Cooking at home is a simple way of staying healthy, saving money, and expressing your creativity. Unfortunately, finding the time to cook meals every day can be a challenge when you work full-time. Following are just a few ways you can cut your time in the kitchen:
- Use a slow cooker: slow cookers are a great way of preparing meals like pot roast or meatballs while you are at work or busy with other things. The cooking time for these meals is much longer, but in many cases, you just add the ingredients and leave the slow cooker to simmer all day. Many slow cooker meals can easily be prepared in 10 minutes in the mornings.
- Create frozen meals: cooking for a couple hours on the weekends and freezing meals for during the week really helps when you have a busy schedule. A huge variety of dishes can be made and frozen and they virtually eliminate all weekly food prep times. Some examples of good frozen meal dishes include sloppy joes, baked penne pasta, and chicken enchiladas.
- Plan ahead: by creating a meal plan for the week, you ensure that your kitchen time will be used as effectively as possible. Instead of wasting time every evening thinking about what to make before you start cooking, you can quickly come home, check your plan, and get to work right away.