’ll save yourself lots of time.
15) Pick the right dish! Should go without saying but have a good list of go-to quick meals.
Here’s a few of my favorite quick or many-use dishes to get you started!
5 Under 30 minute meals:
1) Mushroom Fajitas
2) Turkey Lettuce Wraps
3) Bean and Cheese Smashed Tacos
3 Meals that Pay Dividends:
(Dishes that might take a bit longer to make, but will save you time in the future because they can be eaten for many meals.)
1) Peanut Butter Granola Bars
3) Texas Caviar
4) Meatloaf
I’m sure I’m missing some tips…
Andrew
How about:
Tip 7.5) Make Recipe cards.
Mimi
I fully agree with #1. One good thing to do is learn to roast a chicken. It has no preservatives or chemicals in it like rotisserie chicken does, you can eat roast chicken on night #1 and then use the leftovers for pasta, enchiladas, salad or anything.
Yasmin
Awesome idea to post on this theme!
Ira Mann
These are great ideas. Another recipe is chicken and rice. Great and fast. Thanks.
Chris
Great list. Another item that I (or I should say my wife, since I do the cooking and she does the cleaning) would add would be to maximize single pan dishes. From a practical standpoint, clean up is a part of the time spent in the kitchen. So when you can limit the number or pots and pans you use by cooking sequentially, you are saving time.
Tamara Lea
Be sure to let us know when you get that crockpot. I have an awesome Kalua Pork recipe (not 100% cooked in crockpot, but it does the heavy lifting)! I also recommend a rice cooker. Makes perfect rice every time and frees you to focus on the main dish! Plus you can make all kinds of other grains in it like bulger, farro, wheat berries….
Fatima
I cook every meal at home, but I have a big secret (not here in my country, though, as any cook would have one – I have three): a pressure cooker!!!!! It cooks meat, stews, beans, pasta with sauces, potatoes, soups, even bake breads. I also have a Japanese brand rice cooker that can make steammed rice, but also Brazilian style fried rice (fry garlic in oil, then add rice, fry a bit, and then salt and water). For quick recipes, a cook needs to have a variety of staples, veggies, meat, and seasonings at hand. I can throw any kind of international dish any meal – and I cook from scratch, roast my own coffee on a wood burning stove, have a vegetable garden but buy other veggies I don´t have. Yeah, I also bake my own hamburger bun and grind my own meat. After all the mess, I use the reclaimed kitchen oil to make soap bars .
I´ve just baked semolina bread (sincerely, my bread turned out better looking than Nick´s) twice in a roll. Great site! Love the way you write: delicious and entertaining.
Nick
Thanks for the comment Fatima! Yea… I recently discovered the pressure cooker and I also love it. Need to experiment more with it for sure.
Thanks for reading!
Getty
Love these tips, especially the flavour bursts! I’ve started making my own spice blends – even though I have all the spices separately and it’s really not that difficult to add them, I’m loving just having to pull out one jar – like lemon and herb blend for veggies so easy. I also like to chop and freeze onions, not having to chop onions every time I make a meal is awesome.