With or without any special occasion in the family, the kitchen is indeed the busiest room at home. On a daily basis, it is where food that sustains every person in the house is crafted, cooked and served. Whenever there are gatherings based in your residence, be it reunions, parties or special lunch or dinner meetings, surely, your kitchen is brimming with fragrance from savory dishes being made in it. You and/or your kitchen helpers are definitely on the move!
While it’s fun to cook, bake and make food for people you love, it’s doubtlessly challenging. The area becomes hot and sometimes suffocating because of the heat, especially when the kitchen is not smartly designed for ventilation. You have to endure the heat and the physical exhaustion that cooking in the kitchen brings. Furthermore, you have to be there and come back to it from time to time for as long as the cooking is finished.
For real, kitchen work is more time-consuming than it seems. From planning to preparing to performing everything, it takes up a lot of time. That also depends upon the dish or the delicacy that you are knocking up. Some recipes need a day or so. Not only that because it’s not yet done there. Serving the food is the last stage. Well, the final part is the quickest. Everything else before it utilizes a lengthy measurement of time.
Sometimes, you are taking more time than you should because you are not aware that you can work it out, or you do not know how to do it. To help you with that, here are 9 tips to save time inside the kitchen.
1 – Plan what you are going to cook.
Cooking food for the family every single day is no easy task. You have to think of what dish to prepare every other day or every other two days, depending on the serving size you have and on how big the family consumes. That is why it is important to ponder on it carefully. Plan what you are going to cook.
When you plan, you get ready. When you get ready, you can carry out and bring good outcomes. You can also prevent mishaps and resolve problems, if any. Decide beforehand on what you are going to cook. If you are not yet sure, then at least lay down 2 or 3 options to choose from.
If you make plans and set your mind to it, you can organize and determine the ingredients you need. At the same time, you can identify the cooking methods and procedures you have to execute. If the recipe is a first to you, then you should also make time to practice doing it, so that when it’s the day of your family reunion, you can deliver it to the dining table yourself.
2 – Schedule and stick to it.
Plotting your calendar or at least your daily to-do list is one of the most effective ways to save time.
Sometimes, you spend excessive hours in the kitchen because the thought of cooking a hard recipe just suddenly comes to your mind, and you want to do it instantly. While spontaneous is fun, exciting and fresh, it can cause a headache if you actually have other commitments on the same day. The result will be not being able to wrap up cooking it, or it will not have the quality you hope for it to have.
It’s recommended that you create a schedule of your cooking duties, especially the major and seemingly difficult ones. Doing so allows you to have a wide variety of dishes every day or every week, which will make you have a healthy diet.
Note that when you fashion a kitchen schedule, stick to it. This benefits your budget making as well!
3 – Choose quick and easy recipes.
There truly are extravagant dishes you can patiently learn and proudly produce from home. However, if you want to save some golden time, choose quick and easy recipes. That does not mean you will cook instant food like instant noodles or instant rice. It means you will choose recipes that are not too demanding in time.
Both for ordinary days and for special occasions, they can bring your dining tables grace and your hungry tummies delight! Cakes that require a good brand of cake flour, some flavorings and other healthy content are a great idea!
If you are a busy person who cannot afford to spend so much time on other things besides your main responsibilities, there are many nutritious and scrumptious options for you that do not take long to cook! Still be healthy and happy inside and out!
4 – Use kitchen appliances that make work fast.
The cave era is long gone. Today is the day of advanced technology – more advanced than ever. Even the innovative devices before have become more innovative as we speak. The kitchen is one of the places on Earth that can attest to that.
Tons of kitchen appliances have been made and enhanced to make work fast! Use them. Firstly, they are a good investment to have, particularly those that are of excellent quality and impeccable performance. And secondly, they remove the hassle from the taxing kitchen work.
Awesome kitchen appliances are your kitchen buddies you can always count on!
7 – Prior to cooking, take frozen goods out of the fridge.
One of the involuntary mistakes that cooks do at home is forgetting to prepare food that needs softening or unfreezing before cooking. It’s when you realize that you have to take the hotdogs’ pack from the freezer only when you are about to eat dinner. It’s frustrating, and it takes your hunger to the next level and your impatience gets in danger.
Prior to cooking, take all the necessary frozen goods out of the fridge. Bring them out an hour or more (as needed) before cooking proper. That’s how you can save time from lengthily waiting for ice to melt.
5 – Get your apparatuses ready.
Besides the major and the minor ingredients you need to set up before the main event, your cooking apparatuses and tools must be ready. Know the cooking or baking methods your planned dish will use. From there, you will determine the cooking equipment essential for them.
Of course, clean them as early as possible, too. You have to ensure sanitation before you cook, so the food you serve and eat will be free from contamination.
6 – Organize your kitchen for easier navigation.
A messy kitchen is understandable during the cooking process, however, if you have not yet started, but the kitchen is already in disorder and disarray, it’s bad!
Organize your kitchen. Tidy things up. Make sure nothing hazardous or that can cause accidents in the kitchen is around. Clear the worktop. Begin with a harmonious-looking and peaceful kitchen. You will not be stressed out. Looking and acquiring ingredients and tools you need can be done without hassle! You will not be hindered. These will pave the way for easier navigation to come through!
8 – One cooking, many eating.
Saving time is also saving money! If you spend a lot of time today on one dish, you can lessen cooking time for the next day. Better, you can eliminate it. How? In one cooking, you can do many eating. In clearer terms, you can cook one or more homemade dishes in one day, and they can last for 2 days.
Hitting two birds with one stone, you are minimizing time in the kitchen and minimizing expenses, too!
9 – Seek help from someone at home.
If you are not living alone, and some companions know how to cook, you can be assisted! You are not alone. Seek help from someone at home. The more laborers, the faster the work will get done! Not only that, the quality can become better and more creative as well. Ask help when you need it. It’s your kitchen, and everyone will eat. Don’t hesitate to request some helping hands. Doing that is free!
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KITCHEN TIME
The cooking time is often longer than the eating time. It’s normal, but you should also try out some good ways to bring balance into your cooking time! In that way, you will not be very tired, plus you can avoid having to cram and panic while cooking.
You can still make a delicious meal even without spending so much time on it. Just do your preparations and arrangements prior to actually working in the kitchen. Being fast will greatly aid you, but being ready will bring you further.
