Let's face it, life is busy! Every day we are faced with time donated to work, self care, family, and of course, food. I wanted to write this article to help people make healthy and sustainable meals that taste great but also don't take a ton of time in the kitchen.
My tips below are all about prepping foods and cooking them together so that you can also build better habits in the kitchen. Eating well makes us feel so much better and trickles down to other parts of our lives. I hope you enjoy!
After you get back from the grocery store is when you will spend roughly an extra 20 minutes to prep your food so that it's ready for the week. Let's start with protein. Decide what you will cook in the next 3 days and set aside in fridge. If you purchased extra, simply take out the portions you want to use and place in a freezer bag and place in fridge, and place the extra pieces in a separate freezer bag and place in freezer. You can also take it a step further say with fish and portion out pieces, and wrap in plastic wrap before placing in the freezer bag. This also avoids food waste.
For your vegetables, rinse and wrap in paper towels before placing in a plastic bag and place in fridge. This works great for lettuce, celery, and leafy greens. For your broccoli and cauliflower simply wash and cut up and place in containers for easy use. You can also chop up onions and place in a sealed container to save you time during the week.
This is an area that I think so many people go wrong. They are cooking things separately which leads to so much more cooking time. Instead, let's work on either cooking the ingredients together or balancing the cooking times.
For example, let's say that I am going to make baked chicken with rice and roasted vegetables.
An alternative to the idea above is to add all items to a cookie sheet or baking pan to cook together, otherwise known as a sheet pan dinner. Some of my favorite combinations are pork chops with sweet potatoes and broccoli, or chicken and red potatoes with cauliflower. Simply add ingredients to sheet pan, season and toss in a little olive oil. Cooking at 400* will take around 20-25 minutes, and 350* will take 30-35 minutes.
There are so many kitchen gadgets out there that can save you time with your cooking! Something that I use frequently is a pressure cooker, which allows me to cook an entire spaghetti squash or a batch of beans in 25 minutes. I also love that I can sear meat in it, add some vegetables and broth to it, switch to slow cooker (high setting) and cover to make a mean soup in 30 minutes all in the same pot. There are also air fryers, convection ovens, or just your good ol fashioned crock pot that may not save you time, but it allows you to throw everything in something and walk away. This is a great time for you to take stock in what gadgets you have that could save you time and get you thinking about how you can maximize that time in the kitchen.
