Cooking can be as challenging as you want it to be, or it can be simplified. Just because there is a gadget made for any purpose you can imagine doesn’t mean that you need to take possession of it. Some of the finest chefs in the world command few pieces to work with.
Culinary skills are not dictated by the equipment but rather the person using them. That isn’t to say you should spare quality, merely that you need to be selective.
Every cook wants to take these components and create the perfect meal from scratch for their families each day, but time constraints and the sheer chaos of everyday business doesn’t always allow the luxury. Professional chefs make the process look so fast and easy.
Bringing in one essential kitchen pan and allowing appropriate time for sufficient planning suitable for the typical home environment can be advantageous for even the complexity of varied schedules. It’s not an option to have the delivery person at your door every evening, so coming up with a solution is the only alternative.
Tips On Making Cooking Faster And Easier At Home
Making meals from scratch takes time and effort, not to mention the cost involved with buying fresh produce regularly. But you commit to making sure you and your family eat healthily, and consuming regular takeout is not the right option.
Preparation of real, whole foods can prove to be a challenge in the beginning, but once you develop a system, cooking at home can become a time saver.
1. Create a menu
Make a list of what everyone wants to have for the week ahead to make sure that the ingredients are available to you when it’s time to prepare the meals. Meal planning is a great way to relieve the stress of figuring out what to fix to please everyone.
Chefs have a knack for tossing ingredients together to create the perfect meal, but some need the reassurance and guidelines that a recipe offers. As time passes and confidence builds, this crutch won’t be required as much. Until that point, use what is needed to keep stress at bay.
2. Grocery planning
Grocery shopping should be a planned activity, not something that you do after work. Those trips are not only convenient, but they are stress-filled harried experiences taking you out of your way and leaving you little time left in the kitchen.
It also means that you’re shopping hungry, which will result in indulgence shopping rather than a necessity shopping. Keep the shopping trips to one or two per week when you can go to a farmers’ market also.
3. Knife lessons are in order
Vegetables are going to be the staple of any good meal. They always serve as flavor to nearly any dish such as garlic, onions, tomatoes, celery, or carrots. Without the proper knife, meal prep will be a nightmare.
The suggestion is to watch as many food prep shows as possible to learn the various techniques used and practice chopping vegetables. The more you do it, the faster and easier it will get.
4. Cook in multiples
One of the best ways to cook if you’re going to be making food from scratch is to cook in bulk while you’re at it. If you’re making a beautiful vegetable lasagna, make two and freeze one for another time.
Or if you decide to invest time in a homemade beef stew, make two batches, so there’s some for lunches or to serve up for the rest of the workweek. Cooking in this way will basically half the time you have to spend in the kitchen, and you have a pre-made dinner ready to go.
Enjoy those leftover nights: A lot of people are not fans of having leftovers for dinner. Leftovers are ideal for those who have a hectic schedule or a house full of varying schedules.
There are some foods that you shouldn’t reheat and eat, but for the most part, a vast majority of dishes are perfect the second time around, sometimes even three or more. Some are even better after they’ve had a chance to sit in their own juices. Read more here about not having good cooking skills.
The idea of preparing home-cooked foods for the family regularly can be daunting when you first broach the idea. It’s all in how you approach the process as to how it will work out for you. As long as you merely buy a few quality staple tools, an excellent multipurpose pan, not too much at one time, you won’t become stressed. And plan.
Make sure that you always make a list of what you want to prepare in the week ahead, have all the ingredients lined out, and practice techniques for which you may not be sure. As time passes, things will get more comfortable, and the process will get faster.
