Cooking at home is time- and energy-consuming, but there are plenty of ways to make it easier on yourself. Here’s how you can make cooking at home simpler.
Cooking at home has plenty of benefits, but it can also be hard to pull off on a regular basis. Shopping for ingredients, finding tasty recipes, doing mise en place, cooking, serving, and storing leftovers takes a lot of time and commitment. Isn’t there a way to make it all easier?
Yes! In fact, there are a variety of ways to make the at-home cooking process smoother and less stressful. Here are four simple things you can do to make cooking at home easier.
Buy Pre-Prepared Meals
If you don’t have a ton of time to cook every day, pre-prepared freeze-dried or dehydrated meals can be a lifesaver. You can store them long-term and pull them out when you need a quick and scrumptious meal. All you need to do is heat up or rehydrate the ingredients, mix them according to the recipe, and cook! Pre-prepared meals allow you to skip the mise en place and get straight to cooking.
The best part about freeze-dried and dehydrated meals is that they can be just as nutritious and tasty as fresh meals. The ingredients in pre-prepared meals retain 97 percent of their original nutritional value and rarely lose their flavor.
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Taste Test When Cooking at Home
By taste-testing, you can ensure tasty meals every time and cut down on food waste. As a general rule, every time you add a new spice or herb to your dish, do so slowly, and taste-test along the way. This prevents you from accidentally adding too much or not enough seasoning to your dish. You may also want to periodically test any baked, fried, or grilled foods during the cooking process to avoid under-or overcooking them.
Create a Meal Plan
Instead of coming up with your meals on the spot, grab a piece of paper and a pen, and whip up a weekly meal plan. At the start of each week, devise and jot down seven breakfast ideas, seven lunch ideas (if you eat lunch at home or bring your own food to work), and seven dinner ideas—and don’t forget to add the necessary ingredients to your grocery list.
Meal plans save you a lot of hassle and frustration. You won’t have to spend time deciding what to eat each day and will have all the ingredients you need on hand, so there’s no need for improvisation or last-minute trips to the grocery store!
Store Recipes Digitally
Recipe boxes have their charm, but rummaging through them to find the right recipe isn’t fun at all. Another simple thing you can do to make cooking at home easier is to store your recipes digitally.
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Storing your recipes on a smartphone or tablet makes finding them when you need them so much easier. You can use the search bar to search for certain meals and even jot down digital notes as you cook.
