Tips to Minimize Your Time in the Kitchen
Somedays it literally feels like my life is on fire. The dishes are piled up, my child has found her way into the pantry and there’s rice scattered everywhere, I don’t know where I left my phone but it’s ringing, and goodness gracious it’s 4 o’clock already? I have to take a deep breath and say this is fine as I feel like i’m surrounded by a giant flame of chaos. lol you know the meme I’m referencing, right?.
Sound like you? Well, you’re not alone. This was my daily life, and honestly somedays are still very much like this. But I really do try to be proactive to make sure it doesn’t happen and also to make sure I don’t become a grouchy ball of stress. These things can take a little to adjust to but when you change your mindset and chose to tackle some chores ahead of time it can save you a major headache in the future. So here’s my list of ways that I minimize my time in the kitchen so that I can use that precious time on other things.
Preparation is KEY: Every time I watch cooking shows I see how they always have little bowls with food already prepared ready to be used. I always thought this was just to save time on screen. BUT NO. I was to save time in general! I decided I’d try it, and sure enough, it DOES save time while cooking. Mise en place is what they call it. I usually start prepping food about 2-3 hours before my husband comes home. So for example if I’m making chicken, vegetables and rice. I’ll chop up my vegetables, start my rice in my pressure cooker and start marinating my chicken so by the time my husband gets home I can start cooking and it’s a speedy process for all of us (my husband and I have a system, in order to minimize the time it takes either of us to get things done around the house).
Personal tips: I don’t really recommend cutting garlic, mushrooms, or onions ahead of time but other veggies are a green light for me.
make sure you give yourself at least a 2 hours to marinate your meat.
Use your time wisely, I like to use my daughter’s nap times to prep our meals for later.
Clean as you go: ah we’ve all heard this one before, but it truly does save time in the kitchen! I hate, more like detest, washing dishes and it was even worse when they pile up and what’s worse my husband hates washing dishes too, but I’ve started taking initiative so that even if they do pile up, it won’t be too bad.
We rinse out dishes as we use them. As soon as I finish using a pan I put water in it so nothing will stick and washing it will be a breeze. And we throw out kitchen scraps and trash as we go.
By the time that we’re finished eating the only thing left to do is tidy up the table and wash the plates that we used. It may sound like a chore but it sure beats tackling cleaning the kitchen all at once.
Plan your meals ahead of time: Being intentional about planning your family’s meals saves you time instead of trying to guess what you have and what you can make. I also try to make multiple meals with similar ingredients.
For example if I buy corn tortillas one week, I’ll make tacos one day, chilaquiles another day, and maybe enchiladas another day. You get the point.
I guess expanding on this point would be to use versatile ingredients. For example: eggs, pasta, flour, oatmeal, rice, beans, and the list goes on!
Put your little helper to work: As I mentioned earlier I try to take advantage of my daughters nap times to do all the prep work I need. I like to plan kitchen activities that she can help with. She likes to help me season food, so I place a little bowl with the seasonings we’ll need. She also likes to help “clean up” so I also give her little paper towels so she can help wipe (usually chairs, so mama can get stuff done).
Toddlers have a great desire to help and be involved. They also crave to be independent, so having them be part of every aspect of your life is important and will also benefit them in the long run, and you too of course. :)
I would like to expand much more on this, and when I write a full blog on this I’ll go ahead and link it here.
Use broths. A great way to cut your kitchen time and to add wonderful flavor to your foods is to use broth! Chicken, beef, and vegetable broths will add so much flavor to your foods!
I know that they can be a little pricey sometimes, especially if you want a good quality stock. So we try to make our own! You can make flavorful broth with veggie scraps. And you can make beef and chicken bone broth with leftover bones, we put ours in the freezer until we have enough bones for a broth.
Recycle meals. I am a serial over cooker, maybe it’s the Hispanic in me but I hate when anyone goes hungry in my house. If I’m cooking for just my family of 3, I usually cook enough food for 5. It’s just how things go in my home. Any extra food gets either packed in my husbands lunch (or his breakfast) or if not it serves as breakfast the next day for my daughter and I.
We love leftovers in my house. Whenever I make plain white rice, I always make way more than we need. The next day it will probably be served as fried rice. Especially when it comes to staple foods you can always give it a face-lift the next day or the day after.
Practice making your family’s favorite meals. My family went through a biscuits and gravy phase. The first time I made it, it was new to me and it took me like 2 hours to make everything from scratch. After two months of making it at least once a week, I could whip out from-scratch biscuits and gravy in less than hour.
How? It was second nature at that point. I knew what I had to prep and what I needed and how long each process would take.
The more comfortable you feel with a meal, the faster you’ll probably cook it.
Now I know that sometimes everything can feel like too much and on those days I remind myself it’s okay to throw in the towel every now and then. What do I do on those days? I call my husband and let him know I’ve already placed a to-go order (this is key, because they can’t really say no) and let him know where to pick up the food, and I make cute little mocktails from my daughter and myself to sip on while we wait for dad to get home. :)
I hope this is helpful!
